General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article


Amazon Expands Same Day Delivery to Six More Locations

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 10:54 AM PDT

Amazon Same Day DeliveryOnline shopping for the impatient

One of the advantages that brick-and-mortar stores have over online outlets like Amazon is that you can waltz into a location, buy what you're looking for, and use it right away. Amazon can't completely close that gap, but its same-day shipping service comes awfully close. The service is slowly expanding, with Amazon adding six new locations that qualify for same-day delivery, including Baltimore, Dallas, Indianapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.

Customers can order as late as noon, seven days a week, and receive items the same day. It's not all that expensive for Prime members -- just $5.99 for all the same-day delivery items they can order. Non-Prime members pay $9.98 for the first item and then $0.99 for each additional one.

"Imagine how much time you will save now that you can get sunscreen, memory cards, toothpaste, hit movies, text books and HDMI cables all delivered to your home in hours, seven days a week, in one order from Amazon," said Greg Greeley, Vice President, Amazon Prime. "New convenient pricing also allows Prime members to fill up their same-day shopping cart with everything they may need for one low price. With more than a million eligible items, we aim to offer the largest same-day selection at the lowest price."

With today's addition of six new cities, Amazon's same-day delivery service is now available in 12 locations overall, including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Seattle.

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A Crash Course to Editing Images in Adobe Lightroom

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 10:43 AM PDT

When your images aren't up to snuff, there's always photo-editing software

Photography can be impenetrable from the gear to actually shooting and then the image editing software is a whole other uphill battle. Even with Adobe introducing Lightroom as a lightweight Photoshop alternative, it can be daunting to see a screen full of sliders as a complete novice. To help get you from serial Instagramer to amateur photographer, here's a crash course to making your images look great with just a few steps in Lightroom.

Why you should shoot in RAW

First off, before we get to editing any images, it's super important to start shooting RAW format images in case you haven't already. Unlike JPEGs, RAW files are uncompressed digital negatives that carry much more information. This in turn makes them easier to work with in Lightroom or any image editor. Thanks to this full allotment of the data packed into RAW files, you can fix more images otherwise destined for the trash heap such as blue-tinged messes or almost completely black frames.

If that wasn't enough to sell you on shooting in RAW, this entire guide was done using the uncompressed format to show off and take advantage of the full image editing power of Lightroom.

Getting started

The first thing you'll need to in Lightroom is to migrate your images of course. Upon starting Adobe Lightroom, navigate your mouse up to File and select "Import Photos and Video" (Ctrl+Shift+I). Another shortcut users can take advantage of is Lightroom will auto-detect any memory cards or cameras plugged into the computer.

Lightroom will automatically drop images into dated folders. Unfortunately (or fortunately for some) this is programmed into the software, but users can always rename their folders. More importantly keywording your photos will be an indispensable tool to manage, search, and organize your images.

Getting around inside lightroom

Once your images are all loaded into the library we can start editing one by clicking over (or hitting "D" on the keyboard) to the "Develop" screen. On the right edge of the screen users will find a list of settings that will allow them to tweak their images.

There's a lot to take in with Lightroom's interface, but the most important thing users will navigate to are the filmstrip along the bottom to navigate images. Clicking anywhere on the image displayed in the center window, meanwhile, will zoom into the frame.

Just beneath the featured picture there's also a box designated with "X|Y" that will allow you to view the original image next to their processed counterpart. The button to the left of this aforementioned comparison toggle will return the window to normal, displaying only the final picture. Along the left side of the screen users will find a history log of all the edits made so far to each individual photo--and speaking of image settings, they're all stacked on the right side of the window. At the bottom of this list of editing options there's also a handy "Previous" button to let users undo one chance or "Reset" to start all over again.

Fix your framing

Sometimes in the rush to capture that decisive moment there isn't enough time to line up a perfect composition. But as long as the subject in the photo is in focus and your camera has enough megapixels, there's always the option to crop the image.

The crop tool is located on right, underneath the histogram, and is designated by a boxed grid icon closest to the left. Depending on the shot it might be smart to cut away some of the background to isolate the subject. Alternatively, cropping could come in handy to remove a busy or boring background (otherwise known as negative space). Sticklers for completely level images can also bring their mouse cursor to the edge of the frame to rotate the picture as well.

Red Eye Correction

Red eyes and flash photography seem to be inseparable despite all our technological advances, but at least it has gotten incredibly easy to fix this niggling issue. Located just two icons to the right from the Framing icon, clicking on Red Eye Correction will give you a new cursor that you'll want to select any red eyes in the photo. After that Lightroom will use the point users select and auto detect red pupils.

White balance

Lighting is one of the toughest things in photography, especially when there's a mix of sunlight and a blue hued lightbulb. Not only do the two different types of warm and cool light clash, they also completely throw off all the colors in your photos. With this in mind shifting the white balance should be one of the very first stops on your image editing train. Lightroom comes with a series of preset white balance settings just as cameras do with options such as daylight, shade, tungsten, and flash just to name a few.

There's also the option to have Lightroom figure it out all on its own and most of the time it does an admirable job of picking out the right type of lighting. In case anything still looks a little off, there are also sliders that users can move around. Each slider is fairly self explanatory—shifting the top knob leftwards will make the image take on a blue shade while shifting towards yellow will cause your image to take on a sepia tone. The one underneath splits the spectrum between green and violet.

