General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Twitch Enables Copyright Scans and Limits Archiving of VODs

Posted: 07 Aug 2014 04:34 PM PDT

Twitch LogoCopyright infringements results in VODs being muted

Back in May it was rumored that Google was looking to purchase Twitch for $1 billion. While we wait for confirmation on this rumor from either side, Twitch is making some big changes. According to its official blog, Twitch has enabled copyright sweeps and has limited archiving of video content.

Twitch announced that it has partnered with Audible Magic to help scan past and future VODs for any copyright music that might have been used during live streams. While scans will look for music owned by Audible Magic, or controlled by its clients, Twitch also revealed that the scans will look for in-game and ambient music. 

30-minute blocks of VODs will be scanned and, if any copyrighted music is detected, the audio for that block of time will be muted and the volume controls disabled. However, Twitch stated that such scans will not happen during live broadcasts only for past broadcasts and highlights.

In addition, the company has also made changes to how long it will archive past broadcasts and highlights. The most immediate change was the removal of the "Save Forever" button. For regular streamers, VODs will now be saved for only 14 days while Turbo Subscribers and Partners will have their past broadcasts and highlights stored for 60 days.

Providing a reason for why past VODs would no longer be stored indefinitely, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear said, "We found that the vast majority of past broadcast views happen within the first two weeks after they're created. On the days following, viewership reduces exponentially. We also discovered that 80 percent of our storage capacity is filled with past broadcasts that are never watched."

With these changes, will you continue to use Twitch to stream your gaming sessions?

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AMD Reportedly Gearing Up to Sell Radeon-branded Line of SSDs

Posted: 07 Aug 2014 02:16 PM PDT

AMD SSDThe SSD market could become more competitive

It appears that AMD might not be satisfied with just manufacturing GPUs, CPUs, RAM, and APUs. According to KitGuru.com, and a couple of leaked slides, AMD will sell Radeon R7-branded SSDs that will compete with other manufacturers such as Kingston, Samsung, and OCZ.

Looking at the available slides it appears that there will be three Radeon R7 SSDs. The hardware will have a read speed of 550MB/s and is expected to have a four-year life expectancy. There will be 120GB, 240GB, and 480GB versions dubbed the Radeon R7 120G, Radeon R7 240G, and Radeon R7 480G. 

AMD SSDs 001

While the reading speed of all versions will be 550MB/s, the 120GB model will have a slower write speed at 470MB/s whereas the 240GB and 480GB models will have a write speed of 530MB/s. In addition, the drives will only be available in the 2.5-inch form factor and includes 256-bit AES encryption. 

AMD has not officially confirmed the existence of the Radeon-branded SSDs though some sources, such as ComputerWorld, claim that the company has confirmed the devices and that it will make an announcement next week.

Do you think the AMD Radeon R7 SSDs are a good idea? Or does AMD have enough on its plate?

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Graphics Analysis: Wolfenstein: The New Order

Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:03 AM PDT

We compare Wolfenstein: The New Order's low, medium, high, and ultra settings with pics and video

For this graphical analysis feature, we examine the graphical capabilities of Bethesda's Wolfenstein: The New Order. When the first-person shooter was released on PC, it had tons of graphical glitches, which included long load times and massive texture pop-in issues. Luckily, most of these problems have been sorted out with a few patches.

Now the new Wolfenstein title is known for being a beautiful-looking game, so we wanted to take this graphical behemoth for a test run to see how it looks across its different graphics presets. Is this game going to show off your graphics card in all of its glory? Read on to find out!

Testing Methodology:

We wanted our tests to be easily replicated, so we ran the game in 1080p, using Wolfenstein's preset graphics options, which include "Low," "Medium," "High", and "Ultra". We should mention that the point of this test is to analyze image quality and visual fidelity. This is not a frame rate performance test.

We captured our screenshots and video with a fairly beefy gaming rig, which sports an Intel Core i7 4770K CPU, 8GB of 1600MHz G.Skill RAM, and a GTX 780 video card.

The settings we used for each test are shown in the screenshots below:

Low settings

Low Settings

Medium settings

Medium Settings

High settings

High Settings

Ultra settings

Ultra Settings

Video Scene Analysis:

Note: You can click on the images below to see an animated GIF comparing the scene running across low, medium, high, and ultra settings.

Mech scene

Mech Scene:

The first scene has the main character, William Blazkowicz, inside of a mech suit. When the game is rendering in Low settings we see very little detail in our character's clothing. His sleeves gain more texture and color as we go from Low to Ultra settings. The mech suit also has some differences going from Low to Ultra settings, but they're very minimal. For example, the gauges on the left-hand side gain more texture and lighting as we ramp up graphical fidelity. The rest of the scene looks almost the same across all four presets. Yes, there are a few extra textures sprinkled into the landscape in High and Ultra settings, which Low and Medium don't have, but again, this a very small difference and you really have to pixel peep to notice them.  

