General Gaming Article

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• Top 13 Maximum PC Articles of 2013
• Newegg Daily Deals: Linksys EA6200 Dual Band AC900 Router, AMD FX-8350, and More!
• New Record: Over 7.6 Million Gamers Signed Into Steam at the Same Time
• Whiz Kid Who Impressed President with Marshmallow Cannon is Now Intel's Youngest Intern
• Samsung's 8Gb LPDDR4 Mobile DRAM Will Lead to Faster, 4K Ultra HD Phones

Top 13 Maximum PC Articles of 2013 Posted: 30 Dec 2013 04:20 PM PST Looking back at the biggest feature stories of the past year 2013 was a big year for technology, specifically for the enthusiast PC market. We saw a bunch of new high-end graphics cards come out in addition to a new major CPU line from Intel and even a new, updated OS from Microsoft.  In addition to our roundup of the top news stories of 2013, we wanted to commemorate the year by compiling the biggest articles that held your interests and got you talkin'. The following 13 articles are brought to you by a combination of traffic, comments, and editorial discretion.  So come review the year with us and let us know what stories you enjoyed reading over the past year!

Newegg Daily Deals: Linksys EA6200 Dual Band AC900 Router, AMD FX-8350, and More! Posted: 30 Dec 2013 02:39 PM PST Top Deal: Old school tech ballers, sing it loud with us - "You down with 802.11ac, yeah you know me! You down with 802.11ac, yeah you know me!" For those of you who are not yet down with 802.11ac, here's yet another chance to upgrade your home network at a discount. Today's top deal is for a Linksys EA6200 Dual Band AC900 Smart Wi-Fi Router for $70 with free shipping (normally $150; use coupon code [EMCWVVN47]). Not only does this router get your up to speed (literally), it also features a USB 3.0 port, built-in 4-port gigabit switch (pretty standard, though we've seen some cheap-o routers forgo gigabit speeds for cost savings), DLNA certification, and a few other tricks. Other Deals: AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8350FRHKBOX for $190 with free shipping (normally $200; use coupon code: [EMCWVVN23]) Seagate Hybrid Drives ST500LM000 500GB MLC/8GB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s NCQ 2.5-inch Laptop SSHD -Bare Drive for $70 with free shipping (normally $80; use coupon code: [EMCWVVN26]) G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model F3-2400C10D-8GZH for $77 with free shipping (normally $85; use coupon code: [EMCWVVN27]) Corsair CX series CX750 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 Plus Bronze Certified Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready for $80 with free shipping (normally $100; use coupon code: [EMCWVVN29]; additional $$20 Mail-in rebate)

