General Gaming Article

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• Square Enix Announces Project Flare Cloud Gaming Service
• Humble WB Games Bundle, Batman, F.E.A.R., and More
• Acer Chief J.T. Wang Resigns, Can Reminisce About PC's Glory Days with Ballmer
• Pandora Survives iTunes Radio Launch, Punches Back with Impressive Stats
• Powercolor Announces Overclocked Radeon R9 290 Graphics Card
• Over Half of Android Devices Have Jelly Bean Installed
• Eidos and Two Other Developers Vow Support for AMD's Mantle Graphics API
• Newegg Daily Deals: Thermaltake Chaser MK-I Computer Case, Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti, and More!
• AMD Radeon R9 290 Benchmarks

Square Enix Announces Project Flare Cloud Gaming Service Posted: 05 Nov 2013 03:29 PM PST Game publisher aims to improve upon OnLive's technological missteps Square Enix has announced Project Flare, a cloud gaming service similar to what OnLive offered back in 2010. Unlike OnLive, however, the game publisher asserts that the company's service will offer a "technological breakthrough in cloud gaming." While Project Flare is similar to OnLive, there are a number of key technological differences. Instead of using physical computers to stream game data, Square Enix is using virtual supercomputers in the cloud. The company showed us 57 game instances running on a single server. The games included Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Final Fantasy XI, and other pre-existing Square Enix games. The company asserts that its virtual supercomputers will be able to handle many more instances of games that are built from the ground up to take advantage of Project Flare.   Here's a layout of how traditional game streaming services work. Furthermore, Square Enix says that future games that take advantage of Project Flare will be able to use open source APIs to incorporate data from Google Maps, Google Traffic, and other open source programs to create more realistic worlds.  One of the biggest areas where Project Flare differentiates itself from OnLive is with its use of processing power. The company asserts that other gaming streaming services constantly have to switch between CPU and GPU usage and this creates an inefficient processing bottleneck. Square Enix says that with Project Flare, it will be able to share system resources and dole out the appropriate processing power (CPU or GPU) as necessary. With this, Square Enix asserts that the more players that log onto a particular game, the less latency the end user will experience. For instance, if 10 players are playing through the same level, rather than rendering 100% of the level 10 times, Project Flare will intelligently pool the rendered assets together to achieve processing efficiency and reduce redundancy. The company asserts this will cut down on lag. This is achieved by going down to the DX level of each title, which was something that systems like OnLive did not do. Square Enix's Project Flare will use cloud-based virtual supercomputers to stream data. Furthermore, Project Flare will also allow game developers to use different dedicated servers for different tasks. For instance, there could be three separate servers that respectively manage the rendering engine, AI, and physics. In theory, this should free up processing power for developers that build their games with Project Flare in mind.  Deus Ex Project Flare Demo Square Enix showed us a demo of Deus Ex: Human Revolution running with two different servers in tandem. One server acted as the game renderer whereas the other server managed the game's physics. In the demo, we see a robot blowing up a bunch of boxes to where they all impressively tumble down the screen. Because there is a separate server that handles the physics, there is no hit to the rendering engine's framerate.   The difference between how typical streaming services handle processing power and how Project Flare works. The service is still in its early stages and when we asked what platforms it would appear on, Square Enix said it should be supported on PCs, tablets, and will in general be "platform agnostic." So far the company is working with other developers and revealed that Ubisoft is also on board. In addition, the company is currently talking with several data companies to have it roll out across North America. Project Flare aims to leverage rendered processing data across the cloud. While the technology certainly sounds interesting, Square Enix is also banking that widespread adoption of fiber Internet will soon be in our future. What do you think of Project Flare? Let us know in the comments below!

Humble WB Games Bundle, Batman, F.E.A.R., and More Posted: 05 Nov 2013 01:14 PM PST Now with more Batman Warner Bros. and the Humble Bundle have teamed up to create the Humble WB Games Bundle. Bruce Wayne is the leading contributor with a $2,100 purchase price, which seems a little lackluster considering his $6.5 billion net worth. Fortunately, DonCoreLeon and SomeNorwegian are doing their best to pull up the top contributions with $200 and $75 donated respectively. This time around, if you donate a dollar or more, you get Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, F.E.A.R. 3, and Lord of the Rings: War in the North. Beat the average sale price—currently $4.41—and you'll also get Batman: Arkham City GOTY and Scribblenauts Unlimited. As with all of the Humble Bundles, you get to decide how much you pay and who gets your money. For this superhero-themed bundle, DC Entertainment's We Can Be Heroes charity, WB Games, and the Humble Bundle are the possible recipients.  So far, the Humble Bundle has amassed just over $385,000 with almost 87,000 purchases. Grab it while you can! The bundle ends on Nov. 19 leaving you around 14 days to grab a bundle that's worth buying for Batman alone. Follow Ben on Twitter.

