General Gaming Article

---

• Lenovo is Buying Motorola from Google for $2.91 Billion
• Interview with Case Modding King Bill Owen
• SanDisk Connect Media and Flash Drives Review
• Facebook Built a Prototype Storage System Using 10,000 Blu-ray Discs
• Intel DZ87KLT-75K vs Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H Motherboard Reviews
• Samsung 840 Evo 1TB Review
• Lenovo Gives ThinkPad Laptops a Rugged Makeover for K-12 Students
• Battlefield 4 Devs to Shower Players with Free Swag in February
• AMD Flexes Its First ARM Based Server SoC
• Newegg Daily Deals: AMD FX-6300 Vishera, Intel Core i7 4820K Ivy Bridge, and More!

Lenovo is Buying Motorola from Google for $2.91 Billion Posted: 29 Jan 2014 05:02 PM PST Google is selling, not buying Google is selling its Motorola handset division to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, making it the biggest tech deal for the Chinese electronics company. The announcement follows after Lenovo's offer last week of $2.3 billion for IBM's low-end server business.  According to the joint deal between the search engine giant and Lenovo, the Chinese company will pay $660 million in cash, $750 million in Lenovo shares, and the remainder of $1.5 billion through a three-year promissory note. Motorola, who developed the well-received Moto X smartphone, was acquired by Google for $12.5 billion back in 2012. However, Google will retain ownership of the majority of Motorola's mobile patents. Lenovo will be given a license to the mobile company's portfolio of patents and intellectual property as well as receive 2,000 patent assets, Motorola's brand, and trademark portfolio. No word as to when the deal will be finalized has been provided and is still subject to approval from both the U.S. and Chinese authorities.  With this new purchase, Lenovo, the world's biggest PC seller, is strengthening its position in the U.S. that could allow it to begin competing against Apple and Samsung in the smartphone market. But will they succeed? Sound off in the comments below.

