General Gaming Article

Maximum PC's Geek Quiz 2014
Newegg Daily Deals: Asus 27-inch Widescreen Monitor, Intel Core i3 4130 Processor, and More!
Price of Volatile Bitcoin Currency Hits 11-Month Low
HP 10 Plus Android Tablet Quietly Makes an Entrance
Inno3D Tries Hand at 3D Printing Hardware
AMD Marks Down Radeon R9 290 and 290X Cards to Compete with Maxwell
Microsoft's RoomAlive Technology Turns Rooms into Game Levels
Security Researchers Release BadUSB Attack Code
Report: HP to Split Into Two Companies
Video Shows Samsung Gear Live Running Windows 95

Maximum PC's Geek Quiz 2014

Posted: 06 Oct 2014 03:04 PM PDT

Try your hand at Maximum PC's brutal 13th annual Geek Quiz

Our world is full of competitions and tournaments that favor impressive athletic feats and rippling abs. The winners get to wear fancy rings and get paid silly amounts of money to wear a shoe with a swooping logo on it. So where do geeks like us go if they prefer to flex the muscle of the mind? Where are the trophies for the legions of sons and daughters who tirelessly fix their parents' computers and educate countless laypeople about the dangers and wonders of technology? Er, sorry, we don't have any tangible rewards for you, either. But we do have a fun computer quiz!

Of course, "fun" might not be an accurate word for it. Our annual Maximum PC Geek Quiz is actually a crucible of pain and confusion that separates the wannabes from the war heroes; a baptism by fire, from which only the pitiless juggernaut will emerge unscathed. Basically, the Maximum PC Geek Quiz is like being thrown into the Thunderdome with your mother-in-law. (On the bright side, you can set the Geek Quiz on fire if it upsets you.) So, start the quiz and begin your journey to prove what caliber geek you are!

Newegg Daily Deals: Asus 27-inch Widescreen Monitor, Intel Core i3 4130 Processor, and More!

Posted: 06 Oct 2014 12:38 PM PDT

Asus VE278H newegg logo

Top Deal:

Remember when monitors used to weight around a million pounds (give or take)? There were these big, bulky things that took up half your desk, generated tons of heat, and eventually came in color! How far we've come. Compare those ancient boxes to today's top deal for an Asus VE278H 27-inch Monitor for $190 with free shipping (normally $230 - use coupon code: [EMCWPPH44]). It's a Full HD 1080p panel with a 2ms response time, D-Sub and dual HDMI inputs, and built-in speakers.

Other Deals:

Intel Core i3-4130 Haswell Dual-Core 3.4GHz LGA 1150 54W Desktop Processor for $110 with free shipping (normally $120 - use coupon code: [EMCWPPH23])

Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory for $75 with free shipping (normally $85 - use coupon code: [EMCWPPH78])

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit for $85 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [EMCWPPH38])

G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory for $75 with free shipping (normally $85 - use coupon code: [EMCWPPH28])

Price of Volatile Bitcoin Currency Hits 11-Month Low

Posted: 06 Oct 2014 12:26 PM PDT

Bitcoin value took a tumble this past weekend

Bitcoin investors suffered through a stressful weekend as they sat helplessly and watched the value of the cryptocurrency drop to $286, the lowest it's been in about 11 months and representative of a nearly 20 percent drop. The highly volatile cryptocurrency has been consistently losing value since hitting a high of over $1,100 in December 2013, and though it's recovered a bit from its weekend dip, some fear the market is crashing.

At the time of this writing, the value of each Bitcoin is up to nearly $344. That makes for an interesting roller-coaster ride, not just for miners and speculators, but also for the several companies who started accepting Bitcoin currency in recent months. Companies running the gamut from PC builders to car dealers and even taco stands have jumped on the Bitcoin bandwagon.

"As the price is going down, some of us are under immense psychological stress," a user posted on Reddit over the weekend, according to The New York Times. "Please share how you cope with it."

It's hard to tell what prompted the recent tumble. Some have surmised that it has to do with uncertainty over potential regulations, as New York recently became the first state to propose regulations for Bitcoin companies. It's also under intense scrutiny from several U.S. government organizations, so there's a general uneasiness about Bitcoin's future.

Image Credit: Flickr (Antana)

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HP 10 Plus Android Tablet Quietly Makes an Entrance

Posted: 06 Oct 2014 11:48 AM PDT

HP 10 Plus tablet is available now for $280

The big news regarding Hewlett-Packard is that the OEM has again decided to split off its Printing and Personal Systems Group (printer and PC divisions), which is something former CEO Léo Apotheker wanted to do several years ago. However, that's not the only news related to HP. With nary a peep, the OEM just released the HP 10 Plus, a 10.1-inch Full HD 1080p (1920x1200) tablet running Android 4.4.2 KitKat.

There's no press release that we're aware of, though there is a product page on HP's website where you can order the tablet, along with a listing on Amazon. It's priced at $280 at both places.