Acer Chief J.T. Wang Resigns, Can Reminisce About PC's Glory Days with Ballmer Posted: 05 Nov 2013 09:05 AM PST Time for a changing of the guard Acer's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) J.T. Wang may go down in history as another victim of mobile. The outspoken chief announced his resignation today, which comes as part of a larger restructuring effort with additional layoffs planned to turn Acer's fortunes around. Perhaps Wang was caught off guard by the market's transition to mobile, because if you rewind the clock to when Apple unveiled its first iPad, Acer was on its way to the top of the food chain. At the time, Wang predicted Acer would top HP as the world's largest PC maker within two to three years. Instead, tablet computing mesmerized the mainstream audience and here we are in the midst of a traditional PC slump as the market figures itself out. Instead of leapfrogging HP (or Lenovo, which is now the world's top PC player in terms of shipments), Acer just posted a record loss of NT$13.1 billion (around $445 million in U.S. currency) for the third quarter, Bloomberg reports. That's worse than analysts were expecting, and apparently was the final nail in the coffin for Wang. "It's time for me to hand over the responsibility to a new leadership team to path the new way for a new era," Wang said in a statement, according to PCWorld. Sound familiar? Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer sang a similar tune when he announced his impending retirement. It's a bit ironic when you think about it. Wang was never shy about calling Microsoft out for trying to compete in the hardware space, yet both him and Ballmer -- a couple of old guards -- now find themselves compelled to step aside as their respective companies undergo restructuring to compete in an increasingly mobile landscape. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Pandora Survives iTunes Radio Launch, Punches Back with Impressive Stats Posted: 05 Nov 2013 08:07 AM PST Most listerers are using iTunes Radio to supplement Pandora, not replace it Fans of Pandora can exhale now, the streaming service survived its biggest challenge yet -- iTunes Radio. There was some speculation that iTunes Radio could ultimately push Pandora out of the market by stealing away its listeners, but not only has that not happened, Pandora responded by serving up 1.47 billion hours of music in October, the second highest monthly level in the history of the company. That's an 18 percent bump from a year ago, and not far from the service's record 1.49 billion hours served in March, the final month before Pandora decided to slap a 40-hour-per-month cap on mobile freeloaders, the Associated Press reports. Pandora wisely chose to remove the 40-hour monthly cap on September 1, just two weeks ahead of Apple's iTunes Radio launch. The number of active listeners ended up dropping from 72.7 million to 70.9 million by the end of the month anyway, but it's still holding its own amid fierce competition not only from iTunes Radio, but Spotify as well. What's more, a recent survey by Canaccord found that 92 percent of respondents who tried iTunes Radio still use Pandora, CNET reports. Wonder which streaming service is best suited for you? Stay tuned -- we recently put several different services through their paces and will give you skinny on each one. We'll be posting that feature soon. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Powercolor Announces Overclocked Radeon R9 290 Graphics Card Posted: 05 Nov 2013 07:35 AM PST A Radeon R9 290 part with a bit of additional pep Today marks the official launch of AMD's Radeon R9 290 graphics card, a high-performing part that rivals Nvidia's GeForce GTX 780 for $100 less. We put a stock clocked R9 290 card through its paces and came away mighty impressed with its performance (see for yourself). However, the real fun begins when AMD's hardware partners come out with their own custom versions, and one of the first out of the gate is Powercolor. Announced today is the Powercolor R9 290 OC. Powercolor didn't go crazy here with a funky cooling solution or other pieces of flair -- the R9 290 OC is essentially an overclocked version of AMD's reference design. It boasts a base frequency of 975MHz, up a bit from 947MHz, and 4GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1250MHz (5000MHz effective) on a 512-bit memory bus. Outside of the clockspeed bump, the Powercolor R9 290 OC delivers the same features as a reference card, including DirectX 11.2 support, 4K video support, and a bunch of connectivity options (two dual-link DVI-D; HDMI; DisplayPort). No word yet on price or availability. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Over Half of Android Devices Have Jelly Bean Installed Posted: 05 Nov 2013 06:00 AM PST Jelly Bean rises to prominence as KitKat comes into view Few Android users like to acknowledge that dirty little "F" word that's followed Android almost since the beginning. We're talking about "fragmentation," or the fact that Android devices far and wide run a variety of versions of Android. Fragmentation still exists in the Android ecosystem, but it's not nearly as bad as it once was. In fact, over half of all Android devices are now running Jelly Bean. For that to be true, we need to combine all versions of Jelly Bean out there, including 4.1.x, 4.2.x, and 4.3. The trio of Jelly Bean flavors add up to a 52.1 percent share of the Android market, according to Google's Android Developers Dashboard. That's the good news. The bad news is that most of the those users are running the earliest version of Jelly Bean -- 37.3 percent on version 4.1.x, to be exact, followed by 12.5 percent on version 4.2.x and just 2.3 percent on version 4.3. The second most popular version of Android at this point is Gingerbread (26.3 percent), followed by Ice Cream Sandwich (19.8 percent), Froyo (1.7 percent), and Honeycomb (0.1 percent). Android 4.4 (KitKat) will disrupt the balance a bit starting with the Nexus 5 and continuing with the HTC One and other devices that will receive the update within the next few months. However, we suspect Jelly Bean will continue to be the most popular build for at least several more months. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Eidos and Two Other Developers Vow Support for AMD's Mantle Graphics API Posted: 05 Nov 2013 05:30 AM PST Mantle is on the move AMD has been promising big things from its Mantle graphics API, not the least of which is that its flagship GPU will "ridicule" Nvidia's GeForce Titan in Battlefield 4 in terms of performance. As opposed to high level APIs like OpenGL and Direct3D that operate on many different devices, Mantle is a low level API focused on AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. There's potential to do some great things with Mantle, and that has developers excited. The Sunnyvale chip designer said that three more developers are on board to use Mantle. They include Cloud Imperium Games (responsible for Star Citizen), Eidos Montreal (part of the Square Enix Group and the studio behind Thief), and Oxide Games (a new studio comprised of former Firaxis and Microsoft employees). "AMD's Mantle will allow us to extract more performance from an AMD Radeon GPU than any other graphics API," said Chris Roberts, CEO, Cloud Imperium Games. "Mantle is vitally important for a game like Star Citizen, which is being designed with the need for massive GPU horsepower. With Mantle, our team can spend more time achieving our perfect artistic vision, and less time worrying about whether or not today's gaming hardware will be ready to deliver it." Mantle givees developers unprecedented access to GPU hardware on a low level and affords more fine grain control. It's similar in concept to coding for consoles and it should lead to better looking games, faster performance, and less buggy software out of the gate. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: Thermaltake Chaser MK-I Computer Case, Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti, and More! Posted: 05 Nov 2013 05:00 AM PST Top Deal: What good is a pile of parts if you haven't a place to put them? They're about as useful as wheels without a car. You can get creative an mount your components to the wall or even install them inside a cardboard box -- it's not unprecedented, folks -- but it's so much better to treat your PC parts to the high life by placing them in a full tower case with lots of bells and whistles. One such candidate is today's top deal for a Thermaltake Chaser MK-I Blacke SECC Full Tower Case for $115 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code EMCWWXW47; additional $25 mail-in-rebate). It has lots of room for future upgrades, a water cooling ready design with support for 240mm liquid cooling systems, top mounted HDD docking station, and plenty of other amenities. Other Deals: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2x8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory for $119 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [EMCWWXW37]) Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 16GB (2x8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory for $125 with free shipping (normally $145 - use coupon code: [EMCWWXW39]) Pioneer Black 15X BD-R 2X BD-RE SATA 15X Internal Blu-ray Burner for $59 with free shipping (normally $70 - use coupon code: [EMCWWXW45]) Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 HDCP Ready Video Card for $129 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [EMCWWXW47]; additional $10 Mail-in rebate; Free $75 value in-game coupon w/ purchase, limited offer)