Interview with Case Modding King Bill Owen Posted: 29 Jan 2014 02:02 PM PST We talk to Mnpctech owner and modder extraordinaire Bill Owen about his path to possessing the ultimate geek dream job Bill Owen isn't your run-of-the-mill case modder. Twelve years ago, he founded Mnpctech (www.mnpctech.com) and his life changed forever. Now he's one of the most prolific pro modders in the industry. What started as a hobby evolved into a full-time business that he runs with his wife, completing mod projects for companies like AMD, FrozenCPU, and even Maximum PC. Mnpctech is also a thriving parts business, selling products aimed at the DIY enthusiast market: milled-aluminum fan grills, custom side panels, vinyl appliques, case handles, Modder's Mesh, and even something they like to call the Modder Reference Tool. We sat down with Bill to learn how he went from dabbling in fan grills and case windows to being the king of modders. MPC: What did you do before you started Mnpctech? Bill Owen: I was really into cars; my hobby was restoring classic cars and tuning import cars. A co-worker who was really into gaming knew that I was kind of tinkering around with cases and stuff as just a casual hobby and he asked me if I would modify his next build as a tribute to his Volkswagen GTI. I thought, OK, well, why don't we do some other things like incorporate the door handle as a carry handle on top, and um, try to implement other things, little cues from the car, too. I was sharing this particular project as a work log, and I was getting a lot of questions about the different types of materials I was using and the different techniques…. At that time, I was kind of working a mundane job at this corporation and thought about getting my A+ certification. And I kind of stumbled into, like, whoa, there's this whole interest in these mods and stuff. And I would just start selling stuff to people through private messages. Like: "Hey, do you have some more of that mesh?" or whatever. And all of a sudden, I'm getting more and more inquiries, and it's interesting and creative. I ended up getting my A+ certification right before Y2K. And after that whole experience, the market kind of just fell out for any kind of tech positions, especially entry level. More creative projects came up; people contacted me: "Hey, I've got a friend who was in Desert Storm, I would love to do a tribute case for him when he comes back, could you help me out?" Just stuff like that. Over time, more opportunities came up, then it led to doing work for manufacturers. At that time, at trade shows, getting consumer enthusiast builds at their booths, it's going to attract the media to come by and check it out. And so I started doing lots of those types of builds and then getting more and more connections in the industry. Over the last few years, what's happened is there's been a transition, where I've gotten away from doing the custom stuff because it's so few and far between. We focus more on making the products, the case-mod accessories that we have, that are now retailed by other stores. This Rebel Alliance–themed Cosmos II has two separate water-cooling loops for maximum performance. The distinctive red coolant is a custom mixture of Mayhems dyes cooled by two 480 millimeter radiators mounted on the top and front of the case. Photo by Bill Owen. MPC: Like Modder's Mesh and fan grills and bezels and stuff? BO: Yeah, when we started machine-making aluminum parts, they really caught everyone's eye because nobody else was doing it at the time. The Modder's Mesh was selling really well and was making a name for us; people were making their own grills with it, cutting it to make a grill or an intake for their bezel or whatever. I saw that and I came up with a frame, a machined aluminum frame that would have the Modder's Mesh as an insert on the backside. Now it's become a fan grill that you can mount on things. So that kind of took off, and from there I kind of branched into doing other designs. Today, I think we've probably got close to 50 different designs that are machined aluminum. Most recently, we came up with radiator grills because the liquid-cooling market is growing. This scratch-built tech bench commissioned by FrozenCPU.com is made almost entirely of billet aluminum with a cover that opens automatically to reveal the components inside. Photo by Bill Owen. MPC: Why didn't you transition into professional modifications for cars instead of computer cases? BO: Well, it's funny you bring that up because it seems like the majority of the people I run into, especially local customers, are into their cars. There seems to be that common thread with cars, motorcycles, and building custom PCs. I can get the same satisfaction from building a custom rig on my workbench in a nice cozy shop versus being on a cold, dirty garage floor in a Minnesota winter getting my hands cut up and greasy and dirty. If things dropped out of this market, if this whole bullshit about the "desktop is dead" crap was true and it actually did hurt us, I probably would segue into making aftermarket parts for cars or motorcycles, for sure, because I have a bit of that background. If not that, my wife has talked about getting into making stuff for dogs [laughter]. We love dogs. MPC: Where does YouTube fit into your work? BO: I think YouTube (click here to visit Bill Owen's YouTube channel) is a very crucial, vital part of us. It's brought in a lot of new customers and hobbyists. When I started doing it in 2006, I was one of the first PC case modders to do video and I had kind of an interest already in doing video production. It's not like our production values were all that great or anything; it's just that we knew how to present stuff clearly, but still entertaining, without wasting your time. Also, my philosophy has always been that you have to give back to the community and your customers in some way. You can't just expect them to sit there and order stuff from your store without educating them about how to do things. So, early on, I made an array of basic tutorials, like how to use a hole saw, what is a hole saw, where do you get a hole saw, how do you attach a hole saw? How do you put a window on a case? How do you add different fans? Just the basic stuff that everybody who gets into this hobby will ask about or research. All of that stuff I covered in videos early on, like 2006–2008, and to this day a lot of those videos draw traffic to our website or social media channel. MPC: Can you run us through a day in your life? BO: I'm a very, very early riser. I've got my first cup of coffee, if I can, before 5:30 in the morning. I'm on my computer answering emails, that's always number one. I'm managing the The Mod Zoo (www.themodzoo.com) staff for product reviews, so I have to talk to them on a daily basis and there are things that have to be edited and also the community itself. There are people with projects and stuff and discussions going on, so I try to participate when I can. To always show that I'm accessible. I think that's the most important thing to owning a business today. You have to show that you're accessible to your customers, otherwise they're just going to be turned off if they don't get a response. I'm on my computer from early morning until noon or 1:00, and then if there are international shipments, I'll take those to the post office and then I'll go to the workshop. I'll be at the workshop from the early afternoon up until 5:30, and then I'll go home for dinner. Then, I have two machinists who make our parts, and if needed I'll check in on them. Or if there's a custom project we're working on—like currently we're working on a project for FrozenCPU.com—and there are different aspects of that that have to be made or designed, I oversee that. To be honest, I wear so many different hats it's not even funny, but, I think it's the way I'm wired. If there's nothing going on then I'll find something to do. What's funny is, my biggest production day for like actually doing physical fabrication in the workshop is Sunday. I go into the shop and there's no one in the building, so I can turn up my music really loud and I'm not bothered or interrupted by anybody, so I can just buckle down and focus on something being made. The Lanboy Apocalypse is a computer masquerading as a makeshift nuclear reactor. Lamborghini-style side panels open up to reveal a massive 250 millimeter fan that cools the Thermaltake radiator inside. Photo by Brian D.Garrity. MPC: How do you feel about the difference between using hand tools like saws and dremels versus CNC mills and laser cutters and stuff like that? BO: It seems to me that it's a bullshit topic. The thing is, regardless of what the resource is, whether it be laser cutter, 3D printer, CNC, water jet, you have to have the skills and know-how to design that part or understand how it has to be made to fit and work, there's still talent there, there's still skill involved. MPC: How long do most projects take you? BO: It always depends on the complexity. Each project I do is always different from the last. I try to not do the same thing over [because] it just bores me. It makes it more special if somebody knows it's not going to be replicated. I mean, I always get people asking, in particular about the Nvidia Cube I did a few years ago: "Oh, could you build me one? I want one, how much is this?" No, that was a one-off, sorry. There's an opportunity where we could really market and sell this, but that doesn't excite me. MPC: It's like a piece of artwork. BO: Absolutely! It's hard to think of it that way, but there are a lot of geeks out there that appreciate it that way. You know, it's a big deal, when you do a custom build, even just a case for somebody, and there's all this planning that goes into it. It's a long, drawn-out process and it can be three months, six months, sometimes longer. Sometimes people have to budget it out, but it's a great experience. I think that's part of the fun, the whole experience of planning and doing it. It's more about the journey than the end result. Yeah, that's a tachometer for the case temps in this hot rod–inspired mod. With a metallic-orange paint job and some diamond-plate accents, this is a case for car lovers. Photo by Brian D. Garrity. MPC: Do you usually do a lot of research when you're about to do a themed project, like if you're making a computer for Warfighter? BO: Yeah, that was a tough one because when it's a new game, the developer will only give you so much. Even if you're AMD or you're Intel, whoever you are, they only give you some screenshots in advance. You kind of just have to draw off that. In military themes, everybody knows the main aspects of a military build. For Warfighter, there was the Medal of Honor badge. We made these huge milled-aluminum badges that were illuminated for the fronts of the cases and it was based on Team Mako or something like that. That was kind of something from digging around. I try to do a bit of research out of respect to the people that appreciate the genre. Because they see those little subtle cues and they're like, "Oh, yeah, all right." MPC: How do you get past creative blocks? BO: If my gut says I'm not going in the right direction, I just try to get away from it. Decompress—that means watching a movie, playing a game, listening to music, or going and working on something else. And then you just kind of wait, and then maybe the next day in the shower it'll come to you. Or you're driving somewhere and suddenly: Oh, yeah. Or a friend will come in and say something. Yeah, otherwise I find that you're just wasting time if you're trying to force it. MPC: Who are some of the people that inspire you, in and outside of the modding community? BO: Hmm…. When I was a little kid, I used to look at Hot Rod Magazine, and custom builders like iconic Big Daddy Ed Roth who created Rat Fink and was one of the earlier car fabricators was a big inspiration. Because it just seemed like there were no boundaries. Just do whatever you want to do; don't feel like you have to follow the rest of the pack. For people today, it's not necessarily a particular person that I'll follow,  it's kind of like a collective of everybody that I'll watch. What inspires me, or motivates me, is just seeing people who have never done it before, enjoy it, and get that high from doing it themselves. When you do something for the first time, you get really excited and you're really having fun, and then time just melts away. That's what you're always trying to recreate or chase after. Based on the Corsair 400R, this tribute to Firefly looks like a genuine part of the Serenity. Wires and tubes line the inside and outside of the case. Bill's attention to detail is made obvious by the extensive wear and tear along the entire chassis. Photo by Brian D. Garrity. MPC: What would you say is your favorite project of all time? BO: The District 9 one and the Firefly one are probably my all-time favorites, and the Pink Floyd one. Being able to do those projects, and a Blade Runner themed one, too. There are these science fiction movies that I've loved and to have an opportunity to do a project as a tribute to them, and then really dig in and research things about them. It's like you have an excuse to have fun and get paid for it. I mean, how much better does it get than that? MPC: What's your favorite tool? BO: Hand file, because if you make a mistake on something, if you make a cut, the hand file gives you an opportunity to fix it in a way that requires patience. It's kind of like it forces you to take your time. It's almost like a respect for the artisan ways of the turn of the century. I think a hand tool is just as important as high-end equipment, so I like a good hand file. This battle-scarred Fractal Design R4 was given away as part of an AMD promotion for Medal of Honor Warfighter. The custom Task Force Mako case badge and stellar paint job are accompanied by Mnpctech billet case handles and machined-aluminum fan grills. Photo by Brian D. Garrity. MPC: What's in your PC? BO: The one I use at home is just a Zotac ITX board with embedded video and audio on it because I pretty much only use that for email and online stuff, maybe some photo editing. The shop one that I'm using right now is another Zotac board and it's got a Zotac GTX 470 with an EK water block on it. I can't even remember what processor I have on this… an i7 2.93GHz. It's really nothing to brag about. I'm the guy who drives the piece of crap car to the shop to work on the exotic sports cars. I live vicariously through my customers. I'm a starving artist. Thinking about modding? Click the next page to read what should be in your modder's toolbox!     The Modder's Toolbox According to Bill Owen, any modder worth his or her Plexi should have the following gear handy Center Punch  These are absolutely critical if you're trying to drill something. A center punch makes an indentation that your drill bit will fit into. Loose drills are dangerous. Rotary tool  One of the most useful tools in any modder's toolbox because of its many uses. You can use drill-bit attachments, cutting wheels, sanding wheels, and even engraving bits. Use this for detail work. Jigsaw  The ultimate tool for making larger cuts. Perfect for cutting out fan holes and case windows. 24-Volt Cordless Power Drill  They may be pricier than their 18-volt brothers, but 24-volt cordless power drills are an absolute necessity. Use them to drill pilot holes for your jigsaw, screw holes, and occasionally to tighten a loose screw. Pencil   Measure twice and cut once. Use a pencil to mark up what you're cutting before you even reach for your Dremel. Hand Files An easy way to add fit and finish to any project. Sharp and jagged aren't just dangerous qualities, they're also ugly. Sand them down with a hand file. Measuring Square An easy way to make sure that your lines are straight. No one wants a crooked window. Safety Glasses Safety always comes first and safety glasses are a must-have. They protect your eyes from stray materials and flying particles. Painter's Tape Cover your cutting area in painter's tape to prevent unwanted scratches, nicks, and scuffs. Write and draw on the tape instead of on your case. Plus, you can always use it while painting. Clamps ClampsMake sure that the side panel or window you're working on doesn't move by clamping it down. These are indispensable if you're going to be doing any sort of gluing, cutting, or drilling. Ruler The ultimate measuring tool. You're going to need one if you plan on making any precise cuts.