For those wanting a bit more fine tuned control with a point-and-click solution users should select the eyedropper tool. Simply hover the dropper over to a neutral gray or white area and clicking it will have Lightroom take a best guess on white balance from that one spot.

Click on to the next page where we'll dive into more editing magic.


Getting to the Meat

Now that we've colored corrected the image and fixed up the composition, it's time to adjust the exposure. But before we start, there's no hard and fast rule for what is the perfect image. It does not have to be a perfectly balanced image where everything in the frame is evenly illuminated. There's nothing wrong with having harsh shadows or a blindingly bright spot—in fact it can actually be the thematic part of the picture you want to accentuate.

Without further ado, here's are the main ways you can use Lightroom to manipulate your images.

  • Exposure: In a nutshell this lets users make the entire image brighter or darker.

  • Contrast: Contrast changes the difference between the bright and dark parts of the image. Lowering the contrast evens out the exposure making it helpful if the picture was caught with extremely dark and bright sections. As such it can help to restore parts of the frame caught in shadows, but the trade off is this can also cause the entire picture to turn gray. On the flipside making photos more contrasty will produce a harsher look and cause colors to intensify.

  • Highlights: Similar to affecting the brightness of the image, highlights specifically tones down the brightest parts of the frame. In most cases this could be useful for bringing back clouds lost in the blinding sunlight. Alternatively, photographers will want to tweak the highlights when photographing anything with a backlit screen or lights at night.

  • Shadows: On the flipside of highlights changing the shadows will brighten or darken any areas caught in shade.

  • Whites: Despite the fact we've already adjusted the bright parts of the frame, changing the White level in the image appears to do the same thing. Appears. What changing the white level really does is affect the lightest (or brightest) tones in the image, whereas highlights control the midtones in the frame.

  • Blacks: At the opposite end of the spectrum blacks dictate how the darkest part of the images look. This can be helpful to make sure dark colors aren't grayed out when you've already brightened up the shadows.

  • Auto Tone: Aside from setting all the parameters manually, Lightroom also has a handy Auto Tone tool. As with auto white balance, auto tone automatically adjusts the picture for what the program thinks will look best.

Time to get technical

Aside from the mix of sliders and staring at the image preview, a much more technical way of editing is using the histogram, which appears at the very top of the right side panel. Essentially it displays a graphical overview of the pictures's full tonal range in which darker pixels fill out on the left side of as they lighten towards the right. Every edit we just explained can be done by clicking on parts of this histogram and dragging them around. Either way works so it's really up to your preference.

Making photos "pop"

The tonal curve isn't all there is to editing images. Just underneath the exposure settings is something called presence. Starting with Clarity, users can increase the sharpness of their images or give them a dreamy, hazy quality. Saturation intensifies colors in the photo, which can be useful to bringing back some color on gray and cloudy days.

Vibrance does a similar job of intensifying colors except in a slightly smarter fashion than Saturation. Rather than uniformly bumping up the hues in the frame, Vibrance increases the intensity of muted colors whilst leaving already bright colors alone.

Next up Sharpening, Noise Reduction, Lens Correction, and more.


Detail control

Located in the "Detail" section below Lightroom's "Basic" editing options you'll find options to sharpen and reduce the noise of photos.

Sharpening


Firstly to quell any misconceptions, Sharpening won't fix images for soft focus, camera shake, or any mistakes made at the time of taking the shot. Rather sharpening is a tool to accentuate details already in the photo. Just don't over do it as over sharpening images introduces a slew of new problems including harsh edges, grainy noise, and smooth lines transforming into jagged zigzags.

There are four parameters when it comes sharpening images:

  • The Alt key: Well before we actually get started with any settings, holding down the Alt key is an invaluable tool that will give you a clearer, alternate view of what's going on while you move around the sliders.

  • Amount: As you might have guessed this increases the amount of sharpening you add. This value starts at zero and as users get towards the high-end they will end up enhancing the noise in the image along with sharpening details.

  • Radius: Image sharpening mainly refines edges, but the Radius can be extended by a few pixels. In this case the radius number corresponds with the number of pixels Lightroom will apply sharpening around the edges in the picture. Having a high radius number will intensify details with a thicker edge.

  • Detail: The Detail slider determines how many edges on the image get sharpened. With lower values the image editor will only target large edges in the frame, meanwhile a value of a 100 will include every small edge.

  • Masking: Although every other slider has been about incorporating more sharpening into the image, masking does the opposite by telling Lightroom which areas should not be sharpened. Just keep in mind masking works best from image with an isolated background. The sharpening masks' effectiveness is significantly more limited with busy images, where there are edges everywhere.

Noise Reduction


Noise is unavoidable whether its due to shooting higher ISOs or a result from bumping up the exposure in post—luckily there's a way to save images from looking like sandpaper.

  • Luminance: Our first stop towards reducing noise. Increasing this value will smooth over any stippling on the photo. Take care not to raise this too high as Lightroom will begin to sacrificing the detail and turn the picture into a soft mess.