The HP 10 Plus is powered by an ARM Cortex-A7 quad-core processor clocked at 1GHz and 2GB of DDR3L RAM. It also features 16GB of eMMC storage, microSD card slot, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, a micro USB 2.0 port, 3.5mm audio jack with microphone support, stereo speakers, 2MP front-facing camera, 5MP rear-facing camera with auto-focus, and a 7700 mAh Li-ion polymer battery.

Nothing earth shattering, though if it floats your boat, you can order one today.

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Inno3D Tries Hand at 3D Printing Hardware

Posted: 06 Oct 2014 10:53 AM PDT

A newcomer to the 3D printer space

You may recognize the Inno3D brand based on the company's collection of graphics cards. While not as popular in the U.S. as companies like EVGA and Asus, Inno3D builds video cards based on Nvidia's GPU designs, including the company's new Maxwell parts. However, Inno3D is also now a brand in the 3D printer space with the introduction of the M1, a 3D printer for consumers.

We couldn't find a listing for the M1 on Inno3D's website (the company is also known as InnVISION Multimedia Limited), though 3diot.net was able to track down a brochure (PDF) on gitex.com. According to the brochure, the M1 is a single nozzle (0.3mm) 3D printer capable of using PLA, ABS, and Nylon 1.75mm filament. Layer thickness ranges from 0.10mm to 0.25mm.

The M1 measures 49cm (W) x 43cm (D) x 59cm (H), weighs 11kg, and features a build volume of 140mm (L) x 140mm (W) x 150mm (H). There's also a touchscreen color LCD with a navigation keyboard.

There's a German-language website that offers the M1 for €1130.45, which is about $1,425 in U.S. currency. That's a number that will probably need to see a significant drop if and when the M1 is to compete with other consumer 3D printers stateside.

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AMD Marks Down Radeon R9 290 and 290X Cards to Compete with Maxwell

Posted: 06 Oct 2014 08:52 AM PDT

Taking a trip to 'Hawaii' just got a bit more affordable

Competition is fierce in the graphics card market, and while we've seen AMD and Nvidia duke it out with bundled game offers, it's the price wars that truly get our attention. Speaking of which, Nvidia certainly got AMD's attention when it launched Maxwell during the company's GAME24 event, which saw the release of the GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980 for $329 and $549, respectively (MSRPs). AMD has just responded by cutting the price of its Radeon R9 290 and 290X Hawaii cards.

We'll give Fudzilla credit for the heads up on this one. According to the news and rumor site, AMD is also planning to slash the price of its Radeon R9 280 graphics card, though at present, it's the other two cards that are marked down. Specifically, you can now find the Radeon R9 290X selling for $399 at Newegg, down from its original launch price of $549, and the Radeon R9 290 going for $299, down from $399. In some cases, prices are even lower if you factor in any applicable mail-in-rebate offers.

As for the Radeon R9 280X, Fudzilla claims to have heard that it's dropping to as low as $229, though at the time of this writing, the cheapest we found one selling for new (as opposed to refurbished or open box) is $270 ($250 after mail-in-rebate).

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Microsoft's RoomAlive Technology Turns Rooms into Game Levels

Posted: 06 Oct 2014 08:20 AM PDT

Augmented reality is the key to (literally) getting in the game

Journalists are going bonkers over the idea that we're closer than ever to having our own in-home holodecks courtesy of Microsoft's RoomAlive technology, and we admit, we're excited about it too. Using augmented reality, RoomAlive has the ability to transform your living room into a video game level, which opens the door to all new kinds of game play and use case scenarios.

At present, RoomAlive is a proof-of-concept prototype designed to turn rooms into immersive entertainment spaces. It uses a unified, scalable approach for interactive projection mapping and dynamically adapts content to any room. Users can touch, shoot, stomp, dodge, and steer this projected content just like a traditional video game, but without a controller.

"Our system enables new interactive projection mapping experiences that dynamically adapts content to any room. Users can touch, shoot, stomp, dodge, and steer projected content that seamlessly coexists with their existing physical environment," Microsoft researcher Hrvoje Benko explains in a blog post.

RoomAlive uses Microsoft's Kinect motion controller and projectors to create virtual landscapes out of your real-world environment. At the moment, the combination is too big and costly to be feasible, but in time that will change. Until then, check out the demo below:

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Security Researchers Release BadUSB Attack Code

Posted: 06 Oct 2014 02:23 AM PDT

Opt for full disclosure in bid to goad manufacturers into taking flaw seriously

At this year's Black Hat Conference, Security Research Labs researchers Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell, warned of a serious flaw in USB devices that they dubbed "BadUSB." The flaw, which can be used to reprogram otherwise harmless USB devices to wreak havoc by impersonating other USB devices (say a keyboard or a network card), remains unfixed to this day, fully living up to both its name and reputation in the two months since it first came to light. Meanwhile, two other researchers, Adam Caudill and Brandon Wilson, who recently managed to reverse engineer the same firmware as the SR Labs folks, have published the attack code online.

With the SR Labs duo behind the discovery describing BadUSB as an unpatchable flaw, it's no surprise that a number of people are viewing this latest development with fear. However, Caudin and Wilson feel that such fears are unfounded as they were careful enough to take all the precautions they deemed necessary for protecting ordinary users.