SanDisk Connect Media and Flash Drives Review Posted: 29 Jan 2014 11:44 AM PST Media streaming for newbs If you've ever wished you could just leave your USB key on your desk or in your pocket and still access the files on it wirelessly, SanDisk's new media drives are sort of what you're looking for. Unfortunately for power users, these wireless media drives don't quite fit the bill when it comes to file sharing, but they are great for sharing media with portable devices, and they are dead simple to use, too. They also double as pocket-ready Wi-Fi access points. SanDisk's new media drives are easy to use and make wireless media streaming a cinch. Here's how these devices work. First, you connect them to a PC or Mac and copy files to pre-designated folders for music, movies, pictures, and files. Next, people within 150 feet must switch their device's Wi-Fi to the SanDisk access point, and then run a free SanDisk app to access all the content on the drives. Connected users can also download and upload data to the drive, but all that data is only accessible from the SanDisk app, which is a pain. You can also password protect the access point, but it's not turned on by default, which seems a bit unsafe to us. Both the USB key and the media drive are battery-powered, so you just plug them into a USB port to charge them. The Media Drive offers eight hours of streaming per charge, and is available in 32GB and 64GB capacities, but has an SD card slot, so you could take it all the way up to 192GB. The smaller Flash Drive offers four hours per charge, and is simply a shell for a Micro SD drive. It's available in both 16GB and 32GB capacities. Both drives are USB 2.0, so copying data to them is painfully slow, and is easily their biggest weakness. The free SanDisk app required for media streaming is available on the Google Play, Apple iOS, or Amazon Kindle store (sadly, it looks like Windows Phone users are out in the cold on this one, but they are probably used to it by now). We were also able to access the files from a laptop, but could not send data to the device. We were impressed by how smoothly content streamed from the device. San-Disk says it works at a distance of 150 feet, and we confirmed this in testing. Both devices can stream several movies at once (eight for the Media Drive, three for the Flash Drive), though the built-in player can only stream MP4 files, so AVI and MPG files won't play, which is bogus. Ultimately, we found these devices to be easy to carry, set up, and operate. They are a bit limited in how they function due to their family-friendly nature, but if you're just looking to share media with friends on a plane or in a hotel room, they are hard to beat. Anyone wanting more advanced file sharing will have to look elsewhere—this isn't designed to replace your NAS drive. As it stands, it's one of the easiest ways we've seen to share media to a tablet or phone, but it's not the easiest to work with a laptop. The free iOS app also has limited file-format support. The last major downside is its slow USB 2.0 speeds, which makes file copying agonizing. $50–$100, www.sandisk.com