  • Detail: In case users want to better preserve the sharp details in their image, they should increase the Detail slider.

  • Contrast: This is specifically used to tone down the amount of chromatic noise—typically green and red flecks that make their way into high ISO images. Unless there is colored noise in the image, it's best to leave this set to 0.

Lens Correction

Moving on, we're going to start correcting for imperfections in the lens by scrolling down the right sidebar to "Lens Corrections."

Lens profiles


Enter the round hole, square peg problem. No matter how well engineered an expensive lens is, it will always produce some amount of distortion thanks to the nature of curved lenses filtering light onto flat sensors. The good news is this is the easiest thing to correct for. Simply click on "Enable Profile Corrections" on the "Basic" pane of Lens Corrections and Lightroom will do the work for you. Witness as your images are automatically corrected for barrel distortion and vignetting (dark corners). It's pretty much fool proof unless of course Adobe has not made a Lens Profile for the lens you shot with. It also might not be necessary to always click this option on as some photos might look better with the vingetting and distortion.

Color Fringing


Fringing for who don't know appears as a purple or blue and green outline when an object is captured against a bright background—the most common example being a tree limb with the bright sky behind it. It can be a minor quibble with photos in most cases but certain lenses fringe so badly it can make a scene look like it was outlined with a color pencil.

Luckily getting rid of fringing in Lightroom can be easy as spotting it and then clicking on it. To start, select the Color pane within the Lens Corrections and use the eyedropper just as we did with white balance. Usually fringing appears at points of high contrast so bring the cursor over to dark edges that meet a bright background. It might take a little bit of sniffing around but stay vigilant and you should be able to spot some misplaced purple or green-blue colors eventually. Some lenses are guilty of fringing terribly while others control it well, so it's really up to you if the flaw is noticeable enough to merit correction.

Chromatic Aberration

Since we're here anyway, go ahead and click on the option to remove chromatic aberration—another type of color fringing where wavelengths of light are blurring together—since it's as simple as turning the option on.

You Can't Save Them All

Despite how extensive this guide might appear, there's even more editing magic to mine from Lightroom—we haven't even gotten to making black and white images, or split toning! This is only a crash course to help you make your images look better and the only way to master photography is to keep on shooting and practicing.

In the same breath, however, we would recommend users should not use Lightroom as a crutch. Although Lightroom can do a lot to salvage poorly shot images, it's no excuse to just shoot half-assed and expect to fix things up afterwards. Otherwise post processing will end up eating up most of the shooter's time and eventually they'll realize that there are even certain images Lightroom can't save (as evidenced by the one shown above). Image editing software can be a great help, but its no substitute for good old skilled photography.

Activision Blizzard Sees Decline in Profit and WoW Subscribers, Still Beats Expectations

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 10:34 AM PDT

WoWWorld of Warcraft loses 800,000 subscribers in three months

Some 800,000 questing game players fled from World of Warcraft during Activision Blizzard's fiscal second quarter ended June 30, 2014. That leaves the world's most popular MMORPG with 6.8 million subscribers, enough to maintain its top spot among the competition. Those who quit the game were disproportionately concentrated in the East and similar to the seasonal decline experienced during the second quarter of 2012, Activision Blizzard said.

The company reported a profit of $204 million, or 28 cents per share for the quarter, down from $324 million (also 28 cents per share) in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue declined 8 percent to $970 million from $1.05 billion year-over-year. However, adjusted revenue of $658 million beat out analysts' expectations for the quarter.

"Our better-than expected performance was driven by continued strong digital sales from Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, and Blizzard Entertainment's newest franchise, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, which recently launched on the iPad and continues to be well received by audiences around the world, as well as digital sales from Activision Publishing's Call of Duty," said Bobby Kotick (PDF), CEO of Activision Blizzard. "Based on our results, we are raising our full-year outlook and we expect to grow our non-GAAP revenues year-over-year and deliver record non-GAAP earnings per share for the full year."

Activision Blizzard raised its full-year forecast to earnings of $1.29 per share, up from a previous $1.27 per share, and now expects to generate $4.7 billion in revenue, up from $4.68 billion.

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Russian Cyber Thugs Swipe 1.2 Billion Passwords

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 10:02 AM PDT

HackingSweeping password changes might not be a bad idea

Well now, this is disturbing -- it's being reported that a Russian crime ring is in possession of around 1.2 billion stolen Internet credentials, which is the biggest collection of its kind. That includes user names and password combinations, along with more than 500 million email addresses collected from 420,000 websites. With that in mind, now might be a good time to change up your passwords for your more important accounts.

Hold Security, a firm in Milwaukee, discovered the existence of such a large collection of stolen credentials, The New York Times reports. The firm has a history of uncovering serious security breaches, including last year's theft of tens of millions of records from Adobe Systems.

In this case, a list of websites where the stolen credentials came from hasn't been released, though it includes both popular and smaller size portals, NYT says. Hold Security is reluctant to call out the names of sites that remain vulnerable, though NYT says a security analyst not affiliated with the firm reviewed the database and confirmed it was authentic.

"Hackers did not just target U.S. companies, they targeted any website they could get, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to very small websites," said Alex Holden, the founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security. "And most of these sites are still vulnerable."