AMD Radeon R9 290 Benchmarks Posted: 04 Nov 2013 10:17 PM PST AMD's Radeon R9 290: A Mid-range Monster Today AMD is launching the Radeon R9 290, which is the second card in its all-new Hawaii series of GPUs designed to take on Nvidia's GK110-based super GPUs. This particular card is extremely similar to its big brother, the R9 290X, but has slightly lower clock speeds and fewer stream processors, allowing it to come in at a slightly lower price point of $400. Though it was originally designed to take on the formerly $400 GTX 770, AMD is now positioning it to compete with the GTX 780 due to Nvidia's recent price drops on both cards to $500 and $329, respectively. Read on to see how it handles the heat, both literally and figuratively. Little Hawaii As the second, lower-priced Hawaii board you might assume this card has been neutered more than a made-for-TV version of The Big Lebowski, but you would be wrong. Thankfully, AMD has left almost everything from the R9 290X intact, choosing to only reduce its texture units from 176 to 160, its Stream Processors from 2,816 to 2,560, and its maximum clock speed from 1,000MHz to 947MHz. It still has the same 4GB of memory, the same 512-bit memory bus, and is otherwise the exact same GPU. It also has the same PowerTune hardware and software that lets you dictate maximum fan speeds and core temps. Before we jump in, let's take a look at the specs for the Hawaii cards along with their Nvidia counterparts:   *We are putting an asterick next to the AMD cards' TDP because it's not a quoted spec but "standard board power." As the spec chart shows, this card is almost exactly the same as the R9 290X, just like the GTX 780 and GTX Titan in that you have two cards with the same die but one is a bit less powerful. The two cards are the same physical size at 11 inches, both require a six-pin and an eight-pin power connector, and both cards draw a bit over 300 watts too. AMD listed the TDP for the 290X as 250w, but it hedged that answer and never gave it as an official number, but rather an estimate. It didn't reply to our emails asking for the TDP of the R9 290, so we'll just put 250w there with an asterick. The R9 290 is exactly the same size as the R9 290X at 11 inches, and it also features the same 250w-ish TDP.   PowerTune, TrueAudio, and XDMA Like it's larger, more-powerful sibling, the R9 290 comes with all the baked in features that define the top-tier of this generation of GPUs, namely revamped PowerTune controls, TrueAudio technology, and XDNA Crossfire. TrueAudio and XDMA Crossfire are exclusive to the R9 290/X series of cards, though the current iteration of PowerTune is found on all Rx based cards, and TrueAudio is also found on the $140 R7 260X board.   The new PowerTune controls let you set maximum limits for fan speeds and temperature. We preferred the sliders though, as we found that moving the reticle in the map caused unpredictable results. Briefly, AMD has changed the PowerTune interface found in the Catalyst Control Center to give you an easier way to control clock, memory, and fan speeds. It also now has a slider that lets you dictate the maximum fan speed and maximum temperature, just like Nvidia is doing with its GPU Boost 2.0 technology found in its 700-series GPUs. You can tell the software to force the card to run at 90C, for example, and it'll throttle the clock speeds in order to maintain those temperatures. Additionally, if you're sensitive to acoustics, you can also set a limit on the fan speed while letting the other settings run at maximum value as well. It's also provided a "2-dimensional heat map" which we found confusing. We also found in testing that moving some of the sliders too far would cause the entire system to hard lock and then experience trouble rebooting, so tread carefully here. By default the fan on the R9 290 runs at a maximum speed of 47%. TrueAudio is also found on the R9 290, and whether or not it'll make a big difference in the life of an average gamer remains to be seen as no games that use it have been released yet. Gordon wrote an extremely in-depth article about it however, so head on over to it and you'll have all your questions answered. Finally, XDMA is a new technology appearing for the first time in the Radeon R9 290 series of cards. It eschews the ribbon cable we've grown so un-fond of over all these years and instead uses hardware built into the GPUs and also lets the cards communicate over the PCI-Express bus. Though AMD had seemingly wrangled its frame pacing issues with its recent fix, it's software-based and still available for R9 280X cards and lower. For the R9 290 series though, those changes are built into the drivers and handled through XDMA. The previous GPUs based on Tahiti and lower will still have to use the ribbon cable as there's no exclusive hardware built into the GPUs to handle that transaction, but this is not surprising. It is also reasonable to assume that going forward all new GPUs will use XDMA. The main reason for XDMA is to handle the increased traffic resulting from the proliferation of multiple displays as well as 4k panels. If AMD continued using the old ribbon cable there simply wouldn't be enough bandwidth to drive the displays at 60Hz, so XDMA was both a necessity to prepare for the future as well as a great way to allow for smoother CrossFire at super-high resolutions. AMD claims there is no performance penalty at all to this configuration, but unfortunatley there's not really any way to run Apples to Apples testing since the Crossfire connectors are removed on the cards (though the electrical contacts are still intact). We also don't have a second R9 290X or R9 290 card to test Crossfire currently, but we hope to get a second card in soon.   Only the R9 and R9 290X get the built-in XDMA engine for CrossFire over the PCIe bus. Hopefully it'll come to all of AMD's new cards in the future.   Hit the next page for what really matters - benchmarks, power, heat, and overclocking, and our final thoughts. Testing the R9 290 Testing the R9 290 was a straight-forward affair as we had already tested the R9 290X, and this new card doesn't have any new features though it does have one semi-notable feature removed, which is the Uber and Quiet modes. The physical switch is still there on the edge of the PCB, and it still lets you toggle between two BIOSes, but it has no effect on fan speed. On the R9 290X the switch would adjust the maximum fan speed from 40 percent in Quiet mode to 55 percent in Uber mode. The R9 290 still has dual BIOSes, and one is write-protected while the other isn't.  Otherwise there's nothing new that needs testing on this card that doesn't exist on the R9 290X, so let's get it on. To start off, let's have a look at how things compare at 2560x1600: 2560x1600 Benchmarks Best scores are bolded. Our test bed is a 3.33GHz Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition in an Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard with 16GB of DDR3/1600 and a Thermaltake ToughPower 1,050W PSU. The OS is 64-bit Windows 8. All games are run at 2560x1600 with 4X AA except for the 3DMark tests.   At 2560x1600 the R9 290 trades blows with the more-expensive GTX 780, making it the better alternative considering it costs $100 less. The two cards were more or less equal throughout testing, though the GTX 780 was noticeably faster in Far Cry 3, which is odd considering this is an AMD title. The GTX 780 also held the upper hand in Unigine Valley, Metro, 3DMark, and Battlefield 3, with the other tests going to the R9 290. Of course, one area where the GTX 780 is a clear winner is in watts consumed and overall noise, as it was much quieter and also sucked less juice from the wall socket as well. This is nothing new, as the R9 cards run ridiculously hot, and though the R9 290 isn't annoyingly loud, it's certainly louder than the GTX 780. It also ran about 10C hotter than the GTX 780 as well. If the cards were evenly priced, we'd say the Nvidia card gets the nod due to its acoustics and power consumption, but given the $100 price disparity between the two we have to say the AMD card is the better value. Heat and power consumption don't matter that much on the desktop, and the R9 290 card is rock stable, so given its price advantage it takes the win in this category.   Now, let's look at how the R9 290 stacks up to all the cards in this class at 2560x1600. 2560x1600 Benchmarks Best scores are bolded. Our test bed is a 3.33GHz Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition in an Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard with 16GB of DDR3/1600 and a Thermaltake ToughPower 1,050W PSU. The OS is 64-bit Windows 8. All games are run at 2560x1600 with 4X AA except for the 3DMark tests. As you can see from this chart the R9 290X is faster than the R9 290 by quite a bit in many tests, and also beats the GTX Titan in several tests as well. None of this is new information, but when we ran the R9 290X tests before we didn't have enough time to test with Nvidia's latest 331.65 driver, so this chart represents the current leader board in the GPU world. It's all the fastest cards, tested with the latest drivers. You can see the R9 290X and Titan trading blows, which is a situation Nvidia hopes to correct with its GTX 780 Ti launch later this week.   