Soldier scene

Soldier scene:

In the Soldier scene above, we see there's less texture and definition in the soldier who's standing in the left corner of the screen. His clothing gets more texture as we go up in graphical quality. The same can be said for the soldier in the middle of the screen too. The texture quality of his clothing is better in Ultra than in Low settings, but the rest of the scene looks almost the same across the other presets. The dark colors and low lighting in this scene's background make it hard for us to discern any other meaningful differences.

Airplane scene

Airplane scene:

The hardest scene to tell any difference between the three presets is the Airplane scene. We couldn't see anything inside the aircraft which looked noticeably different. The ocean in the game's Ultra preset looks the best of the four scenes, but that's the only noticeable difference we could effectively draw here. The interior of the cabin looks very similar across all four presets. 

Conclusion:

Analyzing Wolfenstein's different visual settings, we were surprised by how hard it was for us to tell the difference between any of the game's four presets. At times, we really had to dig to bring out the nitty gritty details. In general, we found that characters look more fully realized the higher you crank up the settings. If you're not looking at soldiers on screen, the game looks very similar across all the settings. The similar look and feel in all four presets is in part due to Wolfenstein's dark color palette. When Wolfenstein adds in more textures onto gray, black, and brown surfaces, it can be hard to notice much of a visual improvement. If the game was brighter and offered a wider color palette, it may be easier to pick up on the differences. Regardless, as it stands, it doesn't look like Wolfenstein: The New Order is going to shock and awe anyone at the highest settings, at least not compared to the game's lower presets.

Which game would you like us to do a deep dive graphical analysis on next? Let us know in the comments below!

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Microsoft May Ditch the Charms Bar in Windows 9

Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:00 AM PDT

Charms BarWill you miss the Charms Bar?

It's only a matter of time before we see how much Microsoft learned fom Windows 8/8.1 and the feedback it received from users. Windows 9, otherwise known as Threshold, will usher in a new era of Windows, and early indications point to a different design philosophy than the one that drew criticism in the current version of Windows. For example, one of the rumors floating around is that Windows 9 will get rid of the Charms Bar.

According to Winbeta.org, Windows 9 will be very different from Windows 8/8.1 with the desktop taking center stage once again. Part of that entails getting rid of the Charms Bar, at least for the desktop version -- there's a chance Microsoft will retain the Charms Bar for tablets.

"We can confirm that Microsoft have been toying with multiple different ways they could implement a new charms menu which is fluent and makes sense for mouse users. One method that we heard about that stands out is having a button up near the window controls that once pressed, would reveal the Search, Share, Devices and Settings charms from the top of the window (there's no need for a Start Button for desktop users in the charms)," Winbeta.org says.

Microsoft may also remove Charms altogether, though it gets a little complicated since a bunch of Modern UI apps depend on it for certain features and functions.

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Microsoft Squashes $350 Xbox One Rumor

Posted: 07 Aug 2014 10:38 AM PDT

Xbox One ControllerThat ad you saw for a €349.99 Xbox One? It was posted in error, Microsoft says

Console gamers had reason to be excited when an online ad depicted the Xbox One getting a price cut to €349.99, which hinted at a global price cut. Unfortunately, that excitement was short lived. Microsoft threw a wet blanket on the rumor and confirmed with our sister site, Tech Radar, that the Xbox One listing with a reduced price was made "in error" and that it doesn't have any current plans to lower the price.

Microsoft already lowered the price of the Xbox One this year by removing the Kinect motion control sensor as a mandatory part of the package. In doing so, Microsoft has been able to offer the standalone console for $399 instead of $499, putting it on par with Sony's PlayStation 4.

There have also been rumors that Microsoft will release some Xbox One bundles in the near future, including one on August 26th that will package Madden NFL 25 with the $399 Xbox One.

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Newegg Daily Deals: Corsair CX600 600W PSU, AMD FX-6300 Processor, and More!

Posted: 07 Aug 2014 10:14 AM PDT

Corsair CX600newegg logo

Top Deal:

How much would you pay for a quality power supply? A million dollars? Ten million dollars? One hundred million dollars? As if! Sure, we're exaggerating on the cost of a reliable PSU, but wait until you see today's top deal -- it's for a Corsair CX Series CX600 600W Power Supply for $35 with free shipping (normally $65 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPC24]; additional $20 mail-in-rebate). In additon to a low price tag, this PSU sports 80 Plus Bronze certification, long cables, and low noise operation.

