General Gaming Article |
- First Batch of Humble Monthly Games Released
- Gabe Newell: Steam Machines Outperform Today's Consoles
- Newegg Daily Deals: Asus ROG G751JL-WH71 Laptop, Seagate 6TB HDD, and More!
- Support Reps from Dell, HP Telling Windows 10 Users to Downgrade
- Razer and Blizzard Collaborate on Overwatch Themed Peripherals
- Razer Outfits Upgraded Naga Chroma Mouse with 16,000 DPI Laser Sensor
- Lian-Li Intros Its Very First Waterblock
- Maingear Shift Review
| First Batch of Humble Monthly Games Released Posted: 06 Nov 2015 01:39 PM PST Last month, Humble Bundle announced a new monthly subscription. Priced at a fixed rate of $12 per month, subscribers will receive a collection of new games on the sixth of each month, as long as they want to keep playing…er…paying. You can start or stop at any time, including jumping on and off if you need the exercise. The catch is quite simple: you will never know in advance what games are in store, and once the bundle has been announced, it's too late to join for that particular bundle. Think of it as a form of gambling, only you're always guaranteed to win something better than a goat; Monty Hall would be pleased. Without further ado, let's find out what's behind door number one…. There was a bonus of sorts for this first bundle, in that anyone who subscribed received an additional game, Legend of Grimrock 2. An homage to classic dungeon crawler games like Dungeon Master and the Eye of the Beholder series, Legend of Grimrock is a great blend of exploration, fighting, and puzzle solving. The difficulty is rather unforgiving, however, and casual gamers may be put off by frequent death, especially early on. Save early, save often…. Considering the game normally costs $24, for half price you got the rest of the surprise package, making this first monthly grab bag at least an easy call (for me anyway). Taking the rest in no particular order (other than that used by Humble), Towerfall Ascension is another great indie release that's sure to soak up a few hours of your time, and at a regular price of $15 it's again worth the price of entry all on its own. This is a multiplayer platformer brawler, with local play with up to four people. Perhaps even better is the two-player wave survival mode where you cooperatively try to make it through increasingly difficult waves of monsters. The limit of three arrows that must be retrieved makes for added tactics, and the pixel art is sublime. While you can play single-player, this is best experienced with friends, which brings up the one concern: its local-only gameplay means you actually have to be physically in the same room. Besiege is an early access title that's currently in beta/alpha, but that hasn't prevented people from creating some truly amazing contraptions. The idea is pretty simple: build a siege engine to take down castles, buildings, soldiers, sheep, etc. There's a sandbox mode as well for added fun. Part of the entertainment value often comes by seeing what goes wrong, then trying (and trying) again. Currently at version 0.20, the developers have been releasing updates that include additional levels and building blocks roughly on a monthly cycle. Originally released for PS3 in 2008, Valkyria Chronicles is a strategy/JRPG hybrid that made its belated way to PC late last year. Despite the age, the PC release received good reviews. This is also, if you're wondering, the largest game in terms of disk space from the current bundle, weighing in at a healthy 20GB. Where did all the space go? Well, the 15GB of movies is a good place to start, and you also get all the previously released DLC. The game consists of turn-based strategy with real-time shooter sequences, set in alternate-reality WWII. As crazy as that sounds, it all comes together well, with a 30-40 hour story arc that's rather unique compared with the typical Western-style games. Lethal League is another indie title that originally started as a Flash game in 2013. Don't let that put you off, as it has a unique blend of action that's sort of like a brawler version of racquetball, with a hint of baseball thrown in. Maybe. Reviews are good overall, and the game has support for up to four players. It's perhaps not as deep as other brawlers, but it's a good diversion. SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition hides an ASCII-art rogue-like game behind a lengthy title. Originally a free game (SanctuaryRPG: Classic), it was expanded and enhanced via Steam Early Access, officially launching earlier this year. The updates mostly appeal to those who were really into the Classic game, but then, if you hopped on the monthly bundle, this is effectively "free" anyway, right? Anyway, it's impressive how much character and fun you can still have, even in 2015, with ASCII art graphics. Need something to occupy you while you're away from your desktop? This is a game that can run on even the lowliest of PCs. Last but not least, if you haven't ever experienced a Saints Row game, Saints Row IV is sure to be a treat—assuming you don't mind some at times crass humor. Comparisons have been made to Grand Theft Auto, with less polish perhaps but a lot more stupid and silly things to do to occupy your time. The game has been out for a while now, and it was also available via Humble Bundle at least a couple of times during the past year, so this is potentially a duplicate game. That's $15 worth of gifting in that case. That's perhaps the best way to wrap up this first monthly, with the warning that you really are in for a smorgasbord of games that may or may not already be in your library. All told, this first monthly bundle has a current retail value of $104, if you were to buy each one at full price via Steam. Much like the other bundles, there will undoubtedly be games you don't play much if at all, others that will be worth far more than you paid, and plenty in between. Looking at the whole package, $12 is a pretty stellar value for this month, and it's nice to see a mix of indie games with a few other gems. I'll be sticking with the monthly for at least a few more months, because I do enjoy the element of surprise, but what are your thoughts? Has Humble lost their roots, or is it the games that really matter—and are these games enough to get you to subscribe? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gabe Newell: Steam Machines Outperform Today's Consoles Posted: 06 Nov 2015 12:53 PM PST Valve software boss Gabe Newell recently talked with Develop about the upcoming Steam Machines, which are slated to go on sale next week along with the Steam Controller and Steam Link. He said that at console price points, there will be Steam Machines such as Alienware's model that will be faster than the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. He also said that customers will get better performance, plus the benefits of having a PC. "Our perception is that customers are always going to make the best choices for what they want. We can knock down the barriers that keep PC gaming out of the living room, and then customers can decide what they want. So the way we organized it, in our thinking, is a sort of 'good, better and best' kind of thing." Steam Machines will come in all shapes and sizes, offering plenty of choice in regard to performance and price point. Surprisingly, the console-focused GameStop chain will dedicate a section of its floor space for Steam Machines in a push to provide customers with an additional choice. Steam Machines will be pre-installed with SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system, although customers are welcome to install whatever they like on a purchased machine. Head over to Valve's dedicated Steam Machine page and you'll see 13 vendors pushing living-room-focused hardware including Alienware, Digital Storm, Gigabyte, Maingear, Origin, and Zotac. Prices start at $450 and can soar up to a crazy $5,000. That latter price point is from Falcon Northwest, which is pushing the Tiki Steam Machine with prices starting at $2,000. The question now is: Will the gamer take the bait? Will Steam Machines prove to be successful? We'll start figuring that out in the coming weeks. As Develop points out, the Steam Machine initiative was developed in a time when it looked as if Microsoft was closing off the Windows platform, forcing customers to purchase apps and games through Windows Store. But that hasn't happened, and now Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 as a gaming platform. DirectX 12 is even a Windows 10 exclusive. "When we started with Steam, no one believed you could deliver a better gaming experience over the Internet, and we're like, well, we actually think it's probably an opportunity to do something," Newell told Develop. People who already have a gaming rig and don't want to dump funds into a Steam Machine can purchase the Steam Link to stream their favorite Steam games to the living room. Customers merely connect the box to an HDTV and the home network (wired preferred). The box will then discover the PC running Steam. To read the full interview with Gabe Newell, head here. Steam Machines go on sale on November 10, 2015. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: Asus ROG G751JL-WH71 Laptop, Seagate 6TB HDD, and More! Posted: 06 Nov 2015 12:30 PM PST Top Deal: Picture yourself on a business trip. You're in a hotel room, it's late, you can't sleep, and there's nothing on TV. What do you do? You could whip out your Ultrabook and surf the web, which is entertaining for the first 15 minutes. Or you can pat yourself on the back for having the foresight to buy a gaming laptop and get to fragging! Don't have one? Then check out today's top deal for an Asus ROG G751JL-WH71 Gaming Laptop for $1049 with free shipping (normally $1149). This 17.3-inch machine boasts an Intel Core i7-4720HQ processor, 16GB of RAM, 1TB HDD, GeForce GTX 965M GPU, and Windows 10 Home 64-bit. Other Deals: Thermaltake Chaser Series Chaser MK-I Black SECC ATX Full Tower Computer Case for $110 with free shipping (normally $137 - use coupon code: [EMCKKAP35]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) Refurbished Logitech G930 Wireless Gaming Headset with 7.1 Surround Sound for $50 with free shipping (normally $80; additional $10 Mail-in rebate) Seagate 6TB 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Desktop HDD Bare Drive for $200 with free shipping (normally $240 - use coupon code: [ESCKKAP29]) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 6GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support ATX Video Card for $675 with free shipping (normally $690; Free Rainbow Six Siege or Assassin's Creed Syndicate, limited offer) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Support Reps from Dell, HP Telling Windows 10 Users to Downgrade Posted: 06 Nov 2015 11:32 AM PST Microsoft and OEMs aren't on the same page Microsoft is putting forth its best effort to get everyone with a Windows PC to upgrade to Windows 10, the last major version of Windows the company ever plans on releasing. But are OEM vendors on the same page as Microsoft? Perhaps not. As part of an annual tech support showdown, Laptop Mag placed "undercover" phone calls to several OEM system builders. In doing so, several support agents from Dell and HP spoke out against Windows 10, even when the issue at hand was unrelated. "We spoke with several agents who either actively discouraged us from upgrading to Windows 10 or failed to understand core features of the new OS," writes Avram Piltch, Laptop Mag's Online Editorial Director. In one of the examples provided, a call to Dell's support line requesting help in changing a touchpad's scrolling direction on an Inspiron 15 5000 laptop resulted in the rep recommending a downgrade to Windows 8.1. The rep stated that "there are a lot of glitches in Windows 10," even though the issue wasn't specific to Windows 10. All a user needs to do to change the scrolling direction of a touchpad is right-click its icon in the system tray and change a setting in Dell's control software. That's how it works in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10. During one of the support calls to HP, a rep took remote control of the PC and tried rolling back to Windows 8.1, noting that "I don't recommend customers upgrade to Windows 10." The rollback didn't work, so the rep went on to suggest a $40 recovery USB key. When told of with these experiences, both Dell and HP offered up statements in support of Windows 10, though both also said that sometimes a recommendation to downgrade is necessary. "At the end of the day, the person's job is to get the PC running," Mike Nash, HP's VP of customer experience, told Laptop Mag. "Given the scenario, it might have been the most expeditious thing to get them back to a known good space." While that may be the case in some instances, the problem (and solution) isn't always cut and dry. Some reps simply don't understand how to use or troubleshoot features in Windows 10. That became clear when speaking with Lenovo. While the OEM didn't have anything negative to say about Windows 10, one of the company's reps gave an unhelpful answer when asked how to enable Cortana's always-listening mode. The support agent advised turning the microphone to always-on, which isn't an audio setting. OEMs deserve some slack since Windows 10 has barely been on the market for three months, but at the same time, Microsoft can't be happy that its hardware partners haven't sufficiently trained their support staff to deal with these kinds of issues, or that they're apparently quick to recommend a downgrade to Windows 8.1. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Razer and Blizzard Collaborate on Overwatch Themed Peripherals Posted: 06 Nov 2015 09:45 AM PST Peripherals for Overwatch fans Blizzard has a history of developing and publishing popular franchises, ones like Diablo, Warcraft, and StarCraft. Will Overwatch be another one? Razer's banking on it by readying a trio of peripherals themed after the upcoming shooter. The officially licensed Overwatch peripherals include a themed BlackWidow keyboard and DeathAdder mouse, both with Chroma lighting effects, and Razer's Goliathus Extended mouse mat. These peripherals function the same as their non-Overwatch counterparts, save for some pre-loaded Chroma lighting effects created by Blizzard. "We're excited to be working with Razer to bring Overwatch players and FPS fans a line of high-quality gear to take into battle," said Matt Beecher, vice president of global consumer products at Blizzard Entertainment. "The development team has come up with some cool ways to integrate Overwatch's gameplay with Razer's technology, giving Blizzard gamers a whole new way to customize their experience." Overwatch is a first-person team-based shooter that's currently being tested as a closed beta. It features a variety of heroes, like a time-jumping adventurer and a transcendent robot monk, to name just two. The game is set to release to PC and consoles sometime before the middle of June next year. As for the themed peripherals, they'll launch when the game does in 2016. The Razer DeathAdder Chroma Overwatch mouse will go for $80, the BlackWidow Chroma Overwatch keyboard will sell for $180, and the Goliathus Extended Overwatch mouse mat will cost $35. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Razer Outfits Upgraded Naga Chroma Mouse with 16,000 DPI Laser Sensor Posted: 06 Nov 2015 09:20 AM PST A sensitive rodent Razer is introducing a third Naga mouse into its stable of gaming rodents, the Naga Chroma. Not to be confused with the Naga Epic Chroma or the regular Naga, the new Naga Chroma gets what Razer considers an upgrade to a 5G laser sensor capable of tracking up to a "true" 16,000 DPI. Gamers can adjust the sensitivity in 1 DPI increments, which Razer uses as a bragging right over the crop of mice that stick with the "industry standard of 50 DPI incremental tracking." Razer also touts that there's effectively no interpolation. Like the other Naga mice, the Naga Chroma is built primarily for MMO game play. It gives gamers access to a dozen concave mechanical thumb grid buttons with tactile, audible feedback. There's a total of 19 buttons overall, each of which is programmable. Really though, this is all about having an ultra-high DPI mouse, if that's your preference. The 16,000 DPI is nearly twice that of the Naga and Naga Epic Chroma, both of which sport an 8,200 DPI laser sensor. "People thought we were crazy when we invented the MMO gaming mouse– and the Razer Naga went on to surpass even our own expectations – but now, many of our competitors are trying to recreate the design of this game-changing device," says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. "We're confident that the sensor technology we are utilizing will keep Razer Naga users a step ahead of their competition." Some gamers prefer a higher DPI, which allows the cursor to sprint across the screen with less movement of the mouse, and those are the ones Razer is catering to with the Naga Chroma. On the flip side, there are many games who prefer a lower DPI in the range of 800 to 1,600. They contend that higher DPIs make them less accurate on the virtual battlefield (though that's arguably a bigger concern with FPS titles than MMOs). As a "Chroma" device, Razer's latest mouse lets you customize the lighting with 16.8 million color options and various lighting effects The Naga Chroma is available now for $80 (MSRP). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lian-Li Intros Its Very First Waterblock Posted: 06 Nov 2015 02:32 AM PST Lian-Li is probably best known for its PC cases. However, on Thursday the company announced its partnership with Overclockers UK to bring its very first waterblock to the United States. Called the CB-01, the device is made of solid copper and coated with nickel along with a final layer of tin-cobalt for added durability and corrosion resistance. The CB-01 includes a translucent acrylic block that contains pre-drilled holes for 5mm LED lights. "The CB-01 uses a standard G1/4" thread so most DIY water cooling components will easily fit the inlet and outlet ports," the company says. "The inlet is deliberately offset against the outlet to allow the coolest water to enter the block in direct contact with the middle of the hottest CPU core. It then flows across the other cores and vents on the opposite side." The company adds that the microchannels have an area of 32.2mm by 27.3mm. While acknowledging that this isn't the largest area that could have been offered, Lian-Li said it chose these dimensions to maximize the balance between high flow and high restriction, providing the "best cooling for its size."