We also received some requests for a few benchmarks showing what this card can do at 1080p going up against the less expensive GeForce GTX 770, so here they are: 1080p Benchmarks Best scores are bolded. Our test bed is a 3.33GHz Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition in an Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard with 16GB of DDR3/1600 and a Thermaltake ToughPower 1,050W PSU. The OS is 64-bit Windows 8. All games are run at 1920x1080 with 4X AA. Not much explanation is needed here as this card is the clear winner over the GTX 770 at 1080p. It is absolutly perfect at this resolution as it hits that silky-smooth 60fps target in most of the games we use for testing. Metro: Last Light barely runs at 30fps, but that's not too surprising as it can punish even the burliest GPU, and it's heavy use of PhysX favors Nvidia cards. Overall though, this card crushes it at 1080p, but costs $70 more than the GTX 770 so it's a trade-off for sure. 4k Benchmarks Both Nvidia and AMD are pushing 4k big time with their latest GPUs, so naturally we've run some tests at this resolution. Games at 4K look absolutely amazing, but boy oh boy do you need some serious firepower to run any of the latest games at full detail. In fact, they are so demanding at this 3840x2160 resolution that we have to disable AA otherwise it is simply unplayable, even on these premium GPUs. As an aside, it's interesting to see what they can do at 4K but it's also not terribly relevant right now due to the cost of the panels. The panel we used in the Dream Machine cost $3,500, and the Sharp panel we used for these tests (which we believe is the exact same unit) costs $5,300, so we seriously doubt even hardcore gamers are running these bad boys yet. It is simply too bleeding edge, unless you can run dual or three-way Titans or R9 290X cards. We never though we'd say it, but that's even too rich for our blood. Regardless, here are the numbers: 4K Benchmarks Best scores are bolded. Our test bed is a 3.33GHz Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition in an Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard with 16GB of DDR3/1600 and a Thermaltake ToughPower 1,050W PSU. The OS is 64-bit Windows 8. All games are run at 3840x2160 with AA disabled. In our 4k tests there is not a clear winner as it's five wins for AMD, and four wins for Nvidia, though, once again, the fact that the R9 290 costs $100 less than the GTX 780 gives it an advantage considering their performance parity. The R9 290 is the clear winner is Crysis 3, Far Cry 3, Tomb Raider (all AMD games, by the way), Battlefield 3, and Hitman, whereas the GTX 780 is only significantly faster in Metro: Last Light, which is an Nvidia title with physics that are not friendly to AMD's cards at all. All in all though, it's an impressive showing for a $400 GPU. Power, Heat, and Overclocking Just like its big brother R9 290X the R9 290 ran hot, made a little bit of noise, and wasn't able to be overclocked beyond its base "max" clock of 947MHz. AMD lists its clock speed as "up to 947MHz" and in testing that is how it goes, spinning up to 947MHz when it can, then backing off that clock a bit when temperatures get too extreme. Once it has achieved that delicate balance, it continues to throttle clock speeds up and down by 50Mhz or so under load always staying around 93 or 94C the entire time. Yes, it's very hot, especially compared to Nvidia's cards, which typically never get hotter than 83C or so overclocked, but the R9 290 was totally, 100 percent stable throughout testing. Once again we looped Heaven 4.0 over the weekend, and our test bed had no issues whatsoever. The R9 290 sat there at about 94C the entire weekend, and never crashed. Overclocking though, is out of the question. The card already runs hot enough to make the GPU throttle in stock trim, so it's not possible to push the card any further at its stock settings. We could have pushed the fan beyond 47 percent, sure, but it gets very loud very quickly, even at 50 percent, so we don't imagine most users will want to run this GPU at that noise level. The stock cooling mechanism AMD built for this card does a good job of exhausting heat however, even though it looks a bit plain, especially in comparison to the sleek coolers on the GTX 780/Titan. When the card is hovering over 90C you can still put your hand one half-inch away from it and feel almost no heat whatsoever, so it seems to exhaust well and run totally fine despite its sky-high temperatures. We know it's weird seeing a card run at 94C, and it takes some getting used to. AMD has assured us that is how the card is designed, so it should be able to run at those temps for its entire life without issues. We certainly had no issues in testing, and it was always stable, so we have to give it a passing grade. Just like with the super-hot R9 290X we cannot wait to see what aftermarket cooling mechanisms do for this card's heat output and overclocking potential. Just like how you can overclock a GTX 780 to match a Titan, we're sure the R9 290 could be pumped up to match the 290X with enough cooling. We will have to wait and see if those cards from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, Sapphire, XFX, and others ever materialize, but we believe they will, and we're excited to check them out when they do arrive, hopefully before the holidays. Final Thoughts When AMD launched the R9 290X last week it was an assault on Nvidia's single-GPU dominance in the premium video card space, and it was a shot that certainly hit its target. The R9 290X exceeded the GTX 780's performance while costing $100 less, so that is a clear-cut victory for AMD. Undaunted, Nvidia responded by dropping the GTX 780's price down to $500, essentially wiping out the R9 290X's advantage in that matchup. The Titan is still threatened by the R9 290X though, but Nvidia doesn't seem to bothered by it, so for now it's leaving the Titan alone. Now that we have the R9 290 though, the GTX 780 is once again under some serious pressure from AMD because the 290 is just as fast, and once again, costs $100 less. If you have $400 burning a hole in your pocket, the R9 290 is clearly the fastest GPU at that price point. We didn't test it against the GTX 770 simply because that is a card we test at 1080p, and the R9 290 is a 2560x1600 card, but it would certainly be faster than the GTX 770 as well since it can beat a GTX 780 in many tests. Overall, the R9 290 is another excellent GPU from AMD with a tremendous price-to-performance ratio that Nvidia simlply cannot match at this time. It definitely runs hotter and makes a bit more noise than it's next of kin on the green team, but for $100 we would bet most consumers would be willing to put on some headphones. Plus it's almost winter, so the heat will probably come in handy for a lot of folks. On a serious note though, we did not find the heat or noise created by this card to be a problem, so don't let it scare you off. From here we wait for two events to occur - the GTX 780 Ti launch later this week, which Nvidia is hoping will allow it to once again wrest control of the trophy for "fastest single GPU" since the R9 290X has muddied the waters a bit and put its Titan in peril, at least when it comes to gaming. Also, it's possible that the R9 290 launch will cause Nvidia to lower the price on the GTX 780 even further to be more competitive. As always we will have to wait and see what happens. Finally, there are still unknowns in both camps at this time. AMD has its Mantle API and TrueAudio, both of which are untested at this time. Nvidia has G-Sync monitors, ShadowPlay, its Holiday Game Bundle, GameStream/Shield, and of course, better acoustics and lower overall temps due to Kepler's efficiency. We've yet to test frame pacing using AMD's new XDMA setup, but reports indicate it's finally as good if not better than Nvidia's SLI at this time. Regardless, both AMD and Nvidia have very unique and exclusive features at this time, making the choice between one camp or the other more difficult than it's ever been. All in all, we can't remember a time when competition has been as white hot and fierce between AMD and Nvidia as it is right now. AMD has really come out swinging for the fences with its Hawaii GPUs, which have already resulted in both price drops and a new GPU on the way in the form of the GTX 780 Ti. Whether or not today's launch of the R9 290 results in even more price cuts or GPU offspring remains to be seen, but one thing is certain -- it's an awesome time to be in the GPU market.

