General Gaming Article

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• Shuttle Taps Broadwell to Power Fanless DS57U Mini PC
• Leap Motion Releases VR Plugin for Unreal Engine 4
• AMD Details Carrizo Architecture, Promises Big Gains in Battery Life
• Boxx Goes Big, Introduces Apexx 5 Workstation with Five GPUs

Shuttle Taps Broadwell to Power Fanless DS57U Mini PC Posted: 24 Feb 2015 11:11 AM PST Where barebones and Broadwell meet Shuttle's been a player in the small form factor (SFF) space ever since our cave dwelling ancestors first discovered the PC, which back then was made out of stone and dinosaur bones (this is why we don't teach history, folks). Fast forward to today and Shuttle is still making SFF systems, its latest creation the DS57U, the company's first mini barebones PC with a built-in Broadwell processor. More specifically, it's rocking an Intel Celeron 3205U dual-core CPU clocked at 1.5GHz. The chip is built on a 14nm manufacturing process and sips less than 15W, allowing for Shuttle to go with a passive cooling scheme. There's no fan to be found in the DS57U, which not only makes it quiet, but also less prone to sucking in dust, Shuttle says. Nevertheless, we still advise popping it open every so often to clear it of any debris that might have floated inside. That shouldn't be a problem -- there are two screws on both covers of the case. Just remove them and you have easy access to the DS57U's guts. Inside you'll find space for a 2.5-inch drive, two SO-DIMM sockets that support up to 16GB of DDR3L memory, and two mini-PCI Express slots, one of which is already occupied with a half-size WLAN module. Other features include a pair of USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, two RS-232 interfaces for connecting peripheral devices, DisplayPort, HDMI, audio ports, memory card reader, and included VESA mount. The DS57U is currently available in Europe for 192 euros (~$218 in U.S. currency). No word on when Shuttle plans to offer the system in the U.S. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Leap Motion Releases VR Plugin for Unreal Engine 4 Posted: 24 Feb 2015 10:47 AM PST Plugin allows developers to add virtual hands to games Epic and Leap Motion have teamed up to create and launch an official Windows plugin for Unreal Engine 4 that's supposed to make it easy for developers to integrate virtual hands into their games. The plugin is available in the Unreal Engine 4.7 source code, which they can download from Unreal's GitHub repository to immediately start building and creating a custom VR experience. The plugin will, which will also be bundled with future Unreal binary tool releases, works by mapping Leap Motion input to virtual hand meshes. These can then collide and interact with other objects that appear in the game. You can already view it in action, as Cherry Pie Games was the first to use the plugin in its Hollow game. Check it out: Leap Motion is billing the plugin as an "introductory release" that will evolve over the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, developers who are interested and planning to attend the 2015 Game Developers Conference (GDC) next will have access to a discout code available at the Unreal Engine booth. As for Unreal's GitHub respository, you can find that here. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