New Record: Over 7.6 Million Gamers Signed Into Steam at the Same Time Posted: 30 Dec 2013 11:01 AM PST Steam's winter sale is drawing a record number of concurrent users If you missed out on Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC, you can snag it on Steam for just $4.99, which is 75 percent off its normal selling price. Fallout: New Vegas is also marked down 75 percent to the ridiculously low price of $2.49, and you can find scores of other games at discounted prices as part of Steam's Holiday Sale for 2013. Not by coincidence, while all this is going on, Steam just recorded the largest number of concurrent users. The number of gamers logged into Steam peaked at 7,679,286 on December 29, trumping the 7 million record that was set over Thanksgiving weekend and a high of 6 million last year. At the time of this writing, there are more than 7.4 million gamers on Steam, according to the Steam & Game Stats page. Steam is home to around 65 million users. Out of those logging in, the most popular game right now is the free-to-play title Dota 2, which hit a peak of 601,749 users today. After that, it's a steep drop off to the second most popular title, Left 4 Dead 2, with a peak of 111,035 users. What PC games have you been playing lately? Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Whiz Kid Who Impressed President with Marshmallow Cannon is Now Intel's Youngest Intern Posted: 30 Dec 2013 09:44 AM PST Marshmallow cannon shoots 16-year-old prodigy straight into an internship at Intel Most 16-year-olds probably spent their holiday vacation playing video games, hanging out with friends, cruising the mall, and doing whatever it is that teenagers do in their free time these days. Joey Hudy did something different. Hudy, who made headlines for wowing President Barack Obama with his marshmallow cannon in February 2012, attended Intel's New Hire Orientation (NEO), officially making him the Santa Clara chip maker's youngest person ever hired through the company's Corporate Internship Program. The high school sophomore first met Intel chief Brian Krzanich at the Rome Maker Faire last October. According to an article on Hudy's blog post, Krzanich hired the teen on the spot. "We hope to forge a lasting relationship with Joey, and all our interns, as we support their professional development," Vaadra Martinez, U.S. Internet Program Manager in HR, said in a statement. Hudy, a math and engineering whiz named one of the 10 smartest kids in the world by Brilliant.org, is one of around 1,500 interns Intel hired this year, and the only one without a driver's license. His mom Julie drove him to NEO. Once school is out for the summer, he'll be working in the New Device's Group's Product Development division before going back to class in the autumn. Remember his name -- we have a feeling we'll be hearing more about Hudy's accomplishments and professional career in the years to come. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Samsung's 8Gb LPDDR4 Mobile DRAM Will Lead to Faster, 4K Ultra HD Phones Posted: 30 Dec 2013 07:28 AM PST Mobile DRAM will soon become the most popular type of DRAM around Samsung is closing out the year by introducing what it claims is the industry's first 8-gigabit (Gb), low power double data rate 4 (LPDDR4), mobile DRAM built a on 20nm-class manufacturing process technology. Using the new chips, DRAM players can cram 1 gigabyte (GB) on a single die, which is the largest density available for DRAM components today, Samsung says. The chips are also fast and power efficient. According to Samsung, the new LPDDR4 interface provides 50 percent higher performance than even the fastest LPDDR3 or DDR3 memory interfaces, and it does it while consuming around 40 percent less energy at just 1.1 volts. This combination of speed and power efficiency will translate into faster, more responsible applications, advanced features, and even higher resolution displays, all while maximizing battery life. "This next-generation LPDDR4 DRAM will contribute significantly to faster growth of the global mobile DRAM market, which will soon comprise the largest share of the entire DRAM market," said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. "We will continue introducing the most advanced mobile DRAM one step ahead of the rest of the industry so that global OEMs can launch innovative mobile devices with exceptional user convenience in the timeliest manner." Samsung's 8Gb LPDDRD4 uses a new Low Voltage Swing Terminated Logic (LVSTL) I/O interface that the company originally submitted to JEDEC and has since become a standard specification for LPDDR4 DRAM. This interface will enable a data transfer rate per pin of 3,200 megabits per second (Mbps), or twice that of the 20nm-class LPDDR3 DRAM that's now in mass production. What this means for end users is that device makers can start building premium mobile products such as large screen UHD 4K smartphones, tablets, and ultra-slim notebooks. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

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MMO Updates

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• The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's year in review
• The Stream Team: Happy Newb Year edition, December 30, 2013 - January 5, 2014
• The Daily Grind: Do you consume all available leveling content?
• MMO Week in Review: The end of 2013
• EVE Evolved: Designing EVE Onland, part 1
• Stick and Rudder: 2013's essential Star Citizen stories