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• EQN Landmark video dev diary talks tools, materials
• LotRO drops Helm's Deep NDA
• The Stream Team: Star Stable with Beau and the developers
• WildStar to debut new build in Saturday livestream
• Final Fantasy XI's newest update offers up artifact armor... again
• The Nexus Telegraph: Examining the Draken of WildStar
• City of Titans wraps up Kickstarter project with over $675,000

The Soapbox: No, 'we' don't hate the subscription model Posted: 05 Nov 2013 09:00 AM PST Filed under: EVE Online, Business Models, Culture, New Titles, Endgame, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous, WildStar, The Elder Scrolls Online, Subscription, Buy-to-Play If you're a casual reader of Massively and read a post or two from a few writers about business models, then you might get the impression that the Massively staff does not like the subscription model. While it's true that some of us praise some games for the choices their publishers have made regarding pricing models, others of us believe still other games have missed the mark. Lately, the subscription model has fallen under some hard scrutiny, but that doesn't mean that all of us dislike the subscription model completely, nor should a few writers' opinions be misconstrued as the opinion of the site as a whole, as if the site were some sentient thing to begin with. Economists have made extremely persuasive arguments in favor of the subscription model, citing its cost-effectiveness with hard numbers and statistics. We've also seen free-to-play and buy-to-play models allowing companies to revitalize their game, and most importantly for the people employed by the developer, doubling and sometimes tripling their revenue. So at what point does the subscription work? Continue reading The Soapbox: No, 'we' don't hate the subscription model The Soapbox: No, 'we' don't hate the subscription model originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Nov 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Online unveils the Sisters of EVE ships Posted: 05 Nov 2013 08:30 AM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Patches, News Items, Sandbox, Subscription New ships in EVE Online are kind of a big deal. A new ship isn't just a set of equipment slots, it can represent a whole different way of playing the game. The two newest ships being introduced with the game's next expansion are meant to do precisely that, providing players with a new level of security while exploring hostile space. These ships are the craft of the Sisters of EVE, and they're coming with the game's next major update. The latest development blog explains that the goal with these ships was to provide more support for solo exploration while allowing the ship to take a variety of different equipment for variable missions. Both classes of ship (the Astero and the Stratios) can use covert cloaks, feature increased scan probe and virus strength, and have extra module space that sacrifices some strength for vesatility. For more details on fitting and obtaining these ships, check out the full development dispatch. EVE Online unveils the Sisters of EVE ships originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Nov 2013 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Sisters of EVE faction ships