The Russian gang consists of a hacking ring of less than a dozen individuals in their 20s living in a small city in south central Russia.

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Xidax M6 Mining Rig Review

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 09:42 AM PDT

A gaming rig that pays for itself

Exotic car paint, multiple GPUs, and custom-built chassis' be damned, boutique PC builder Xidax thinks it has the sexiest sales pitch on the planet with its M6 Mining Rig: It pays for itself! Now, we can't say this PC is basically "free" because it ain't that, but Xidax says by using the box's spare GPU cycles to mine for crypto-currency, this baby would be paid off in about four months. To be honest, it's not something we've ever considered, as we've seen gaming rigs, and we've seen coining rigs, but never in the same box. It seems like a solid idea though, as the system can game during the day, then mine at night to help cover its cost.

The Xidax M6 Mining Rig comes set up with everything you need to start mining crypto-currancy almost right out of the box.

The Xidax M6 Mining Rig comes set up with everything you need to start mining crypto-currancy almost right out of the box.

The system's specs include a 3.4GHz Core i5-4670K with 16GB of RAM, a Corsair RM 850 PSU, closed-loop liquid cooler, 250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, 1TB WD Black, and a pair of Sapphire Radeon R9 290X cards. In application performance, it's pretty pedestrian with its stock-clocked Core i5-4670K. Why not something more badass? Xidax says it weighed hardware choices carefully because the pricier the hardware, the longer it takes to pay off with crypto-coins. The Radeons are a wise choice, as they offer about twice the performance of Nvidia's fastest GPUs in mining applications. Gaming is also quite excellent (obviously, for a two-card system), and its mining performance is impressive at 1.7 to 1.8 Kilohashes per second. (Hashes of the kilo/mega/giga variety are the units of measurement for mining productivity.)

Xidax ships the PC ready to start mining operations almost right out of the box, which is normally a daunting task. It also includes a Concierge (or should we say coincierge) service that has a Xidax rep remotely connect to the rig and do a final tune on the box for maximum mining performance. On this particular machine, it came ready to mine for Doge Coins and was forecast to make about $21.60 a day, or $670 a month, on a 24/7 schedule—including electricity costs.

What's the catch? There are a few. First, it's loud when mining. In fact, it's so loud that you won't be able to stand being in the same room with it. Second, you can't do anything with it while it's mining because all GPU resources are pegged to the max. Third, crypto-currency can be volatile. Bitcoin saw its value see-saw from $130 to $1,242 and then back to $455 and $900 in just four months. It could all go kaput in a few months, or who knows—the government might even step in and ruin the fun.

Considering its performance outside of mining, the M6 Mining Rig is pricey at $3,000. However, the price includes a lifetime warranty on parts and service except for the GPUs. Those carry a five-year warranty, which is still surprisingly good, considering that board vendors are already making noises that they don't want to eat the cost of dead boards killed by mining. Xidax says it will cover them, though. And—again—it pays for itself, right?

That's ultimately the appeal of the M6 Gaming Rig, but it has to be carefully considered by potential buyers. After all, anything that sounds too good to be true usually is, but then again, it is a powerful gaming PC that could theoretically pay for itself in a few months. And even if the market blew up, at least you'd still have a formidable gaming PC rather than just standing there with your RAM sticks in one hand. And if it works out, whoa baby, you just got a PC for free! –

$3,000, www.xidax.com

xidax benchmarks

Intel 730 Series SSD 480GB Review

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 09:36 AM PDT

An overclocked enterprise SSD, priced accordingly

Intel has largely been absent from the high-end SSD market for many years, which has been a real head-scratcher, considering the original X-25M's dominance back in 2009. That all changes this month with the release of its all-new 730 series SSD. It springs from the loins of its data center SSDs, which use validated NAND and Intel's enterprise-level controller technology. To emphasize this heritage, Intel isn't bragging about the drive's overall speed, but instead notes the drive is rated to handle up to 70GB of writes per day, which is higher than any other SSD on the market by a huge margin. It features capacitors to protect data being written in case of a power outage, which is an unusual but not unprecedented feature on a consumer SSD. Intel also backs the drive with a five-year warranty.

Intel's new flagship SSD is validated for a whopping 70GB of writes per day.

Intel's new flagship SSD is validated for a whopping 70GB of writes per day.

To create the 730 Series, Intel has basically taken the NAND flash and controller from its data center–oriented S3700 SSD and bumped up the clock and interface speeds. If you recall the "SSD overclocking" demo Intel held at Pax last year, this is the result, though Intel decided against letting consumers overclock the drive. Instead, it did the overclocking at the factory so that the drives could be validated at those speeds. To drive home the point that this is an SSD made for enthusiasts, Intel has even adorned it with a sweet-looking Skulltrail badge.

The drive is a 7mm unit, so it will fit inside an ultrabook, but is available only in 240GB and 480GB capacities. It's odd that it's not available in 750GB or higher capacities, but our guess is Intel is afraid of the sky-high sticker price that such a drive would require; the two capacities it's offering are priced very  high at $250 and $490, respectively. The drive features Intel's 20nm MLC NAND and its own third-generation controller. It's ditched SandForce, along with all the other SSD makers in the business. One interesting note is that since this is an enterprise drive, it essentially doesn't have a "low-power state," so it's not intended for mobile usage. Also, it consumes 5W under load, which is double the consumption of even a 7,200rpm mobile hard drive.