AMD Details Carrizo Architecture, Promises Big Gains in Battery Life Posted: 24 Feb 2015 10:02 AM PST Carrizo's coming to town AMD has high hopes for its energy-efficient Carrizo System-on-Chip (SoC) for laptops and low power desktops. The Sunnyvale Chip designer wants you to be optimistic as well, and so it shared several details about Carrizo's architecture at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), saying that Carrizzo will deliver a bunch of advanced power management technologies while also delivering substantial performance by way of new Excavator x86 CPU cores and a new generation of Radeon GPU cores. On the technical side, Carrizo will feature 29 percent more transistors (3.1 billion total) in nearly the same die size as its predecessor, Kaveri. AMD also says its Excavator x86 cores provide an uplift in instructions per clock at 40 percent less power, hence the claim that Carrizo will offer double digit percentage increases in both performance and battery life. The new GPU cores will have a dedicated power supply. In addition, there's a dedicated on-chip H.265 video decode for true 4K resolution support. And for the first time ever on a high performance AMD APU, there will be an integrated Southbridge, the company said. AMD had to be a bit creative to cram several new technologies into Carrizo. As the company explains, microprocessor designs typically supply excess voltage -- up to 10 to 15 percent -- to account for transient drops in voltage known as droop. To avoid having to go that route, AMD said it developed a number of technologies to optimize voltage. In addition, Carrizo compares the average voltage to droops on the order of nanoseconds, "Since the frequency adjustments are done at the nanosecond level, there's almost no compromise in computing performance, while power is cut by up to 10 percent on the GPU and up to 19 percent on the CPU," AMD said. Carrizo will also be HSA 1.0 compliant, which translates into the GPU being able to perform compute tasks. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Boxx Goes Big, Introduces Apexx 5 Workstation with Five GPUs Posted: 24 Feb 2015 09:13 AM PST Packed to the gills with hardware Quick, hide your small form factor (SFF) PC and any NUC-like devices you might have hanging around, we wouldn't want any hurt feelings. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum of all these pint-sized PCs that are suddenly vogue is Boxx's new Apexx 5, "the world's most advanced professional workstation." A bold claim for sure, and one the company attempts to back up by cramming its system full of hardware, including five dual-slot GPUs. Oh, but that's not all. In addition to five GPUs, the liquid cooled Apexx 5 can accommodate 36 cores and 72 threads of processing power. The chassis has a dozen slots and supports 7 total expansion cards with simultaneous utilization of four full x16 PCI-E 3.0 expansion slots, PCI-E 2.0 x8 (x4 electrical), PCI-E 3.0 x16 (x8 electrical), and PCI-E x8 (x8 electrical). A standard configuration comes with 32GB of DDR4-2133 RAM and a 240GB SSD, though the Apexx 5 supports up to 512GB of RAM and up to eight mechanical hard drives or 16 SSDs. "We understand that Apexx 5 addresses a specific market segment and is obviously not for everyone," says Chris Morley, Boxx Sr. Product Marketing Manager. "But if a creative professional or organization requires this level of power and performance for perfecting their ideas, they can't get it from Dell, HP, and Lenovo. With APEXX 5, we're offering configurations once considered impossible, and that's what it means to be a true solution provider." Because it's fun to dream big, I went and configured a setup that tallied $47,313 -- it consisted of dual Xeon E5-2699v3 processors, 256GB of DDR4-2133 ECC RAM (the highest the configuration tool currently allows), four Nvidia K6000 with Sync, dual 800GB SSDs, and a few other odds and ends. With the right drivers, I suspect it could run Crysis. You can check out Boxx's new Apexx 5 here. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

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MMORPG News

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• Crowfall: A Preview of the Universe and Economy
• Star Citizen: Bringing the Pieces Together - It's Finally Happening
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: By the Numbers - 5.65 BILLION Uruks Killed
• Destiny: Patch to Bring Big Changes to Weekly Heroic Strikes
• TERA: Fate of Arun Skycastles Update to Go Live Tomorrow
• Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn: Learn More about Manderville Gold Saucer
• Crowfall: All Will Be Revealed Tomorrow
• Guild Wars 2: It's (Mostly) About The Money
• EverQuest: New Loot System in March, Progression Server Poll Incoming
• General: Star Citizen’s Ship Rentals Are A Good Thing - And Worth Criticizing
• Armored Warfare: Vehicle Classes Detailed in New Game Play Video
• General: 5 Best Features From Closed MMOGs

Crowfall: A Preview of the Universe and Economy Posted: 23 Feb 2015 02:40 PM PST Red Thomas braves the frigid Texas winter and Austin traffic to get an early peak at ArtCraft's new game, Crowfall in this first of a two part series previewing the new game in development. What he finds, leaves him feeling more than a little giddy.