Jukebox Heroes: RuneScape's soundtrack Posted: 05 Nov 2013 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Opinion, RuneScape, Free-to-Play, Jukebox Heroes, Music How much music does the average MMO contain? It depends, of course, but I doubt that many games are able to reach the number that RuneScape does. Are you ready for it? It's 982 tracks. I'm dead serious. It's not just that RuneScape has been out since the beginning of the internet but that the team continues to add new music regularly. It's really insane -- just check out this list of updates. What's even neater is that RuneScape treats its music as unlockable content, just like other types of rewards. So while you start out with 70 or so tracks in your in-game music player, you'll have to go to certain places or perform certain feats to get the rest. Why have I never heard of this before? That's brilliant! So obviously, even if I had all 982 tracks on my computer (which I do not), I'm not going to take a week off of work to review them all for you. I love you, but that love has limits. Instead, I've listened to perhaps a tenth of that (including the new stuff by Composer James Hannigan) and chosen a few tracks to share that I feel exemplify this MMO's score. Continue reading Jukebox Heroes: RuneScape's soundtrack Jukebox Heroes: RuneScape's soundtrack originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Nov 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Infinite Crisis shows off Harley Quinn Posted: 05 Nov 2013 07:30 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Super-hero, Video, Game Mechanics, Previews, News Items, Free-to-Play, MOBA, Infinite Crisis Harley Quinn has gone from being a simple sidekick for the Joker to being a respected villain in her own right, albeit one that's generally seen as something of an airhead. It's easy to forget that she was a psychiatrist assigned to take care of the Joker in the first place. So it kind of makes sense that she'd be more than just another pretty smash-happy character in Infinite Crisis, instead taking a more subtle role as a healer and support. Harley's passive ability buffs movement and attack speed for all nearby allies, while her activated abilities consist of a direct heal, a ranged attack, a knockback, and a knockup. The net result is that Harley works as support for teammates, knocking away certain enemies while keeping her immediate team healed and buffed. Check out the video preview past the break for more details on how to make the most of Harley's specific arsenal. Continue reading Infinite Crisis shows off Harley Quinn Infinite Crisis shows off Harley Quinn originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Nov 2013 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively Speaking Episode 271: Preview central Posted: 05 Nov 2013 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Podcasts, MMO Industry, News Items, Massively Meta, Massively Speaking, Miscellaneous Do you live for previews the way that we do? They're always so exciting, like getting to peek in a present before you open it. We've got plenty of previews to cover for this episode of Massively Speaking, but we won't let it stop us from our solemn duty to be silly and recite risque limericks. Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot 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 271: Preview central Massively Speaking Episode 271: Preview central originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Nov 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Players show off Lord of the Rings Online's epic battles in Helm's Deep beta Posted: 05 Nov 2013 06:30 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Previews, News Items, Free-to-Play The central feature of Lord of the Rings Online's upcoming expansion is battles of a truly astounding size. Battles large enough to truly earn the name of epic. With the drop of the NDA, players have taken it upon themselves to produce an equally epic assembly of footage for these epic battles. Narrators Andang, Ethelros, and Pineleaf have created five videos walking through all of the enormous battles, from smaller scale to the biggest possible encounters. As the videos show, success in these battles is not simply a matter of killing all of your enemies, focusing instead upon tactical management of the supporting NPCs while keeping an eye toward how many enemy forces are incoming. It also requires some amount of the calculation you'd expect, allowing some forces to fall so that your main force remains healthy. But you don't need to take our word for it -- click on past the break and start watching. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!] Continue reading Players show off Lord of the Rings Online's epic battles in Helm's Deep beta Players show off Lord of the Rings Online's epic battles in Helm's Deep beta originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Nov 2013 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: LotRO Players

Guild Wars 2's Nightmares Within release takes toxic cleanup seriously Posted: 05 Nov 2013 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Contests, Patches, Guild Wars 2, Buy-to-Play The Nightmare tower will be assaulted head-on in the next Guild Wars 2 content release, and players get to disregard the lessons taught by every horror movie ever and step inside. What do you mean, Marjory Delaqua already sent a team in and they didn't come back? Pfft, they were probably amateurs. You can handle it. Players who storm the tower can unlock a nifty gas mask skin that can be applied to any head armor, as well as a version of the standard underwater breather to wear on dry land. Other rewards include a toxic spore backpack skin and two Toxic Krait miniatures, but you can only access them if you come back...alive. To top things off, ArenaNet is hosting a Rock the Nightmare music video contest. Break out your best editing skills to create a one-minute video for the song "The Nightmares Within," which can be found on ArenaNet's Soundcloud, and you could win a 3D-printed GW2 guitar or some SteelSeries gaming gear! Nightmares Within will go live on November 12th. Guild Wars 2's Nightmares Within release takes toxic cleanup seriously originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Nov 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Guild Wars 2 official release page