When we strapped the 730 Series drive to our test bench, we saw results that were a bit slower overall than we expected. It topped the charts in AS SSD, which measures read and write speeds of incompressible data, but the Intel drive was only a smidge faster than most, and not by enough to make it stand out, as they are all very fast. It was a bit slower than average in straight-line sequential read speeds, topping out at 468MB/s for reads and 491MB/s for writes. While this is still plenty fast, it's a bit short of the 550MB/s Intel claims the drive is capable of, which is totally saturating the SATA 6Gb/s interface.

It was also oddly slow in the ATTO benchmark, which has a queue depth of four and is a "best case scenario" for most drives. It scored just 373MB/s for 64KB-read speeds, compared to 524MB/s for the Samsung 840 Pro. We ran the test several times to verify, so it's not an aberration. It placed mid-pack in PCMark Vantage, but was slower than its competition in our real-
world Sony Vegas test, where we write a 20GB uncompressed AVI file to the drive.

Overall, this drive is a bit of a conundrum. We have no doubt it's reliable, as Intel has always been strong in that regard and this drive is full of safety-oriented features. But is it more reliable than a Samsung 840 Pro for the average consumer? We doubt it, and therefore the drive's extra-high price tag doesn't make much sense. If Intel realizes it's no longer the only game in town and adjusts the price a bit, it'll be a much more competitive drive, but as it stands, we must give it a so-so verdict of 8.

$490, www.intel.com

AMD FirePro S9150 Brings 2.53 TFLOPS of Double Precision Performance to Servers

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 09:34 AM PDT

AMD FirePro S9150Busting through the 2.0 TFLOPS barrier

AMD on Wednesday let loose its FirePro S9150 server card, supposedly the most powerful server GPU ever built for High Performance Computing (HPC) and the first to support double precision and break the 2.0 TFLOPS double precision barrier. Based on AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture, the FirePro S9150 is specifically designed for compute workloads and is aided by 16GB of GDDR5 memory on a 512-bit memory interface for up to 320GB/s of memory bandwidth.

It has a maximum power consumption of 235 watts, and at full blast, the card is capable of 5.07 TFLOPS of peak single-precision floating point performance, which is up to 18 percent more than the competition, AMD says. Double-precision floating point performance peaks at 2.53 TFLOPS. It's made up of 2,816 stream processors (44 GCN compute units) and is ready to support OpenCL 2.0.

"Today's supercomputers feature an increasing mix of GPUs, CPUs and co-processors to achieve great performance, and many of them are being implemented in an environmentally responsible manner to help reduce power and water consumption," said David Cummings, senior director and general manager, professional graphics, AMD. "Designed for large scale multi-GPU support and unmatched compute performance, AMD FirePro S9150 ushers in a new era of supercomputing. Its memory configuration, compute capabilities and performance per watt are unmatched in its class, and can help take supercomputers to the next level of performance and energy efficiency."

AMD also rolled out its FirePro S9050 GPU with 12GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus for up to 264GB/s of memory bandwidth, 1,792 stream processors (28 GCN compute units), and 225W maximum power consumption.

Both the FirePro S9150 and FirePro S9050 will be available in the third quarter of this year. No word yet on price.

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Acer's B286HK Spreads a 4K Resolution Over 28 Inches of Screen Real Estate

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 08:16 AM PDT

Acer B286HKAcer jumps on the 4K Ultra HD bandwagon

Don't worry, your Full HD 1080p display isn't going out of style and will likely remain the sweet spot for a long time, but the transition to 4K Ultra HD on the high end of the spectrum is well underway. Even Acer's getting in on the action. Acer's foray into 4K territory starts with its new B286HK, a 28-inch monitor with 6-axis color adjustment for superior color accuracy, 100,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and 2ms response time.

The B286HK has a flexible stand that supports tilt (-5 to 25 degrees), swivel (60 degrees to the right or left), pivot, and height (5.9 inches up or down) adjustments. Alternately, you can mount the panel on a wall to save desk space (it's VESA compliant).

Other features include wide viewing angles of up to 170 degrees horizontal and 160 degrees vertical, 300 cd/m2 brightness, 1.07 billion colors with a 72 percent NTSC color saturation, built-in USB 3.0 hub, HDMI with MHL for charging smartphones, DisplayPort, and mini Displayport.

The Acer B286HK is available now for $600 MSRP.

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Newegg Daily Deals: AMD A8-5600K APU, Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD, and More!

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 07:59 AM PDT

AMD A8-5600Knewegg logo

Top Deal:

You want to build a new system, but school is about to start, and books aren't cheap. Neither is tuition, and let's not forget about a little fund for beer money. What's a budding PC builder to do? Build a bang-for-buck machine, of course! One possible route starts with today's top deal for an AMD A8-5600K Quad-Core Desktop APU for $90 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPE24]). This 32nm Trinity chip sports an integrated Radeon HD 7560D GPU, so you can put off a dedicated graphics card purchase until next semester.