Star Citizen: Bringing the Pieces Together - It's Finally Happening Posted: 24 Feb 2015 05:41 AM PST Star Citizen has been on many players' radar since crowd funding began. With nearly $75M raised, the team has been hard at work creating the mosaic of the Star Citizen universe and the disparate pieces that will be knit together to create a whole. Up to now, we have seen individual pieces but according to the latest Letter from the Chairman, that's about to change as the 'whole' will start being revealed.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: By the Numbers - 5.65 BILLION Uruks Killed Posted: 24 Feb 2015 05:23 AM PST Only in public release since last September, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor players have racked up 5.65 BILLION kills of Uruks. 1.3 BILLION Uruks have dealt fatal damage to other Uruks and nearly 100 million unique Nemeses have been created. It's all in the infographic below so check it out!

Destiny: Patch to Bring Big Changes to Weekly Heroic Strikes Posted: 24 Feb 2015 03:28 AM PST After today's deployment of the v1.1.1 Destiny patch, players will find a major alterations in the way players take on Weekly Heroic Strikes. Once the patch is deployed, mandatory matchmaking for weekly Heroic Strikes on all levels will be implemented. Developers felt that the current system did not demand a cohesive cooperative group. At this point, matchmaking will not include raids, though that is on the table for inclusion at a later date.

TERA: Fate of Arun Skycastles Update to Go Live Tomorrow Posted: 22 Feb 2015 05:44 PM PST En Masse Entertainment has published the official update notes for the TERA: Fate of Arun patch that is set to deploy tomorrow, Tuesday, February 24th beginning at 7:00 am Pacific / 10:00 am Eastern. The most notable addition to TERA is the incoming Skycastles and the new GvG functionality.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn: Learn More about Manderville Gold Saucer Posted: 23 Feb 2015 02:21 PM PST The Final Fantasy XIV site has been updated with new information about the forthcoming "Manderville Gold Saucer" update. The update is scheduled to go live tomorrow, Tuesday, February 24th and the updated site gives players information about the new mini-games.

Crowfall: All Will Be Revealed Tomorrow Posted: 23 Feb 2015 12:30 PM PST The Crowfall curtain is about to lift and Artcraft is beating the drums of excitement for the game that has yet to be fully revealed. Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 24th will see the final pieces of the puzzle revealed as the timer that has been running for the past two months finally expires.

Guild Wars 2: It's (Mostly) About The Money Posted: 22 Feb 2015 09:54 AM PST This week, we take a look at Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2's financial numbers and how they relate to what ArenaNet does to please fans of both games.

EverQuest: New Loot System in March, Progression Server Poll Incoming Posted: 23 Feb 2015 11:40 AM PST The EverQuest team was on hand last week to give players the thumbs up on continuing development for the game. Among other things, it was announced that seven player-created missions will be arriving in next month's anniversary update, as well as the new loot system. In addition, a progressive server is still very much at the forefront but without solid plans at the moment pending a possible survey of players to see how they would like it to manifest.

General: Star Citizen’s Ship Rentals Are A Good Thing - And Worth Criticizing Posted: 22 Feb 2015 09:45 AM PST With over $72 million in funding raised from crowdfunding, Star Citizen is no doubt an ambitious project that has grown over time. That hasn't happened without its share of criticism. People wonder where the game is by now. Others criticize the developers for consistently releasing new ships to buy for a game that, as yet, isn't out. These ships aren't cheap, either.

Armored Warfare: Vehicle Classes Detailed in New Game Play Video Posted: 23 Feb 2015 08:41 AM PST My.com Senior Producer Josh Morris is on hand in a new video for Armored Warfare enthusiasts as he takes fans on a tour of the five vehicle classes that will arrive with the game. The video is packed with game play footage of the battle tanks, light tanks, armored fighting vehicles, tank destroyers, and self-propelled guns. Morris provides pretty detailed information about the relative strengths and weakness of each vehicle. Check it out!

General: 5 Best Features From Closed MMOGs Posted: 22 Feb 2015 09:30 AM PST As with all too many other aspects of our lives, it can be temptingly easy to apply either binary or at least not highly differentiated thinking within the context of the MMO category. So, for instance, we tend to regard a game as either good or bad, or if we choose to add a third grouping, as mediocre. However, with a bit of reflection, I suspect many readers can name elements you remember from titles that weren't very well-received overall. Here are some of mine.

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