Facebook Built a Prototype Storage System Using 10,000 Blu-ray Discs Posted: 29 Jan 2014 11:30 AM PST An energy efficient storage system for infrequently accessed data It's a bit early to write the obituary for optical discs. Though many desktop users have made the transition to the cloud, Facebook found a use for Blu-ray discs -- 10,000 of them, in fact -- as part of an energy efficient storage system capable of holding a petabyte of data. Facebook showed the prototype system at the Open Compute Project summit meeting in San Jose, California, noting that it's intended to store data that rarely needs to be accessed. Candidates for Facebook's "cold storage" solution include duplicates of photos and videos that Facebook keeps on hand for backup purposes, IDG News Service reports. Facebook says its prototype system cuts storage costs in half and reduces energy use by a whopping 80 percent, compared to its current cold storage system based on hard disk drives (HDDs). Over time, Facebook expects to increase storage by a factor of five. It's a cost effective roadmap, since Blu-ray discs costs less than hard drives, plus there's room for manufactures to increase the density of Blu-ray media. "We see this as a new area of demand for the technology," said Jason Taylor, Facebook's director of infrastructure. The prototype storage system consists of an ordinary looking cabinet with stacks of Blu-ray discs inside. A robotic picker plucks a disc from a pile and moves it to one of the 16 Blu-ray burners so that data can be written to it. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Intel DZ87KLT-75K vs Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H Motherboard Reviews Posted: 29 Jan 2014 11:06 AM PST LGA1150 is here to stay—get used to it We've seen a mixed reaction to Intel's new Haswell CPU and LGA1150 socket from enthusiasts. Some, like us, see it as a solid piece of hardware with welcome improvements for the platform if upgrading from older hardware. Others have unfurled "Don't Reboot Me" flags and refuse to give up on their LGA1155 socket until we pry it from their warm, moist hands. For the folks not bunkered in, we're reviewing pair of Z87-based boards from Intel and Gigabyte to see how they compare to the Asus Z87-Deluxe we reviewed last month. Intel DZ87KLT-75K You don't have to subscribe to Obscure Motherboards Quarterly to know that Intel has officially thrown in the towel, waved the white flag, and cleared the CMOS on its consumer motherboard division. The Intel DZ87KLT-75Kincludes a USB Wi-Fi/Bluetooth adapter that attaches to the inside of your drive bays. In fact, what you're seeing here, the Intel DZ87KLT-75K, is likely the last Intel-branded motherboard that will ever grace our pages. Sure, many of you haters are mouthing, "I didn't even know Intel made motherboards," but the company has been cranking out über-reliable, albeitüber-boring boards for years. The DZ87KLT-75K doesn't stray too far from that tradition but it's unfair to call it boring. The board features, for example, a set of handy and clearly marked LEDs to let you know what stage it's in during POST, as well as a set of LEDs to let you visually see the active load on the VRM. And in a rarity these days, the board even has a built-in speaker to monitor beep codes.Add in Thunderbolt, six fan headers, properly labeled DIMM slots (take a hint, Asus), dual Intel-NIC Gigabit ports, surface-mounted power switches,802.11n and Bluetooth 2 modules, and SLI and CrossFire support,and you get a really feature-packaged mobo for the money. Compare that with the Asus Z87-Deluxe we reviewed last month that tips the scales at $280. Sure, the Asus board gives you 802.11AC and some pretty nifty utilities but the Intel board can be found for $260 and offers Thunderbolt, to boot. The only problem for the Intel board is how it performs. Generally, performance testing of motherboards is a formality, as we rarely see any difference between boards. It's only become more irrelevant as the memory controller and so much other functionality has moved from the chipset into the CPU itself. So imagine our surprise when the DZ87KLT-75K came in dead last in most of the benchmark runs. (For the record, we use the exact same components in all of our motherboard tests and verify clock speeds and bclocks under single-threaded and multithreaded loads in the initial preflight setups. We also use the latest available mobo drivers and BIOS and do clean installs of the OS.) We originally assumed the Asus Z87-Deluxe just pushed the CPU harder on default, but the Intel board also got body slammed by the Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H, which isn't pushing the chip nearly as hard as the Asus board. We honestly can't explain why the Intel board's performance was off the mark. Back in the good-news column, we're impressed by Intel's new UEFI interface on the DZ87KLT-75K. Since UEFI has come along, we've seen just about every attempt at making a functional but pleasing UEFI. Asus has been ahead of the pack for a long time, but we'd have to honestly say that Intel's implementation could actually be our favorite now. On most UEFI implementations, the laggy mouse response usually forces us to switch from missiles to guns—err, from mouse to keyboard—to scroll around, but Intel's UEFI is the most responsive we've seen, and hell, even the right mouse button works. What polish there is in the UEFI runs out of steam in the OS, though. While Asus's and Gigabyte's OS utilitiesshow refinement, Intel's hasn't changed much. Overclocking is also a manual affair in both the BIOS and OS on the Intel board. Phooey. There are really two issues here. The first is that the performance is oddly off the mark, which we're still investigating. Assuming it's just our board sample or some "outlier" Gremlin, the secondproblem is perhaps larger: Intel doesn't intend to make boards after the Z87 chipset. The company says it will support boards for three years, but we'd guess the support in the last 1.5 years won't exactly be sterling. It's true that few board makers bother to update the BIOSafter the first two years but at least they're still in the motherboard business. That won't be the case with Intel. For a lot of people, that's really going to be a deal breaker, which is a shame, because we really wanted to like this board. Intel DZ87KLT-75K Honey Badger Beautiful, fast UEFI; LED diagnostic lights aplenty. Wolverine (the X-Men Is there anything more negative than Intel soon abandoning motherboards? $260, www.intel.com Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H The world's economy may be on the mend but a lot of people still want to justify every cubit spent on technology. For some people, spending $280 for the Asus Z87-Deluxe (reviewed in October) or even $260 for the Intel DZ87KLT-75K may seem exorbitant. The Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H offers a lot of features for the price. Fortunately for you, budget-minded power user, Gigabyte has its GA-Z87X-UD5H board. OK, we'll admit, $210 isn't really budget, but you'll see that it's a pretty modest price given the board's features. The Z87X-UD5H gives you SLI and CrossFireX support, 10 SATA 6Gb/s ports, dual USB 3.0 headers, dual NICs, a POST LED, surface-mounted power and reset buttons, Creative Labs X-Fi MB drivers, and Gigabyte's trademark dual-BIOS setup. We've had the unfortunate need to resort to the dual-BIOS in the past and it's been an automatic affair. The UD5H offers and automatic and manual mode, which we got to use when we bricked the primary BIOS. No problem, flip a switch and you're back up and running on the backup BIOS. From there, you simply flip the switch back to the primary and reflash the BIOS again. It's pretty damned robust. The last time we reviewed a Gigabyte board we complained hardily about the goofy UEFI (hey, that rhymes), with its faux "3D" mode. Gigabyte has since redone its BIOS with a vastly improved interface. Unfortunately, it's still not in the class of Asus's and now Intel's excellent UEFI. In fact, we went back to "classic" BIOS mode because the sheer amount of information on the UEFI screen is overwhelming. One area where Gigabyte has really improved is in its OS utilities. We haven't been happy with the gear-shifter style interface and confusing options for some time and usually just avoided them. With the UD5H, the utilities have gotten a complete makeover that actually makes them competitive with Asus's excellent utilities. Gigabyte, for example, now has its own equivalent of Asus's Fan Xpert2 that's pretty good. It's not as granular or nerdtastic in settings but it's a stepin the right direction. And Gigabyte even aces Asus is the update utility, which can find and fetch mobo drivers and utilities for you. This isn't a breakthrough feature, as MSI used to do this (although not very reliably), but it's a welcome feature that we'd love to see other board vendors also implement. The upshot is that the utilities are something to actually be used, not just installed once and ignored. In performance, the Z87X-UD5H holds its own. Both the Intel and Gigabyte boards showed default multipliers of 8-39 on our Core i7-4770K, while the Asus had a default multiplier of 8-43. This gave the Z87-Deluxe a decided advantage in several benchmarks—but the Z87X-UD5H got pretty close. It also managed to smoke the Intel by a good margin. In the audio department, the board uses the same ALC898 as the Intel board, but Gigabyte licenses Creative's software algorithms, including its Crystallizer and voice changing-features, among others. We're fans of the Crystalizer,which is a nice upgrade over the stock Realtek audio applets we usually see. We also did some close listening tests using a set of gaming headsets while hammering the USB 3.0 port with gigabytes of data and couldn't discern any snap, crackle, or pop. Our overall view of the GA-Z87X-UD5H is that it's probably the sweet spot for most enthusiasts who could put the money saved byforgoing Thunderbolt or Wi-Fi into the CPU, GPU, or SSD instead. Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H Zee Updated apps are much improved; plenty of bells, no whistle. Zed New UEFI better than "3D" version but still confusing to read $260, www.gigabyte.com Benchmarks   Intel DZ87KLT-75K Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H Asus Z87-Deluxe Street price $260 $210 $280 3DMark Firestrike 8,563 8,653 8,694 3DMark Graphics 9,736 9,737 9,715 3DMark Physics 10,137 11,062 11,676 PCMark 8 Home 5,146 5,410 5,824 PCMark 8 Creative 5,340 5,619 5,925 PCMark 8 Work 4,947 5,408 5,562 Cinebench 10 single-threaded 7,282 7,525 8,055 Cinebench 10 multithreaded 27,495 30,097 31,168 SiSoft Sandra Memory Bandwidth (GB/s) 24 24.34 24.07 CrystalDiskMark Seq. R/W (MB/s) on SATA 6Gb/s 541 / 520 516.9 / 497.3 531.1 / 507.1 CrystalDiskMark Seq. R/W (MB/s) on USB 3.0 432.8 / 348.9 437.0 / 377.9 428.7 / 371.7 Valve Particle (fps) 196 214 213 Resident Evil 6 low-res (fps) 20,666 22,380 22,424 Hitman Absolution low-quality (fps) 71.9 80.27 82.3 Hitman Absolution high-quality (fps) 56.6 67.5 65.7 Auto-overclock N/A 4.5GHz 4.6GHz We used a Core i7-4770K, 16GB of DDR3/1866, GeForce GTX 780, Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB SSD, Cooler Master Hyper-212 Evo, and Windows 8 Enterprise for all our testing. USB 3.0 and SATA 6 performance was tested with a 240GB Samsung 840 Pro.