Other Deals:

Samsung 840 Pro Series 2.5-inch 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive for $98 with free shipping (normally $120 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPE222])

Western Digital WD Green 1TB IntelliPower SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $50 with free shipping (normally $55 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPE225])

G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory for $153 with free shipping (normally $170 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPE36])

Dell P2314H Black 23-inch 8ms Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor IPS 250 for $155 with free shipping (normally $190 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPE44])

MMO Updates

MMO Updates


Leaderboard: Firefall vs. Defiance vs. Destiny

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 10:00 AM PDT

Filed under: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Shooters are certainly in vogue at the moment, what with last week's Firefall launch, this week's Defiance Silicon Valley expansion launch, and next month's colossally expensive Destiny launch. Come to think of it, those three titles are probably worth pitting against one another, wouldn't you agree?

So, how about it Massively shooter fans? If you had to pick one of those three titles as your go-to gunplay fix, which would it be? Vote after the cut!

Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!

Continue reading Leaderboard: Firefall vs. Defiance vs. Destiny

MassivelyLeaderboard: Firefall vs. Defiance vs. Destiny originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 06 Aug 2014 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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    EverQuest II getting multiple midgame content updates 'soon'

    Posted: 06 Aug 2014 09:00 AM PDT

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    EverQuest II lead designer Kyle "Kander" Vallée has dropped a bit of a tease on the game's official forums regarding midgame updates in SOE's long-running fantasy themepark. "We actually have some content updates coming for players level 20 to 90. Soon. Yup updates. Plural," he wrote.

    Keep your eyes on Massively as we travel to Las Vegas this month to suss out these and other franchise tidbits at SOE Live.

    MassivelyEverQuest II getting multiple midgame content updates 'soon' originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 06 Aug 2014 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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    Activision sees industry-wide pre-order decline

    Posted: 06 Aug 2014 08:00 AM PDT

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    Activision publishing boss Eric Hirshberg says his company's pre-orders are declining. He made the remarks to investors and media on a conference call yesterday, and he also said that the downturn is an industry-wide trend.

    Hirshberg cited digital consumption upticks as well as wide launch-day availability as factors in the declining popularity of pre-orders. He also said that pre-orders are "just one data point that we look at when determining the momentum of a franchise," and that awareness and "purchase intent" on Activision's Destiny is "at an all-time high and climbing when compared to any other new game intellectual property this distance from launch."

    MassivelyActivision sees industry-wide pre-order decline originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 06 Aug 2014 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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    Ever, Jane updates on test builds and the ever-lost hankie

    Posted: 06 Aug 2014 07:00 AM PDT

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    Yes, there's a distinct minority of interesting screenshots at the moment.
    Yes, there is a hankie to worry about in the latest development build of Ever, Jane. Mrs. Hatch's hankie, to be specific. She's lost it before, she's lost it again, and it's up to players to retrieve it, assuming they'd like to curry favor with Mrs. Hatch. The build also adds a number of endgame raiding systems, by which we of course mean the first pass of the game's gossip and sleuthing system, key to the overall social experience of the game.

    Essentially, the gossip system allows you to craft a few different potential responses to NPCs and to track what other characters are saying about your character. This means that in addition to assassinating or bolstering the reputations of others, you can also try to sort out your own reputation for good or for ill. Take a look at the full update for an explanation of the system, future updates, and other improvements in the most recent build.

    MassivelyEver, Jane updates on test builds and the ever-lost hankie originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 06 Aug 2014 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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    The Daily Grind: What do you think about MMO sequels?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2014 06:00 AM PDT

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    maplestory 2
    While sequels to MMOs aren't as prevelant as they are elsewhere in the entertainment industry, we've certainly seen more than a few pop up in this genre's short lifespan. There are pros and cons to making sequels, of course, and while players always seem to clamor to have their favorite older MMOs return with a Roman numeral affixed to the name, I have to wonder if that might be a curse in disguise.

    Considering all of the money that it takes to make MMOs, do you think it's a good idea for studios to milk a franchise or to start fresh? And if you are all for sequels being made, which MMO do you think deserves one? Which sequel that's currently in development has your attention?

    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!

    MassivelyThe Daily Grind: What do you think about MMO sequels? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 06 Aug 2014 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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      World of Warcraft's Nagrand will be familiar to Burning Crusade players

      Posted: 05 Aug 2014 07:00 PM PDT

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      wow
      The one question that I always had about World of Warcraft's Nagrand zone wasn't how those giant rocks floated about in the sky but how some of them could produce endless waterfalls stemming from an unknown source. Did a wizard do that? It was probably a wizard.

      While this question may never be answered, we'll have a second opportunity to explore the great mysteries of Nagrand with Warlords of Draenor. Blizzard pushed out a new preview today of the ancient version of Nagrand and talked a little about what players will be discovering.

      "We very much wanted to respect what people really enjoyed about their experience in Nagrand in The Burning Crusade and capture that, while still providing a twist to what you'll experience there," the studio said. Nagrand is supposed to feel the "most familiar" of all of Draenor's zones, although it will boast a new exciting elemental storyline and tons of easter eggs to the dedicated fan.