"Writing code for these devices is far from easy, especially when trying to patch the existing firmware. It's not something that just anyone can jump into - while we have made it easier for people to apply simple patches and provided some insight to the process, these aren't the patches that will lead to a firmware based worm or something of that nature - these are the type of patches that will make small changes to existing features, or add simple new features," Wilson wrote in a blog post Friday. "So, to do anything still requires a lot of knowledge and skill - in general, as I said earlier, the kind of people that have what it takes to do this, could do it regardless of our release."

But why release the attack code? According to Wilson, this is meant to force manufacturer to treat this issue with the kind of seriousness it merits and to raise awareness among ordinary users.

"Device manufacturers were quick to dismiss the "BadUSB" threat - on one hand, what was presented at Black Hat was possible via other means, so wasn't really a new threat - but they showed no indication of trying to address the issues under their control," he added. "While it will take years for any changes made by device manufactures to have an impact because of the number of devices in circulation now - if they keep ignoring the issue, then it will never be improved."

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Report: HP to Split Into Two Companies

Posted: 06 Oct 2014 12:16 AM PDT

Announcement said to be imminent

Hewlett-Packard came extremely close to selling or spinning off its PC business during the disastrous year-long reign of CEO Léo Apotheker. It was around six months after Apotheker's departure in September, 2011 that the then leading PC vendor finally decided to take that option off the table, opting instead for an "organizational realignment" that saw it merge its PC and printing divisions. Now it appears as though the company is ready for yet another shakeup under CEO Meg Whitman, the former eBay honcho who took over from Apotheker in 2011.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Meg Whitman-led company is all set to spin off its Printing and Personal Systems Group (PC and printer division) and its enterprise hardware and service operations into two separate companies. According to the report, which is based on input from "people familiar with the plan", an announcement could come as early as Monday.

One of its sources even claimed to know the names of the resulting entities. If this particular source is to be believed, the PC and printer division will be known as HP Inc. and the enterprise-focused parts of the current business will become a new company called, well, Hewlett-packard Enterprise. The former will reportedly have Meg Whitman as its chairman and Dion Weisler as chief executive, while the latter will have HP lead independent director Patricia Russo as chairman and Whitman as chief executive.

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Video Shows Samsung Gear Live Running Windows 95

Posted: 05 Oct 2014 11:44 PM PDT

Smartwatch uselessness reaches a whole new level

Even though everyone and their mother seems to be busy building a smartwatch at this point in time (no pun intended), this "smart" reimagining of the wristwatch has a long way to go before being accepted as a mass market product, and there is no guarantee of that happening. Nonetheless, if you have already invested in a smartwatch and are desperately looking for a respite from being constantly bothered by its troubling lack of utility, unfortunately we can't help you. But if all that you are looking for is to while away some time, you should probably try running an antediluvian operating system on it.

Corbin Davenport, a 16-year-old web developer from Georgia, recently uploaded a video of him running Windows 95 on a Samsung Gear Live smartwatch (Android 4.4W). He used the aDosBox x86 emulator that is available for download from the Google Play Store. Even though Gear Live smartwatch with 512MB of RAM has more than sufficient firepower for the task at hand, the experience isn't exactly buttery smooth as Windows 95 keeps running out of RAM due to a problem with the emulator.

MMORPG News

WildStar: The Future of Crafting
General: This Week's Live Stream Schedule
General: World of Tanks Blitz Adds Second Branch of Soviet Heavies
General: Obsidian Reveals Details of Armored Warfare PvE
Elsword: Maniacal Recluse Returns as the Arc Tracer

WildStar: The Future of Crafting

Posted: 04 Oct 2014 05:32 PM PDT

Where crafting fits in the grand scope of WildStar has been unclear for some time. While we have seen numerous outflows of information about itemization, we haven't seen much specific to crafting. There is a prevalent feeling of dissatisfaction within the crafting community with regards to specialization, craftings place in the economic footprint and the burden of the RNG monster always affecting the output of items more than the skill of the craftsman.

General: This Week's Live Stream Schedule

Posted: 06 Oct 2014 06:08 AM PDT

Join the MMORPG.com Live Stream team this week to check out some great gaming action. Check the schedule below to find your favorite game and time. See you there!

General: World of Tanks Blitz Adds Second Branch of Soviet Heavies

Posted: 04 Oct 2014 11:27 PM PDT

The tablet version of Wargaming's hit tank fighting game this week expanded with the inclusion, in Update 1.3, of five new Soviet tanks, two new maps, new graphic effects and a revamped past-battle screen.

General: Obsidian Reveals Details of Armored Warfare PvE

Posted: 04 Oct 2014 11:37 PM PDT

Obsidian Entertainment's hoping to roll over Wargaming's World of Tanks with its own multiplayer tank game, Armored Warfare and to that end, have released details regarding the game's PvE missions.

Elsword: Maniacal Recluse Returns as the Arc Tracer

Posted: 04 Oct 2014 11:48 PM PDT

Elsword's own mad scientist, Add, is getting a new job - Arc Tracer. Add's search for techno-psychic mastery gets moving as his Dynamo weapon gains the ability to independently gather El energy. Add will also be able to call drones and switch among drones to vary his attacks.