The Daily Grind: Do you celebrate game accomplishments in the real world? Posted: 05 Nov 2013 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Endgame, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous After many, many attempts, my free company finally downed Titan in Final Fantasy XIV on Saturday. That meant a relic weapon for me (followed immediately by relic +1) and a trip out for ice cream and celebration for my wife. Yes, all it took to encourage us into outside celebration was beating up an irritating fat man made of rocks. On the one hand, this was silly. Titan is just a boss; beating him is the equivalent of the rats figuring out how to run the mazes in those maze-based experiments scientists love performing. On the other hand, it was a major challenge that I had been grappling with for quite some time, because darn, this is hard. So what about you, dear readers? Do you celebrate major game accomplishments in the real world? Have you and your friends hit the bar to commemorate your first major boss kills in Star Wars: The Old Republic? Or would you rather stick to in-game celebrations for in-game accomplishments, if indeed you even need that? 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! The Daily Grind: Do you celebrate game accomplishments in the real world? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Nov 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Stream Team: EverQuest II adventures with the dead Posted: 04 Nov 2013 06:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Events (In-Game), Free-to-Play, Livestream, The Stream Team Just because Halloween is over doesn't mean that Nights of the Dead is! EverQuest II knows how to celebrate this time of year right -- for more than a month! Massively's MJ heads back in to wrap up a few more NotD activities and maybe even sneak in a dungeon before she is permanently lured away by the expansion next week. Join us live at 9:00 p.m. EST on this special Monday edition of EverQuest Two-sday! Game: EverQuest II Host: MJ Guthrie Date: Monday, November 4th, 2013 Time: 9:00 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: EverQuest II adventures with the dead The Stream Team: EverQuest II adventures with the dead originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Not So Massively: Dota 2's Diretide controversy, Extra-Life fund-raising, and Star Citizen breaks $26m Posted: 04 Nov 2013 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Video, Business Models, Expansions, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play, Dev Diaries, Not So Massively, MOBA, League of Legends, Diablo III, Crowdfunding, Star Citizen, Path of Exile Charity Extra-Life has been working with MMO and MOBA studios across the world this week to raise money for children's hospitals; the charity's website was the subject of a DDoS attack this past weekend but still managed to raise over $3.25 million US. Dota 2 players threw a huge internet tantrum this week when Valve chose not to run its promised Diretide Halloween event and didn't give players any indication as to why. Threats were allegedly made against Valve employees as part of the outrage, and Dota 2's metacritic score was trashed. League of Legends relaunched classic ranged champion Sivir this week with an updated look and a few nice gameplay changes as part of Patch 3.13. Heroes of Newerth hinted that its previously discussed Chaos Mode, which gives players new sets of random abilities every time they spawn, will soon be released under the name Rift Wars. Diablo III developers reversed their decision to make Transmogrified gear become soulbound and released a lore update delving into the dark history of gothic city Westmarch. Path of Exile's first post-release update is in the works, but developers have already managed to fix the occasional disconnects that crept in shortly after launch. And Star Citizen has hit the $26 million crowdfunding mark, unlocking advanced capital ship systems. Continue reading Not So Massively: Dota 2's Diretide controversy, Extra-Life fund-raising, and Star Citizen breaks $26m Not So Massively: Dota 2's Diretide controversy, Extra-Life fund-raising, and Star Citizen breaks $26m originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Captain's Log: Star Trek Online's Sphere of Influence, Season Eight, and reruns Posted: 04 Nov 2013 04:30 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Lore, Patches, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Free-to-Play, Captain's Log Just ask the Massively writers and they'll agree that writing about a specific game is a lot like chasing the tide; information about a game comes and goes in waves. It's been no different with Star Trek Online, but now the tide is rolling in. A lot is happening in Star Trek Online: release dates have been announced, a new beta Mac platform is coming, the new featured episode is live, old featured episodes have a rerun promotion, and a lot more is on the way, so let's just jump in because the water's fine! New featured episode Let's start with the most recent featured episode introduced into the game. Called Sphere of Influence, the mission involves the player being invited back to New Romulus to witness the power-up of the Iconian gate that he helped discover. Upon arriving, the player is informed that Klingon Ambassador Worf is also there to act as a consultant. Worf has had prior dealings with Iconian gates, and sure enough, when the player is introduced to the Ambassador, he will hear actor Michael Dorn's voice. Continue reading Captain's Log: Star Trek Online's Sphere of Influence, Season Eight, and reruns Captain's Log: Star Trek Online's Sphere of Influence, Season Eight, and reruns originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

RuneFest previews RuneScape's 2014 additions Posted: 04 Nov 2013 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Events (Real-World), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, RuneScape, Free-to-Play, Browser Jagex hosted its third annual RuneFest gathering in London over the weekend, and among the festivities was a sneak peek at what's in store for RuneScape in 2014. There's an invention skill on the way, as well as a mobile app that will allow extra-game communication. Upgraded matchmaking skills are planned, as is the second World Event, a master quest featuring the return of Zaros, and something called The Church of You. This last bit looks to involve achievements in some form as fashion, as Jagex's press release says that players "can start to amass their own followers" who will apparently "worship their in-game achievements." [Source: Jagex press release] RuneFest previews RuneScape's 2014 additions originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Microsoft's Perry on F2P the wrong way Posted: 04 Nov 2013 03:30 PM PST Filed under: Historical, Business Models, Events (Real-World), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play Today's winner of the most provocative post title award is this little ditty about Age of Empires Online. But hey, don't blame Massively! It's actually the title of a speech given by Microsoft's Kevin Perry at GDC Europe 2013. Gamasutra has posted video of the event, and it's well worth watching if you've got 45 minutes to kill and you're interested in what goes through a developer's mind as he thinks about continually evolving monetization schemes. Perry says that this particular speech is on its third iteration. It initially started out positive when he shared it with an internal Microsoft audience some time ago. He then reworked it based on newly collected data about the game for GDC San Francisco earlier this year. And then he reworked it again for GDC Europe based on even more data. If you're sensing a trend here, you're right: game devs often don't know how well their business models are performing at any given time. As Perry says, "it's an ongoing conversation." There are a few other choice quotes as well, including the notion that PvP players are small in number but "very, very loud" in terms of influence as well as the supposition that you can launch incomplete games under the F2P business model and "sort it out on the fly." This last bit isn't always true, Perry says, "especially for a large, branded title." Microsoft's Perry on F2P the wrong way originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Gamasutra