Other Deals:

Crucial MX100  2.5-inch 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive for $105 with free shipping (normally $115 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPC99])

WD Red 4TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch NAS Internal Hard Drive for $160 with free shipping (normally $175 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPC27])

AMD FX-6300 Vishera 6-Core 3.5GHz (4.1GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Desktop Processor for $110 with free shipping (normally $120 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPC22])

Asus M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 + SB950 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS for $79 with free shipping (normally $89 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPC26])

Samsung is Top Dog in U.S. Smartphone Market

Posted: 07 Aug 2014 09:56 AM PDT

Samsung Galaxy Note 3Samsung extends lead over Apple in U.S. smartphone sales

Apple will almost definitely see a significant surge in iPhone sales after it announces the iPhone 6 in September, but for now, Samsung leads the U.S. market in smartphone shipments. According to latest data from Conterpoint Research, Samsung's share of the smartphone market in the U.S. grew to 36.1 percent, up from 33.9 percent in the same quarter a year ago. It also topped overall mobile phone shipments with a 37.3 percent share in Q2.

It's mostly a two-horse race between Samsung and Apple, the latter of which saw its smartphone share drop to 29.7 percent, down from 32.2 percent a year prior. As for overall mobile handset shipments, Apple claimed a 25.9 percent share in Q2, which is 11.4 percent less than Samsung.

"However, the upcoming holiday season quarter Q4 as usual would certainly be an 'Apple' quarter as it unveils its new iPhone in September which means Samsung will have to pull off a feat with the upcoming Galaxy Note 4 to maintain share as Galaxy S5 demand begins to taper off," Counterpoint says.

It's rumored that Apple will release two versions of the iPhone 6, one with a 4.7-inch display and another with a 5.5-inch screen. If Apple indeed goes big, it could entice Android owners to jump ship, as larger size screens is one of Android's selling points. Those who still prefer the open platform and flexibiliy it affords, however, will be unlikely to switch.

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Philips 28-inch 4K Ultra HD Monitor Debuts at Discounted $600 Price Tag, Now Available Online

Posted: 07 Aug 2014 08:59 AM PDT

Philips 28-inch 4K MonitorSave $200 off the MSRP

Philips this week unveiled its new 28-inch 4K Ultra HD display, model 288P6LJEB, which boasts a 3840x2160 resolution. As you've heard a million times before, that's four times the resolution of Full HD 1080p. That translates into more on-screen real-estate to work with, and to entice early adopters to make the leap, Philips has made available its new display for a special price of $600, saving you a couple of Bennies over its $800 MSRP.

The 28-inch 4K panel features a color depth of 1.07 billion colors. It has a 1ms response time, 300 cd/m2 brightness, a pair of 3W speakers, 170-degree (H) / 160-degree (V) viewing angles, built-in USB hub with two USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports, a DisplayPort, VGA, DVI-D, and HDMI with MHL.

Using MultiView technology, you can connect multiple devices to the monitor such as a PC and laptop and view them side-by-side simultaneously.

You can order Philips's monitor now.

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Crossblade Ranger is Asus ROG's First AMD FM2+ Motherboard

Posted: 07 Aug 2014 08:13 AM PDT

Asus Crossblade RangerLoaded with gamer friendly amenities

When you see the Republic of Gamers (ROG) tag on an Asus product, you know the company has it done it up right, and that's certainly true of the division's first ever AMD FM2+ motherboard. Asus ROG makes it debut into FM2+ territory with the Crossblade Ranger, a high end motherboard packed with features and technologies designed to give gamers an edge on the virtual battlefield.

Even the LAN port is beefed up. Asus opted for a "state-of-the-art" Intel GbE LAN port with better throughput and lower power consumption than competing solutions, which is further aided by GameFirst III, an exclusive ROG technology that assigns top priority to game data packets. The cherry on top is LANGuard Ethernet socket technology, which is comprised of advanced filtering components with low impedance capacitors to reduce noise and improve throughput. It also includes ESD and surge protection.

On the audio front, the board boasts SupremeFX 2014 with PCB isolation techniques to minimize electromagetic interference (EMI) and premium ELNA audio capacitors for precise 7.1-channel audio that's on par with the best soundcards, Asus says.

There are four DIMM slots that support up to 64GB of DDR3-2666 memory, two PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, a single PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot, two PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots, two standard PCI slots, 8 SATA 6Gbps ports, 6 USB 3.0 ports, 8 USB 2.0 ports, and lots more.

The Crossblade Ranger will be available this month for $160.

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