In addition to those contents, the CB-01 ships with a foam gasket, a spare rubber gasket, an assortment of nuts, screws, tension springs and washers, and one cubic centimeter of thermal interface material (TIM). The company says the block is easy to install, and the TIM is to be used between the cold plate and the CPU plate. Lian-Li didn't provide pricing or a launch date, only indicating that the CB-01 will be offered soon. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 06 Nov 2015 12:00 AM PST Running on all cylindersAt a GlanceFast (+) Beautiful; powerful; stays cool and quiet; impeccable paint job. In many ways, owning an enthusiast rig is like owning a high-end sports car. They are often both bold and beautiful on the outside, but monstrously powerful on the inside. Maingear is going all in with that mantra with its revamped and turbo-injected Shift systems. Maingear's full-tower Shift chassis measures a beefy 8.6x24x21.5 inches, but the first thing you'll notice about our particular unit is its stellar paintjob. Maingear sent us a Shift in "Hellcat Green," and we find it reminiscent of the iconic green Mitsubishi Eclipse from the original The Fast and the Furious movie. Maingear's paintjobs are done in-house and are car-grade quality. Its silkiness rivals that of Smooth Creations, which we've used for our Dream Machines. In case the green doesn't do it for you, the Shift comes in a wide variety of colors that you can choose from. Underneath the hood, you'll notice that the motherboard isn't set up conventionally; it's rotated 90 degrees so that the GPU exhaust heat flows toward the ceiling as opposed to the back, which leverages the fact that heat rises. This also means that its various ports are at the top of the rig as opposed to the back. To combat the rat's nest of cables that necessarily come out of the roof of your rig with this setup, Maingear provides a top cover that screws down onto the system once you have everything plugged in. There's plenty of clearance here; after you've got the top cover on, the cables just flow through a large opening at the rear. It certainly keeps the system looking nice and neat, but it is a bit of a hassle if you want to plug in something else, as you'll have to unscrew the lid. We're tempted to leave the lid off, but it looks much uglier without it. Luckily, there's a pop-up front panel that provides two USB ports, but because the lid can be a nuisance to deal with, we wished Maingear would have included four USB ports here. It's worth mentioning that if you want to take off the side doors, you also need to have the top off. Luckily, the Shift comes with a windowed side panel so you can quickly scope out your engine. It's also super sexy on the inside with its white LED lights strewn about. Overall, a lot of care and attention to detail went into the aesthetics of the rig and it's one of the prettiest full-tower systems we've seen. The cables are clean and green and match the paint job. The engraved Maingear logo and power/reset buttons below the front swinging door also look amazing. The design isn't perfect, however. Our system only had room for three-way SLI. In keeping with the race car theme, we also think it would have taken the rig to the next level if it had some awesome green underglow beneath the chassis. As beautiful as the Shift is, it's also super fast. Our unit came with an i7-5960X clocked at 4.5GHz, 16GB of DDR4 RAM clocked at 3,000MHz, and three GeForce GTX 980 Tis with base core clocks boosted up to 1,250MHz. These components are sitting on top of the Asus Rampage V Extreme motherboard, which is the same mobo we used in our Dream Machine. All of this is then powered by a 1200-watt Corsair PSU. For cooling, the Shift uses a crazy large 18cm AIO CPU cooler, which we've never seen before. This, of course, is supplemented by another 18cm chassis fan. These means this machine is truly spinnin' on 18s. For storage, the system uses two 250GB Samsung 850 EVOs in RAID 0 coupled with a 3TB Seagate Barracuda for mass storage. When it came time for the Shift to shift it into high gear, it smoked our zero-point in just about every race. With its 4.5GHz nos-fueled overclock, it was able to outrun our ZP's 5960X by 11–20 percent in our CPU tests. In the GPU tests, it ran laps around our ZP's three 980s, besting it by 54–93 percent! We're sure a lot of enthusiasts can build nice PCs, but most can't build one this nice. For starters, the case isn't for sale. On top of that, the paint job and cable management are truly professional-grade. At $6,500, it's an expensive system, but you're getting very expensive parts handcrafted with love. We aren't saying there isn't a premium for this love, but it's actually a pretty fair deal when you itemize everything. The Shift does have flaws, but they're minor, whereas the Shift's strengths are mighty. At the end of the day, this is definitely one fast and furious rig.
Our desktop zero-point PC uses a 5960X CPU, three GTX 980s, and 16GBs of RAM. Arkham City tested at 2560x1440 max settings with PhysX off. Tomb Raider at Ultimate settings. Shadow of Mordor at Max settings. Specifications
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The new CB-01 is compatible with both Intel and AMD processors. For Intel, the block works on 2011/1366/1155/1156 and 775 motherboards while on the AMD front, the block works on AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1/FM2 motherboards. The CB-01 comes with the Intel mount already installed but customers can easily swap it out with the included AMD mount. There's also a universal foam spacer for protecting the back of the motherboard.
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