EQN Landmark video dev diary talks tools, materials Posted: 04 Nov 2013 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, EverQuest Next, Dev Diaries, Crafting EverQuest Next and EQN Landmark lead designer Darrin McPherson is your host for the game's third video dev diary installment. The four-minute clip covers resource gathering and leveling up your tools, of which there are four types: a pick, a sickle, an axe, and a bucket. McPherson says there are five progression tiers and that players will be able to use each of the tools to create materials, "much like you would craft a recipe." The video shows off plenty of player-crafted material examples including riveted metal, wood flooring, gemstone blocks, and plenty more. There's also a brief walkthrough of a player-crafted castle around the three-minute mark. Get a good look via the video clip after the cut. Continue reading EQN Landmark video dev diary talks tools, materials EQN Landmark video dev diary talks tools, materials originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Dev Diary 3

LotRO drops Helm's Deep NDA Posted: 04 Nov 2013 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Classes, Free-to-Play The gloves, er, NDA is off for the Lord of the Rings Online: Helm's Deep beta, and Turbine has invited players to speak their mind about the upcoming expansion. Since Helm's Deep will also include the single biggest overhaul to LotRO's classes since launch, the players have been hard at work compiling guides as to what's changed. Turbine posted links to these guides in the announcement thread. Helm's Deep will be released on November 18th and it includes the aforementioned class overhaul, the new epic battle system, and the last half of the Rohan region and storyline. If you've been playing the beta, let us know what you think in the comments! LotRO drops Helm's Deep NDA originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: NDA drop announcement

The Stream Team: Star Stable with Beau and the developers Posted: 04 Nov 2013 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Video, Interviews, Previews, Opinion, Hands-On, Casual, Kids, Family, Livestream, The Stream Team Do you ever ask yourself, "Where can I find an MMO that allows me to play as a little girl whose best friend is a horse?" If so, when seek no more because today Beau has on tap the developers from Star Stable, a cutesy horse-based MMO brought to you by World of HorseCraft AB. If you want to ask questions, join us in the chat room. We promise you haven't see an MMO like this before! Game: Star Stable Host: Beau Date: Monday, November 4th, 2013 Time: 4:00 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Star Stable with Beau and the developers The Stream Team: Star Stable with Beau and the developers originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

WildStar to debut new build in Saturday livestream Posted: 04 Nov 2013 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, PvP, News Items, PvE, Livestream, Miscellaneous, WildStar, Subscription, MMORPG Carbine is planning a Saturday livestream dedicated to one of the classes in WildStar, and while the class itself won't be a surprise, the studio is promising a pile of new information as well as a glimpse of the class in action. Carbine also noted that Saturday's livestream will offer the public a glance of WildStar's "brand-new" game build, which is set to go live for beta players in December. WildStar fanatics can check the stream out live on the official WildStar Twitch channel at 3 p.m. EST (12 p.m. PST). [Thanks to Becca for the tip!] WildStar to debut new build in Saturday livestream originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Wildstar Class Livestream: This Saturday

Final Fantasy XI's newest update offers up artifact armor... again Posted: 04 Nov 2013 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Game Mechanics, Patches, News Items, Consoles, Subscription There was a time when Final Fantasy XI's Artifact Armor was the best equipment you could have on a high-level character, but that was ages and ages ago. Still, the iconic looks are coming back in the game's newest version update, which adds new quests for players to reforge their Artifact pieces as well as Relic, Mythic, and Empyrean weapons. It's not an easy process, but it's a chance to make the old hotness the new hotness all over again. A pair of new zones has also been added to the Seekers of Adoulin regions with this update, complete with new monsters for players to hunt and kill. Players can also acquire new abilities, including weaponskills that were previously exclusive to certain weapons. And there are updates to Mog Gardens, magic maps, Monstrosity... in other words, the usual kitchen sink of content you expect from a Final Fantasy XI version update. You can take a look at the full list of patch changes and start playing now (or as soon as the patch finishes downloading). Final Fantasy XI's newest update offers up artifact armor... again originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Patch notes

The Nexus Telegraph: Examining the Draken of WildStar Posted: 04 Nov 2013 10:30 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Lore, Opinion, WildStar, The Nexus Telegraph, Subscription, Buy-to-Play Let me open this third column about the racial lore behind WildStar with a simple statement: The Draken are relentless hunters, stalkers, and combat monsters. Unlike the last two columns, this one will not suggest in any way that this is not what they are. I know the past two have raised some questions regarding the nature of the races compared to how they are presented, but the Draken are exactly what they suggest they are collectively. That doesn't mean there's nothing more to be said or understood. The Draken are an old acquisition of the Dominion, one of the first member races afforded some degree of respect by the Cassians. And however cut-and-dried that might seem, I think there's a lot more going on beneath the surface. Continue reading The Nexus Telegraph: Examining the Draken of WildStar The Nexus Telegraph: Examining the Draken of WildStar originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

City of Titans wraps up Kickstarter project with over $675,000 Posted: 04 Nov 2013 10:00 AM PST Filed under: Super-hero, News Items, Crowdfunding, Buy-to-Play When a company shuts down your favorite game, what do you do? Raise more than half a million dollars in funding to build a spiritual successor, apparently. City of Titans, the fan-conceived inheritor of City of Heroes' legacy, has finished its Kickstarter campaign with a grand total of $678,189 raised. That means several stretch goals unlocked, a huge pile of additional content for the game at launch, and a lot of fan expectations about what the game will contain. As a quick recap for those who have not followed the game's stretch goals, the net result is that the game will launch on both PC and Mac, with iOS and Android versions of the character creator available as standalone apps. The game will also contain wings, extra costumes, and more powers beyond the base version that was budgeted for $320,000. It's quite an accomplishment for the team at Missing Worlds Media and a testament to how deep the passion for a City of Heroes revival remains. City of Titans wraps up Kickstarter project with over $675,000 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Kickstarter Via: MMO Fallout

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