The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's year in review Posted: 30 Dec 2013 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Culture, Opinion, WildStar, The Nexus Telegraph, Subscription, Buy-to-Play I started this column early in December of 2012, which means that as of now I've been writing about WildStar once a week for a little over a year. It's also nearly the end of the year, which makes it an ideal time to write about the changes that we've seen to the game over the past year. So I'm just going to go ahead and ignore the slight discrepancy and use this column for both year-in-review elements. Obviously it's not exactly possible to look back at the changes to the game over the past year, since we're talking about a game still in the midst of its testing cycle. But we started the year without even knowing about one of the game's factions beyond a vague mention, much less the game's lore and classes. So let's look back at the last year of news and the last year of columns in their entirety. Continue reading The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's year in review The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's year in review originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Dec 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Stream Team: Happy Newb Year edition, December 30, 2013 - January 5, 2014 Posted: 30 Dec 2013 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Polls, MMO Industry, Massively Meta, Livestream, Miscellaneous, The Stream Team Happy Newb Year, my friends! It's that time again, when a new year rolls around and all our thoughts turn to one thing. Forget resolutions, our minds are on the new MMOs that are slated for this year! A new year promises us new games to play, and who isn't looking forward to becoming a newb again? Even better, The Stream Team can help whet your appetite for these new titles by showing off advanced footage on Massively TV (like a certain closed beta that will be featured this week). Of course, there are also plenty of other shows starring your old-but-not-forgotten favorites, so check the schedule and then tell us which games you are most looking forward to playing in 2014. Continue reading The Stream Team: Happy Newb Year edition, December 30, 2013 - January 5, 2014 The Stream Team: Happy Newb Year edition, December 30, 2013 - January 5, 2014 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Dec 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Do you consume all available leveling content? Posted: 30 Dec 2013 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Opinion, Free-to-Play, The Daily Grind I've been dabbling in Lord of the Rings Online again lately, and much to my surprise, I've managed to go from level 58 to level 71 in fairly short order doing nothing but the now-soloable epic quest line. On one hand this is fantastic because I dislike themepark level grinds and am only playing the game again in order to get my character "home" to Rohan. On the other hand, I feel a little bit guilty about speed-rushing through Eregion, Enedwaith, Dunland, etc., because the devs have filled these and other post-Moria areas with what appears to be a lot of quest content. In fact, I think I'm pretty much talking myself into slowing down and enjoying more of the Tolkien-flavored locales and quest text, since that stuff is really the only reason to play LotRO at all. What about you, Massively readers? Do you take the time to consume all of the available leveling content, or do you save some for alts or otherwise power on through? 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 consume all available leveling content? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Dec 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMO Week in Review: The end of 2013 Posted: 29 Dec 2013 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Massively Meta, Week in Review, Miscellaneous At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post. The holidays are quiet as MMO studios have emptied out in favor of egg nog and family and snowglobes filled with dancing quaggan. Fortunately, that makes this a great time to recap the year's drama for the genre and the industry. To celebrate the end of 2013, Massively posted its annual awards and explained the controversial bits, selected the top 10 MMO stories of the last 12 months, and made predictions for the new year. Stay tuned this week as we toast the top indie MMOs and highlight the MMOs you should be anticipating in 2014. Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories. Continue reading MMO Week in Review: The end of 2013 MMO Week in Review: The end of 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Dec 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: Designing EVE Onland, part 1 Posted: 29 Dec 2013 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall, EVE Online, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, PvP, Endgame, Opinion, Ultima Online, Shadowbane, Mortal Online, EVE Evolved, Perpetuum, Sandbox, Player-Generated Content, Subscription When I'm not playing or writing about EVE Online, I can usually be found huddled over my computer typing lines of code into a compiler and chipping away at bugs that make varying degrees of sense. Designing my own hardcore space game is a really fun challenge and very fulfilling work, but I have a dirty little game dev secret: I've actually always wanted to make a fantasy game. While the budget and personnel required to take on a project the scale of an MMO remain quite far outside my grasp for the moment, it's still fun to think about how I might design such a game if the opportunity arose. The MMO genre seems to be heading for a sandbox revolution this year, and there's no bigger sandbox than EVE Online, but could all of EVE's gameplay translate to a fantasy game? EVE is probably the most atypical MMO out there, maintaining a subscription-based single-shard PvP sandbox in a genre that's typically headed in the exact opposite direction. There are several new sci-fi sandboxes on the way that may or may not qualify as massively multiplayer titles, but the vast majority of MMO gamers still prefer to keep their feet on the ground in fantasy lands. I often find myself wondering how much of EVE Online's core gameplay is possible only because of its setting -- and how much could actually be applied to a fantasy MMO. Not only should it be possible to adapt most of what makes EVE great to a modern land-based game, but many of the mechanics sandbox gamers now attribute almost solely to EVE actually started life in classic fantasy MMOs like Ultima Online. In this week's unusual EVE Evolved, I'd like to start a game design thought experiment as I delve into the hypothetical world of EVE Onland. Continue reading EVE Evolved: Designing EVE Onland, part 1 EVE Evolved: Designing EVE Onland, part 1 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Dec 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Stick and Rudder: 2013's essential Star Citizen stories Posted: 29 Dec 2013 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Video, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Opinion, Sandbox, Crowdfunding, Stick and Rudder, Star Citizen, Buy-to-Play What say we recap 2013 from a Star Citizen-focused perspective? It was a huge year for Cloud Imperium's space sim sandbox, and no, I'm not just talking about the ever-increasing crowdfund windfall. Continue reading Stick and Rudder: 2013's essential Star Citizen stories Stick and Rudder: 2013's essential Star Citizen stories originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Dec 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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MMORPG News