Samsung 840 Evo 1TB Review Posted: 29 Jan 2014 10:55 AM PST Fastest. SSD. Ever. The Samsung 840 Pro landed on our Best of the Best list when it was launched in December 2012, and it has remained at the top of the SSD pile ever since, thanks to its blistering speed, impeccable pedigree, and superb software. Shortly after the Pro launched, Samsung debuted a non-Pro drive, named simply "840," that was designed for those who wanted a less expensive drive with a smaller three-year warranty. This month, Samsung is replacing the regular 840 with the Samsung 840 Evo, an all-new drive that slots in below the 840 Pro, thanks to its three-year warranty (the Pro's is five years) and more reasonable pricing. The Evo is also offered in a full range of capacities, from 120GB all the way up to 1TB, making it the first Samsung SSD available at that size and putting the 1TB Crucial M500 directly in its sights, although the Evo does cost $50 more at $650 MSRP The 840 Evo replaces the company's vanilla 840 drive, but actually threatens the Pro drive. To create the Evo, Samsung added new 19nm MLC NAND, a new controller named MEX (its previous one was called MDX), and new caching technology it calls TurboWrite. This caching method treats a portion of the drive's MLC NAND as if it were far pricier and faster SLC NAND for buffered writes, allowing for a significant boost in speeds when utilized. The amount of NAND reserved for this varies according to the drive's size; on the 1TB review drive we have it's 36GB, which becomes a 12GB "SLC" buffer—3-bit MLC converted to 1-bit SLC NAND. In addition to the TurboWrite thing, Samsung has also added a Rapid Mode, enabled in the Samsung Magician software, that uses the host system's DRAM and CPU for caching purposes. It caches frequently used files in system memory and can dramatically increase read and write speeds. Rapid Mode can be switched on and off in the software, and requires just 50MB of RAM and an 840 Evo SSD to be activated. Samsung says it will eventually bring the caching technology to its 840 Pro drive, but for now it's exclusive to the Evo. To test the Evo drive, we attached it to our SSD test bench, installed version 4.2 of the Samsung Magician software, initiated the AS SSD incompressible data benchmark, and went to get a cup of coffee. When we returned, we were lucky not to have been sipping coffee when we saw the numbers because we surely would have done a spit-take. The Evo racked up a score of 855MB/s for reads and 1GB/s for writes, and over 100K IOPS in 4K random writes, as well. As we progressed through our test suite, the Evo laid waste to all the previous drives and became the fastest SSD we have ever tested by a sizable margin, even beating out its big brother, the more expensive 840 Pro. We also tested the drive with Rapid Mode disabled, and it was still extremely fast, making it a supremely competitive SSD that seems to have no weaknesses other than its short three-year warranty. Note: This review was originally featured in the October 2013 issue of the magazine. $650, www.samsung.com

Lenovo Gives ThinkPad Laptops a Rugged Makeover for K-12 Students Posted: 29 Jan 2014 09:40 AM PST No. 1 PC maker takes aim at students Putting a laptop in the hands of a child is a gamble in and of itself, let alone deploying a line of notebooks in a classroom filled with kindergarten students. Accidents happen, but rather than ignore the education segment, Lenovo on Wednesday announced a couple of ruggedized ThinkPad models built specifically for K-12 students. These include the ThinkPad 11e and the ThinkPad Yoga 11e. "We have a proven track record of designing laptops and tablets built to last in education environments. With the new ThinkPad 11e devices, we're raising the bar with new form factors," said Jerry Paradise, executive director of product marketing, ThinkPad Product Group, Lenovo. "I'm very excited that Lenovo is able to offer a device that's not only rugged enough for the classroom but also flexible enough to adapt to the many ways technology can be incorporated into the overall learning experience." Unlike regular laptops, Lenovo's rugged models are equipped with features like rubber bumpers, reinforced ports, and stronger hinges to protect the systems from drops and rough handling. They also boast all-day battery life and in the case of the Yoga 11e, and IPS panel with wide viewing angles. In addition to rugged Windows systems, Lenovo also offers Chromebook variants of both models (ThinkPad Yoga 11e Chromebook and ThinkPad 11e Chromebook). Pricing for these models start at $349, while pricing for the Windows models start at $449. All four will be available this spring. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Battlefield 4 Devs to Shower Players with Free Swag in February Posted: 29 Jan 2014 08:57 AM PST DICE to give away grenades and other virtual swag throughout the month of February Nothing says you're sorry better than handing out free gifts -- you know, things like unlocked pistols and grenades, plus double XP opportunities and other virtual items. It's with that in mind that developer Dice is kicking off a Battlefield 4 Player Appreciation Month starting Saturday, February 1, 2014. Throughout the month, DICE will roll out "fun community missions" and give away free stuff. This is DICE's way of thanking players for putting up with early hiccups that plagued BF4's launch. Now several patches later, most of the issues that made BF4 a frustrating experience early on have been wiped out, and this latest effort on DICE's part may help bring some players back who had previously given up on the game. "If you are currently playing Battlefield 4, we hope you enjoy this month-long community appreciation. If you haven't played in a little while, it's a great time to get back in the game," DICE said. Whoever you are, we appreciate the time you spend with Battlefield 4, we thank you for your support and we hope to keep hearing from you on the Battlefield 4 forums on Battlelog. Here's to a great 2014!" Each day you log into BF4 throughout the month of February, you'll receive a Bronze or Silver Battlepack containing bonuses like XP Boosts and solider camos. It usually takes around 30 hours of gameplay to earn all of these packs. In addition, DICE is preparing two optional shortcut bundles that will unlock all grenades and handguns "so you can make up for lost time." BF4 Premium users will also get access to unlocked DMRs and shotguns, plus a second double XP weekend over the single one that regular users will get. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

AMD Flexes Its First ARM Based Server SoC Posted: 29 Jan 2014 07:58 AM PST AMD's foray into ARM-based server SoCs begins with the Opteron A Series A milestone has been reached in Sunnyvale less than a month into 2014. Chip designer AMD formally introduced its first 64-bit ARM-based server system-on-chip (SoC) previously codenamed "Seattle" and now called Opteron A1100. The chip is fabricated using a 28-nanometer process technology and is the first of its kind from an established server vendor. Along with the new SoC, AMD also unveiled a new development platform intended to make software design on the Opteron A1100 Series quick and easy. AMD's new SoC supports 4-core or 8-core ARM Cortex A57 processors and has up to 4MB of shared L2 cache and 8MB of shared L3 cache. Other features include configurable dual DDR3 or DDR4 memory channels with ECC at up to 1866 MT/second; up to four SODIMM, UDIMM, or RDIMM; eight lanes of PCI-Express Gen 3; eight SATA III ports; two 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports; ARM TrustZone technology; and Crytpo and data compression co-processors. "The needs of the data center are changing. A one-size-fits-all approach typically limits efficiency and results in higher-cost solutions," said Suresh Gopalakrishnan, corporate vice president and general manager of the AMD server business unit. "The new ARM-based AMD Opteron A-Series processor brings the experience and technology portfolio of an established server processor vendor to the ARM ecosystem and provides the ideal complement to our established AMD Opteron x86 server processors." AMD's new development kit is packaged in a micro-ATX form factor and includes an Opteron A1100 Series processor, four registered DIMM slots for up to 128GB of DDR3 RAM, PCI Express connectors configurable as single x8 or dual x4 ports, and eight SATA connectors. They're compatible with standard power supplies and can be used stand-alone or mounted in a standard rack-mount chassis. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: AMD FX-6300 Vishera, Intel Core i7 4820K Ivy Bridge, and More! Posted: 29 Jan 2014 06:35 AM PST Top Deal: It's the wild west out there and if you're looking to wield a six shooter without spending a pile a gold, the weapon makers in Sunnyvale have some solutions. One of them sits in the spotlight as today's top deal -- it's an AMD FX-6300 Vishera 3.5GHz Six-Core Desktop CPU for $110 with free shipping (normally $120 -- use coupon code: [EMCPWHB22]). This 32nm part features AMD's Piledriver architecture and is equipped with 8MB of L2 cache. It's also unlocked, in case you're into overclocking. Other Deals: Intel Core i7-4820K Ivy Bridge-E 3.7GHz LGA 2011 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor for $305 with free shipping (normally $325 - use coupon code: [EMCPWHB25]) Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2x8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866 Desktop Memory Model for $165 with free shipping (normally $190 - use coupon code: [EMCPWHB32]) WD Black Series 4TB 7200 RPM 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $240 with free shipping (normally $259 - use coupon code: [EMCPWHB243]) Linksys EA6200 Dual Band AC900 Smart Wi-Fi Router IEEE 802.11ac/a/b/g/n for $70 with free shipping (normally $104 - use coupon code: [EMCPWHB46])