      MassivelyWorld of Warcraft's Nagrand will be familiar to Burning Crusade players originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Aug 2014 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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      Global Chat: A blast from the past

      Posted: 05 Aug 2014 06:00 PM PDT

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      As many of you know, Massively doesn't really believe in reviews of MMOs, as they are ever-changing and shifting targets. Instead, we've provided impressions and continuing coverage of these games during their lifespans (and even after), which is something that many bloggers also favor.

      In this edition of Global Chat, we have several hands-on impressions of MMOs both new and old from the blogosphere. What is it like to head back to Asheron's Call after a long time away? Is Guild Wars 2's and Lord of the Rings Online's new content hitting the mark? And what will we miss most of all now that Vanguard has departed? It's all there and more, right after the break!

      Continue reading Global Chat: A blast from the past

      MassivelyGlobal Chat: A blast from the past originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Aug 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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        Darkfall rolls back Stamina changes after player protests

        Posted: 05 Aug 2014 05:00 PM PDT

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        It seemed like a good idea at the time.
        The development team behind Darkfall had a couple of issues. The first issue was that no one was using Primalist armor. The second was that stamina regeneration was disabled during sprinting. So it seemed like an obvious combination. Give Primalist robes the ability to boost stamina regeneration, let other armor types see stamina drop a bit faster, and everyone would have a bit more motivation to use robes. Elegant, no?

        As it turned out, the resultant regeneration and overall issues led to an immediate rollback and a 40% decrease in stamina consumption across the board, meaning that these issues are all back to the drawing board. An apology was issued for the unintended consequences of the patch, with the team promising to examine the issue in more depth whilst looking for a solution that doesn't lead to this level of fan outcry.

        [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]

        MassivelyDarkfall rolls back Stamina changes after player protests originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Aug 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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        Black Desert's Korean version is 80% finished

        Posted: 05 Aug 2014 04:30 PM PDT

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        If you've got your eye on Black Desert now that it's definitely making the trek to the West, then Brian Oh is a name you'll want to know. He's Pearl Abyss' director of overseas business, and 2P chatted him up at this past weekend's ChinaJoy about class balance, sea battles, costumes, dyeing, swimming, the non-existent level cap, and why Daum was selected to publish Black Desert in the West.

        Of note, Oh and Chinese Community Manager Cheng Ying said that Pearl Abyss has "almost completed about 80% of the game." The English version is not yet half translated; the Korean version, at least, will be free-to-play and will block foreign IPs during open beta. According to the interview, PA remains "very interested " in porting the game to consoles but could not speculate on timing of the NA beta launch.

        [Thanks, Dystopiq!]

        MassivelyBlack Desert's Korean version is 80% finished originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Aug 2014 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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        World of Warcraft drops another 800k subscribers; Diablo III has sold 20M units

        Posted: 05 Aug 2014 04:15 PM PDT

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        WoW
        Today's Activision Blizzard earnings call revealed that World of Warcraft has suffered another significant hit to its subscriptions: The game has lost 800,000 subs over the last quarter, bringing the playerbase down to 6.8 million subscribers.

        The game announced a loss of 100k last November, a gain of 200k in February, and another loss of 200k in May. WoW has lost over 3 million players in the gap between Mists of Pandaria and Warlords of Draenor.

        Blizzard claims that most of the losses were "disproportionately concentrated in the East."

        There is some good news for the company: ARPG Diablo III has sold over 20 million copies since its launch in spring 2012.

        MassivelyWorld of Warcraft drops another 800k subscribers; Diablo III has sold 20M units originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Aug 2014 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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        Elder Scrolls Online's third update has deployed

        Posted: 05 Aug 2014 04:00 PM PDT

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        ESO
        The Elder Scrolls Online's third major patch officially arrives today, bringing with it a vast new dye system, customizable guild ranks, guild heraldry, and bid contracts for public guild merchants. Patch notes have been published to coincide with the launch.

        Get caught up on our coverage of everything planned for this patch and the ongoing rollout of the endgame overhaul:
        Elder Scrolls' ginormous post-50 update plan
        Elder Scrolls Online plans massive revamp of veteran rank content
        Elder Scrolls 1.3.3 tweaks weapon-swapping and guild management
        Elder Scrolls Online publishes video of its QuakeCon panel reveals
        Let's all dye our armor black in The Elder Scrolls Online
        Elder Scrolls Online shows new zones, active world PvP at Quakecon
        Elder Scrolls' Sage explains new Champion alternate advancement
        Elder Scrolls Online offers new guild heraldry

        MassivelyElder Scrolls Online's third update has deployed originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Aug 2014 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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        Massively Speaking Episode 308: Telon mourned

        Posted: 05 Aug 2014 03:00 PM PDT

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        vanguard
        Even as two high-profile MMOs launched this week, another two were shuttered. Out of those, Vanguard will be the most missed among fans, an ambitious yet troubled fantasy title that struggled for years. In this episode of Massively Speaking, the hosts raise a glass to the memories of a world gone, cheer on the crackdown on cheaters, and shed nary a tear for ignored Blood Elves.