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• Archeblade: Hyde Gets a New Skin
• General: This Week's Live Stream Schedule
• Elder Scrolls Online: Strengths and Weaknesses

Archeblade: Hyde Gets a New Skin Posted: 30 Dec 2013 05:36 AM PST Codebrush Games has announced that the latest ArcheBlade patch has been applied to the game. The update brings a new skin for Hyde that gives him a "hitman" style look.

General: This Week's Live Stream Schedule Posted: 30 Dec 2013 05:03 AM PST This week's live stream schedule has been published to give you an opportunity to set your calendar and alarm to join our band of streamers for some of today's hottest MMOs. Check out the schedule and save the date!

Elder Scrolls Online: Strengths and Weaknesses Posted: 29 Dec 2013 07:14 AM PST We're a few scant months away from the launch of Elder Scrolls Online, and we're beginning to learn more and more about the game from Zenimax Online. Last week we got a good dose of detail about the game's PVP: Alliance Warfare. We learned about taking keeps, small groups, PVP ranks, and so on and so forth. And all this information got us thinking. There are quite a few facets to ESO that could be construed as both a strength and a weakness.

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MMOGaming News

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• Fully Customize UI of Kingdom Under Fire II Revealed
• Arche Blade Basic &Premium Keys Giveaway
• Devil's Advocate - Inferno Legend Review
• MMOs To Watch In 2014: Black Desert Online

Fully Customize UI of Kingdom Under Fire II Revealed Posted: Kingdom Under Fire II will allow players to fully customize the user interface as the following picture. This technology supports AMD Eyefinity and NVIDIA Surround so you will be able to customize your bars and set them on different monitors. Continue reading Fully Customize UI of Kingdom Under Fire II Revealed.

Arche Blade Basic &Premium Keys Giveaway Posted: MMOsite is teaming up with Codebrush Games to give away ArcheBlade Basic & Premium Keys.Total of 20 Basic and 10 Premium Keys will be given away! Continue reading Arche Blade Basic &Premium Keys Giveaway.

Devil's Advocate - Inferno Legend Review Posted: Since Inferno Legend is built to also be playable on handheld devices, expect a casual gameplay experience filled with fast leveling and short play times. Battles are turn-based and work primarily without play interaction, though the option to control your main hero is available. Continue reading Devil's Advocate - Inferno Legend Review.

MMOs To Watch In 2014: Black Desert Online Posted: I touch on many aspects of the game, such as its PvP and PvE content, class system, gender lock, and much more. Hope you enjoy it and please share your thoughts (: Continue reading MMOs To Watch In 2014: Black Desert Online.

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