You are subscribed to email updates from Maximum PC - All Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

MMO Updates

---

• Free for All: Thoughts on SOE's mass MMO sunset
• EQ Next Landmark devs randomly Tweeting free Founder's Pack codes
• Elder Scrolls Online releases cinematic trailer, announces CE info
• A look at WildStar's customization options
• Funcom office raided, charged with suspicion of stock infringement
• The Daily Grind: What zones feel 'real' to you?
• The Stream Team: Upping the difficulty in EQII's solo Skyshrine dungeon
• Hyperspace Beacon: How do I play a Sith in SWTOR?
• Jukebox Heroes: It's time to turn the music back on
• AbleGamers names Final Fantasy XIV accessible mainstream game of the year
• Dota 2's New Bloom update introduces new heroes and more
• Pantheon spotlights Undead race
• Second Life CEO Rod Humble leaves Linden Lab
• DCUO begins the War of the Light in today's update
• The Stream Team: Labyrinth of the Ancients, FFXIV's first raid
• Massively Speaking Episode 282: Crafting and economy roundtable
• The Soapbox: Stop ganking, you ganking gankers
• WildStar's Stephan Frost on creating content and keeping within deadlines
• World of Warcraft breaks out a decade in Azeroth by the numbers
• The Elder Scrolls Online won't require a PlayStation Plus membership

Free for All: Thoughts on SOE's mass MMO sunset Posted: 29 Jan 2014 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Opinion, Vanguard, Free-to-Play, Casual, Free Realms, Kids, Free for All, Clone Wars Adventures, Wizardry Online Sony Online Entertainment recently announced the upcoming closure of not one or two but four of its titles. Those titles are Free Realms, Clone Wars Adventures, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and Wizardry Online. The announcement hit most of us pretty hard, even those who weren't active or interested players. Four titles just feels much more like a move of desperation than one or even two games. And for players like yours truly, MMOs like Free Realms and especially Vanguard hold a very special place in our hearts. Having said that, I will never wager solely on perception. It's my guess that SOE does indeed know what it is doing and that some of this is due to licensing issues, new games from similar developers, or an attempt to streamline an already fat lineup in order to get ready for one or two massive new titles. In other words, there is no conspiracy. It's most likely that this decision was due to boring old business. I decided to break down what each game meant to me in the hopes that the confessional will get me ready for the upcoming sunsets. Here's to hoping. Continue reading Free for All: Thoughts on SOE's mass MMO sunset Free for All: Thoughts on SOE's mass MMO sunset originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 29 Jan 2014 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EQ Next Landmark devs randomly Tweeting free Founder's Pack codes Posted: 29 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, Giveaways, Promotions, EverQuest Next If you are still wanting to get in on the alpha or beta of EverQuest Next Landmark but you haven't procured a Founder's Pack, you might want to follow the devs on Twitter. What started with Franchise Director Dave Georgeson tossing out a free code in a Tweet on Monday has snowballed into multiple devs offering packs via hidden pictures and multi-tweet puzzles. And the fun continues today! If you want to get in on the action, you'll need to follow: @DaveGeorgeson, @terryjmichaels, @omeeddariani, @Rosierap, @mhigby, and @PurrfectStorm. But we warn you, you'll have to be quick to nab these; the codes have been redeemed within seconds! EQ Next Landmark devs randomly Tweeting free Founder's Pack codes originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 29 Jan 2014 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Elder Scrolls Online releases cinematic trailer, announces CE info Posted: 29 Jan 2014 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Trailers, Video, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, The Elder Scrolls Online, Subscription Are you ready for another Elder Scrolls Online CG opus? We have one, and it clocks in with a whopping eight-minute-16-second running time. The clip stars the familiar trio of ESO heroes we've glimpsed in past promotional materials and it pits them against a range of baddies in a nonstop ode to over-the-top action movie violence. It finishes off with ESO's April 4th PC release date as well as a mention of June 2014 for consoles. In related news, information about the collectors edition appears to have been leaked early on Amazon [Edit: And now it's official!]. Like many CEs, this one, dubbed The Elder Scrolls Online: Imperial Edition, offers a fancy box, a book, a map, a statue, a ring, a mount, and a vanity pet. However, this CE is also the only way players can unlock playing an Imperial in any alliance. [Thanks to all who sent in tips!] [Source: ZeniMax press release] Continue reading Elder Scrolls Online releases cinematic trailer, announces CE info Elder Scrolls Online releases cinematic trailer, announces CE info originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 29 Jan 2014 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

A look at WildStar's customization options Posted: 29 Jan 2014 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Video, Game Mechanics, Previews, News Items, WildStar, Subscription, Buy-to-Play How much do you like character customization? If you shrug and click the nearest "random" button when making a new character you probably don't care much. But if you like to carefully examine customization options before creating a character, and then even more carefully examine customization options after creating a character... well, WildStar's developers understand the way you work. They'd like to help, insofar as giving you a whole bunch more customization options could count as "helping." Customizing your character doesn't end at creation -- it extends to how you play your character, how your character's outfit looks, and even how your mount looks. Not to mention, of course, that there's the housing system. The game's latest DevSpeak video about customization is just past the cut, and we got a chance to talk a little more with the fine folks at Carbine Studios about tuning your character just right. Continue reading A look at WildStar's customization options A look at WildStar's customization options originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 29 Jan 2014 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Funcom office raided, charged with suspicion of stock infringement Posted: 29 Jan 2014 05:30 AM PST Filed under: MMO Industry, Legal, Miscellaneous Several reports are coming in this morning of some legal trouble plaguing The Secret World and Age of Conan developer Funcom. According to several Norwegian news outlets, Norway's economic crime unit paid a visit to the Oslo studio to retrieve "packed boxes of seized documents" thought to be financial records involved in a suspected "infringement of the provisions of the Securities Trading Act." Funcom acknowledged to Norwegian reporters that it was charged with breaching disclosure requirements related to The Secret World when the company failed to report company financial information between August 2011 and July 2012. This has resulted in a temporary closure of Funcom's stock during the investigation. We've reached out to Funcom for more details. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in.] Funcom office raided, charged with suspicion of stock infringement originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 29 Jan 2014 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments NewsinEnglish.no, VG247, NewsWeb.no