        Get all of our opinions and analysis on the most important stories of the past week right here on Massively Speaking, the industry's leading MMO podcast. And if you have a comment, question, or topic for the podcasters, send 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 308: Telon mourned

        MassivelyMassively Speaking Episode 308: Telon mourned originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Aug 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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          Final Fantasy XI brings in equipment sets and flexible skirmishes

          Posted: 05 Aug 2014 02:00 PM PDT

          Filed under: , , , , , , ,

          ff11
          Final Fantasy XI is preparing to deliver a feast of content for players this month. Square Enix whipped up a post today to share a preview of that upcoming bounty, which includes more story missions, equipment sets, and a new type of skirmish.

          The studio promised that it will be moving toward the conclusion of the Seekers of Adoulin storyline with this month's patch. Players will also get to fiddle with equipment sets, which allow characters to have and swap multiple gear loadouts at will.

          The big announcement is the addition of Alluvion skirmishes. These take place in "an ever-changing labyrinth" that will reward new customizable weapons to the fortunate. This update will go into effect on August 12th, but in the meanwhile you can check out its trailer after the break!

          Continue reading Final Fantasy XI brings in equipment sets and flexible skirmishes

          MassivelyFinal Fantasy XI brings in equipment sets and flexible skirmishes originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Aug 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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          DC Universe Online DLC is 75% off right now

          Posted: 05 Aug 2014 01:30 PM PDT

          Filed under: , , ,

          dcuo
          Not everyone is as rich as Bruce Wayne, so for those of you who have been pinching your pennies instead of splurging on DC Universe Online content, here's where your thriftiness pays off.

          Steam is holding a 75% off sale for much of DCUO right now. This includes 10 DLC packs for $2.49 apiece and the Ultimate Edition bundle for $7.49. In fact, you could buy the whole kit and kaboodle (that's a superhero term) for only $32.39 $22.50. That's less than the cost of many box games these days right there, so what are you waiting for?

          [Thanks to Balsbigbrother for the tip and to greaterdivinity for the math!]

          MassivelyDC Universe Online DLC is 75% off right now originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Aug 2014 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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          Gameplay video tours Neverwinter: Tyranny of Dragons highlights

          Posted: 05 Aug 2014 01:00 PM PDT

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          Neverwinter
          Those dragons, always being tyrannical, am I right? Neverwinter has my back on this, as Cryptic is already in overdrive to promote the upcoming fourth module, Tyranny of Dragons.

          Today the studio released a new gamplay video for the update, going through the major features of the patch. Cryptic talks about the DPS and cursing abilities of the spiffy Scourge Warlock class, gives a better look at the Dragonborn race, shows the several new heroic encounters for experienced adventurers, hints at the Cult of the Dragon storyline, and teases the additional level 60 skirmish and dungeon instances.

          Check it out after the break and let us know if Tyranny of the Dragons has you excited to play it!

          Continue reading Gameplay video tours Neverwinter: Tyranny of Dragons highlights

          MassivelyGameplay video tours Neverwinter: Tyranny of Dragons highlights originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Aug 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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          Meet PlanetSide 2's new producer, Directive achievements

          Posted: 05 Aug 2014 12:00 PM PDT

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          A solid base for future operations, you know.
          It's important to know the development team of your game of choice, isn't it? Producer David Carey recently took on the role of producer for PlanetSide 2, and he hopped on the forums to introduce himself, explaining to fans who he is, what he hopes to accomplish in the game, and what he hopes to receive from the community.

          Carey reveals that he has spent a long time working with Matt Higby on the QA floor and has plenty of experience working as a producer on other titles. His primary goal is to have an informed playerbase with a clear picture of why changes are being made, even in the event that the players and devs disagree. He also stresses the importance of constructive criticism over personal attacks and the team's need for open communication with the fans. If you're a regular PlanetSide 2 player, you owe it to yourself to check out the full letter.

          In other PS2 news, SOE has implemented a new achievement system called Directives. You can view the full press release after the break.

          Continue reading Meet PlanetSide 2's new producer, Directive achievements

          MassivelyMeet PlanetSide 2's new producer, Directive achievements originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Aug 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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          Flameseeker Chronicles: The curse of Guild Wars 2's precursor weapons

          Posted: 05 Aug 2014 11:00 AM PDT

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          Ten thousand thank yous to eirstegalkin of Tumblr for this awesome manip of my characters together!
          My wife doesn't play Guild Wars 2 any more. She hasn't exactly made a deliberate choice to leave the game and never come back, but she used to play every day. Some time around the end of season one of the living world story, she started logging in only every week or so, and then finally not at all. She dips in for a few seconds to unlock the new story chapters, but only because I remind her that they're out.

          This is the first time the two of us have been seriously invested in different MMOs. When she stopped playing GW2 as often, she dived headfirst into Final Fantasy XIV, which is totally understandable because it's a great game and I play it casually myself. Normally I wouldn't consider this development to be article material because people drift away from games they used to love and find new ones all the time, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. But this wasn't a natural split: When I told her about all of the cool story stuff happening in season two, my wife's response was, "That sounds neat. Has ArenaNet implemented precursor crafting yet?"

          Continue reading Flameseeker Chronicles: The curse of Guild Wars 2's precursor weapons

          MassivelyFlameseeker Chronicles: The curse of Guild Wars 2's precursor weapons originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Aug 2014 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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