The Daily Grind: What zones feel 'real' to you? Posted: 29 Jan 2014 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Let's face it: Some MMO game zones seem as real as a set on the stage of a high school play. They check off all of the fantastic features that give art directors goosebumps, but when you're in those areas you can't quite shake the feeling that it's a façade put on for your benefit. Then there are those special places that check off all of the boxes on your own list instead, gelling together to create an environment that feels utterly believable. I encounter these places in Lord of the Rings Online quite often, especially when I go through terrain types that exist in the real world but are rarely seen in games. Maybe I'm strange to get a thrill out of a fog-shrouded swamp, but it's better than another lava zone. So what MMO zone feels real to you? What gets you all well and properly immersed? 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: What zones feel 'real' to you? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 29 Jan 2014 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Stream Team: Upping the difficulty in EQII's solo Skyshrine dungeon Posted: 28 Jan 2014 06:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, EverQuest II, Free-to-Play, Livestream, Dungeons, The Stream Team The first Advanced Solo dungeon in EverQuest II's Skyshrine was so easy that Massively's MJ and her merc blew through it like Gonzo with a cold goes through tissues! So as promised, this time around she's going after the toughest boss. The dungeon is meant for level 92, and she's finally slotted her armor with adornments, so it shouldn't be a problem... but you just never know what surprises might crop up. If all goes really well, there might even be time to check out one of the new fabled dungeons! Join us live at 9:00 p.m. to watch as MJ takes on this challenge. Game: EverQuest II Host: MJ Guthrie Date: Tuesday, January 28th, 2014 Time: 9:00 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Upping the difficulty in EQII's solo Skyshrine dungeon The Stream Team: Upping the difficulty in EQII's solo Skyshrine dungeon originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Hyperspace Beacon: How do I play a Sith in SWTOR? Posted: 28 Jan 2014 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Culture, Free-to-Play, Roleplaying, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guides, Hyperspace Beacon, MMORPG This is another one of those questions that I get asked a lot: How do I play a Sith in Star Wars: The Old Republic? I hope I'm asked because people like what they see and that I am also a good player as well as roleplayer, but I don't by any means believe that I have a grasp on everything that it takes to play a Sith. And I also believe that other people have a great -- if not better -- gasp on the nuances of the Sith personality. On top of that, many people don't play a Sith the way I do, so I don't want to discount that either. When I play SWTOR, I intend to have fun, and what I consider fun isn't the same as what other people call fun. I should give fair warning before diving into this outline: I'm not going to teach you the basics of roleplay; I'm going to hope that you already know that or that you've hopped over to Storyboard a few times. Secondly, I will use terms like "proper" or "best." Understand that I use those words from my perspective and that other players have a different and equally legitimate perspective, too. Lastly, this is far from exhaustive, and if you have any questions, I will spend some time in the comments answering them, or you can feel free to hit me up on Twitter. Continue reading Hyperspace Beacon: How do I play a Sith in SWTOR? Hyperspace Beacon: How do I play a Sith in SWTOR? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Jukebox Heroes: It's time to turn the music back on Posted: 28 Jan 2014 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Miscellaneous, Jukebox Heroes We're going to take a week off from our tour of various MMO soundtracks to talk about one of the most common statements I hear when the discussion of in-game music comes up. Here it is: "Oh, I turned the music off a long time ago." It's downright hard to get into any good discussion about music when, y'know, people don't listen to it at all, but I can understand why folks have done this. Heck, I've done this at various points. For me, sometimes the music is far too repetitive when I'm in a zone for a really long time, so I have to turn it off to avoid going mad. Other times I disable the sound because I'm working on other sound-related projects (such as podcasts and listening through other OSTs) while I play. But even though it seems that a lot of us shut off the music, I want to make a case for why it's important that we turn the music back on -- if not all of the time, at least once in a while. Continue reading Jukebox Heroes: It's time to turn the music back on Jukebox Heroes: It's time to turn the music back on originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

AbleGamers names Final Fantasy XIV accessible mainstream game of the year Posted: 28 Jan 2014 02:30 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, PvP, News Items, PvE, Final Fantasy XIV, Subscription, MMORPG AbleGamers is the "largest community of gamers with disabilities on the web,"along with being a non-profit organization that works to help folks with disabilities enjoy video games. AbleGamers reviews games as they come out, but not in the traditional way. Instead, games are rated based on their accessibility and the options available to disabled gamers who may need to customize their gaming experiences. This year, Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has taken top honors as AbleGamers's accessible mainstream game of 2013. The organization cited FFIXV's customizable control scheme, adjustable UI elements, and use of text-based story text that moves at the player's pace as strengths for gamers playing with disabilities. Producer and director Naoki Yoshida accepted the award, taking a moment to highlight the Square Enix team's work toward making the game accessible and stating, "I would like to formally express my gratitude to AbleGamers for recognizing our efforts." AbleGamers names Final Fantasy XIV accessible mainstream game of the year originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Ablegamers Awards

Dota 2's New Bloom update introduces new heroes and more Posted: 28 Jan 2014 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, PvP, News Items, Free-to-Play, MOBA Valve's Dota 2 is about to receive another huge update, this one bringing two new heroes and a bevy of other features to the most played game on Steam. The New Bloom festival, which launches tomorrow for all Dota 2 players, includes a new beast to slay, the ability to "offer" unwanted items in the hopes of earning rare armor, and another map aesthetic variant centered on spring themes with East Asian influences. Most importantly, New Bloom marks the introduction of Terrorblade, the demon marauder, and Phoenix, the, ermm...phoenix, both brand-new heroes in Dota's world. Also new with the update: the ability to jump into any downloaded replay and take control of a character within it, changing it from a replay to a live game in which you can attempt to turn the tides of a loss or find a smarter path toward victory. Dota fans should consult the Day One, Day Two, and Day Three announcement posts for full details, as New Bloom includes quite a few other new features and tweaks. Dota 2's New Bloom update introduces new heroes and more originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Rebirth in the New Bloom Festival

Pantheon spotlights Undead race Posted: 28 Jan 2014 01:30 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Races, Community Q&A, Crowdfunding, Subscription, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen If being a civilized yet formerly rotting creature is your grandest desire in an MMO race, then Pantheon's Undead Warlords are waiting to welcome you home. A new dev blog on Pantheon's Kickstarter page today shared some of the background of these playable Revenants. Originally from the world of Terminus, Revenants are former spirits that are now bound to corpses using death magic. They're a little psychotic and mean, but the Undead have learned enough control to form the outline of a civilized society in the game. CEO Brad McQuaid also hosted a Q&A video touching on subjects such as the business model (free for the initial levels with a subscription required after that), the Unity engine, the target demographic, the current makeup of the dev team, humor in the game, and pledge rewards. You can watch the video after the break. Continue reading Pantheon spotlights Undead race Pantheon spotlights Undead race originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Kickstarter

Second Life CEO Rod Humble leaves Linden Lab Posted: 28 Jan 2014 01:00 PM PST Filed under: MMO Industry, News Items, Second Life, Free-to-Play, Virtual Worlds, Miscellaneous Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab for the past three years, officially announced via Facebook that he has left the company. Humble has worked on both The Sims and EverQuest, pretty much exactly the two games that you would think could be mashed together into Second Life. Linden Lab has not issued a statement about Humble's replacement at this time. In a statement on the move, Humble wished his former coworkers and customers the best of fortunes, stating that he was moving on to form a startup company to make "art, entertainment, and unusual things." Whether or not this will be another startup in the online gaming space or something entirely different remains to be seen. Second Life CEO Rod Humble leaves Linden Lab originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Gamasutra

DCUO begins the War of the Light in today's update Posted: 28 Jan 2014 12:30 PM PST Filed under: Super-hero, Patches, Free-to-Play, DC Universe Online The first part of DC Universe Online's War of the Light DLC has gone live today, kicking off a multiple-update story arc involving the Lantern Corps, planet hopping, and a transformed Metropolis. Senior Creative Director Jens Andersen says that this update will get players to see the game from a whole new perspective: "Players are getting more than just a new storyline with this DLC. We transformed Metropolis for the War of the Light trilogy and created new, expandable environments and content -- separate from the original -- for players to explore." The DLC also includes the tanking rage powerset, more 4- and 8-player operations, plenty of Green Lantern gear, and the Legends PvP characters of Saint Walker and Atrocitus. The update is included with a subscription or can be purchased separately for $9.99. [Source: SOE press release] DCUO begins the War of the Light in today's update originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: War of the Light Part 1

The Stream Team: Labyrinth of the Ancients, FFXIV's first raid Posted: 28 Jan 2014 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Endgame, PvE, Final Fantasy XIV, Livestream, Dungeons, The Stream Team, Subscription Recently Final Fantasy XIV took a stab at large-scale raiding with its first installment of Crystal Tower, Labyrinth of the Ancients. This 24-player raid offers two core MMO aspects: sweet loot and forced social interaction with strangers. So far we're only allowed to join the queue with up to eight people which means a guaranteed grab bag of at least 16 strangers. Nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan! Join Massively's Jasmine live at 3:00 p.m. as she explores the first and second Ms in MMORPG. Game: Final Fantasy XIV Host: Jasmine Hruschak Date: Tuesday, January 28th, 2014 Time: 3:00 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Labyrinth of the Ancients, FFXIV's first raid The Stream Team: Labyrinth of the Ancients, FFXIV's first raid originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively Speaking Episode 282: Crafting and economy roundtable Posted: 28 Jan 2014 11:30 AM PST Filed under: Podcasts, Economy, Massively Speaking, Miscellaneous, Crafting This week we're changing up the normal format of our podcast by hosting a roundtable on MMO economies and crafting systems! We've got several of our experts on these topics to talk about games past, present, and future. What makes an economy great? What should crafting be able to do? Stay tuned after the discussion for a few important news bulletins as well! 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 282: Crafting and economy roundtable Massively Speaking Episode 282: Crafting and economy roundtable originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

The Soapbox: Stop ganking, you ganking gankers Posted: 28 Jan 2014 11:00 AM PST Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Aion, PvP, Opinion, Free-to-Play, TERA, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous, Subscription, MMORPG, Buy-to-Play For me, player vs. player interaction is a necessary component of any online game. The urge to engage with skilled human opponents is the reason I spent countless hours defending flags in World of Warcraft and likely the main motivating factor in my slide away from traditional MMOs and toward MOBAs like Dota 2 and Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming Heroes of the Storm. Simply put, I like a good fight. I especially like a good fight when it occurs unscripted and out in the wilds of the world. If you catch me unaware while I'm grinding out one of TERA's BAMs or plucking gold from an ore vein in Aion, I'll be more than happy to cross swords (or trade frostbolts) with you. Winning or losing isn't important to me; the constant threat of attack heightens my enjoyment of and connection to the game's universe. Unfortunately, open world PvP doesn't attract exclusively those people interested in fair fights. And in the games that make it possible, a certain small segment of players is working hard to ruin everyone else's good time. I speak, of course, of gankers. Continue reading The Soapbox: Stop ganking, you ganking gankers The Soapbox: Stop ganking, you ganking gankers originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

WildStar's Stephan Frost on creating content and keeping within deadlines Posted: 28 Jan 2014 10:30 AM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, MMO Industry, News Items, WildStar, Subscription, Buy-to-Play Developing an MMO is not an easy process. We know that intellectually, but most of us have not actually built a game ourselves, so we don't know exactly how or why it's not difficult. Design producer Stephan Frost recently penned an article taking a look at the process of design in WildStar, highlighting both common elements to MMO production and some of the ways that Carbine Studios does things a little bit differently. Frost explains that the key to producing an MMO is understanding that it's really more like producing several different games layered on top of one another. He goes on to explain how all content is designed according to a master roadmap, allowing space for individual designers to put their distinct touches on things while still working within an overall vision. If this sort of thing interests you, by all means, take a look at the full article for a deeper look at how these games come to life. WildStar's Stephan Frost on creating content and keeping within deadlines originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Gamasutra

World of Warcraft breaks out a decade in Azeroth by the numbers Posted: 28 Jan 2014 09:59 AM PST Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, MMO Industry, News Items, Anniversaries, Subscription World of Warcraft is hitting its 10-year anniversary this year, and the franchise as a whole is turning 20. So it's a find time to take a look at the numbers behind the game, something Blizzard Entertainment did today with a large and exhaustive infographic. That header up there? That's a count of how many worldwide accounts the game has had created, including trials. Yes, that's 100 million. That's a lot of people who have stepped into Azeroth (or Outland for a little while). There are a lot of interesting bits of information in there as well. As a whole, the game has seen more than 500 million characters created (more characters than there are people in the United States). Approximately 2.8 million auction house transactions take place every day, 11 million achievements have been earned per day since the launch of Mists of Pandaria, and the game currently sits on about 6 million words written for quest content. There's a lot more in the infographic; feel free to jump on over and take a look at it for more stats on the game's decade of history. World of Warcraft breaks out a decade in Azeroth by the numbers originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 12:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Azeroth by the numbers

The Elder Scrolls Online won't require a PlayStation Plus membership Posted: 28 Jan 2014 09:30 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Launches, MMO Industry, News Items, Consoles, The Elder Scrolls Online, Subscription If you're looking forward to playing The Elder Scrolls Online on a console, it's going to be cheaper to do so on the PlayStation 4. Why? Because subscribers will not need a PlayStation Plus subscription to subscribe to the game and keep playing online. Xbox One owners, meanwhile, will require an Xbox Live Gold membership in order to subscribe, bringing the cost up ever so slightly beyond the normal price of entry. That's the takeaway from a recent post on the official PlayStation blog by game director Matt Firor. Other important points from this blog entry are the fact that the servers for the game will be split by platforms, meaning that PC players cannot play with PS4 players and vice versa. Firor also stated that while the team does not have an exact timetable, a beta on PS4 is incoming for later this year. The game is launching on the PC on April 4th, 2014. The Elder Scrolls Online won't require a PlayStation Plus membership originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jan 2014 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: PlayStation BlogVia: Joystiq

You are subscribed to email updates from Massively To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610