The Humble Sid Meier Bundle is out and offering a selection of strategy titles developed by Firaxis Games, many of which are made by legendary game developer Sid Meier.
For those unfamiliar with the Humble Bundle, you are able to name your own price for a selection of games and then decide how the payment will be distributed between the developer, charity, and Humble Bundle website. Consumer's who name their own price will receive Sid Meier's Civilization III, Sid Meier's Civilization IV: The Complete Edition, Sid Meier's Ace Patrol, Sid Meier's Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies, and Sid Meier's Railroads titles. If you pay more than the average donation, which is at $7.47 at the time of this writing, you will also receive the latest installment of the turn-based strategy franchise, Civilization V and its Gods and Kings DLC
Anyone who pays more than $15 will receive all the previously mentioned titles and Civilization V's latest Brave New World DLC.
So far, over 71,000 of the Humble Sid Meier Bundle have been sold with 13 days remaining.
If you wish to delve into the strategy genre, or add to your games collection, head on over to the Humble Bundle website and name your price.
Mad Catz has launched its Tritton 720+ 7.1 surround sound headset. Originally released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles in 2012, the Tritton is finally being released for the PC platform.
The closed-back headset comes in white with 50mm speakers and neodymium drivers to provide a surround sound experience with the push of a button that activates the Dolby Headphone technology. Consumers will be able to plug in the Tritton via USB but can also plug it into various mobile and smart devices via a 3.5mm jack once the inline audio controls have been detached.
Tritton's inline audio control, aside from being detachable, allows the user to mute the microphone, adjust the headset's volume, and turn the surround sound feature on or off. The flexible microphone is also removable and can be used to take calls on a smartphone.
Consumers can purchase the Tritton 720+ at Mad Catz's web store for $129.99.
A potential candidate for a home brewed Steam Machine
It appears Powercolor is getting ready to launch a passively cooled version of AMD's Radeon R9 270 graphics card. Powercolor has yet to formally introduce what it's calling the R9 270 SCS3 edition, but if you look around the web, you'll discover some overseas retailers listing the SKU, including one that managed to get its hands on a press photo of the upcoming card.
Credit goes to Fudzilla for bringing this to our attention. The news and rumor site said it stumbled upon the listing at Alternate.de, where it's being sold for 180 euros (around $243 in U.S. currency). Overclockers.uk also has the silent part listed for sale (bonus points for posting a pic of the card) and describes it as the first fanless R9 series graphics card.
The silent card sports what looks like a giant aluminum heatsink with a series of heat pipes running through it. Powercolor has the core clockspeed set at 900MHz, along with 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 5,600MHz (effective) on a 256-bit bus. There are two 6-pin power connectors and outputs consisting of DVI (x1), DisplayPort (x1), and HDMI (x1).
It remains to be seen when/if this card will make it to the U.S., but assuming it does, it would be a decent candidate for a dual-booting Steam Machine that pulls double duty as a home theater PC.
For the past several years, we've been testing routers at Maximum PC Lab North, a 2,800-square-foot home located on 10 acres of what was once a dairy farm. The new location is Maximum PC Lab Midwest, a 1,400-square-foot home flanked by houses on either side, a yard extending into a wooded area out back, and a semi-busy road in front. The new location offers a harsher, more real-world testing environment.
We measure the performance of each router in five separate locations starting with the Bedroom in a spot 10 feet away from the router with no obstructions. The next test takes place in the Dining Room 15 feet from the router and separated by two walls, followed by the Entryway with 20 feet and three walls of separation. The final two tests take place outside in the Driveway (35 feet) and Backyard (90 feet) toward the edge of a wooded area.
When possible, each dual-band router is configured to run in 802.11n-only mode on the 2.4GHz channel and 802.11ac-only mode on the 5GHz channel, both with WPA2 encryption and channel bonding. We use the open-source Jperf utility, a GUI front end for Iperf, to measure throughput in each of the five locations. Our Jperf server is an HP Envy Ultrabook with a Core i5 processor wired directly to the router being tested, and the client PC is a Dell Inspiron laptop with a Core i3 processor.
Since the client PC doesn't support 802.11ac natively, we run the tests with a Linksys USB6300 dual-band USB adapter. We compare the 802.11n scores to our zero-point router, an Asus RT-N66U.
Jperf's wealth of settings aren't just good for benchmarking; you can use the open-source app to troubleshoot your network, too."
Finally, we also test each router's attached storage performance by plugging in a 32GB Lexar JumpDrive P10 USB 3.0 flash drive. We chose this drive because it's one of the fastest on the market with up to 265MB/s read and 245MB/s write performance. Once configured, we use a stopwatch to time how long it takes to write a single 3GB file to the flash drive and then again with a 1GB folder containing several smaller files. We repeat both tests to read the large and small files to the hardwired server PC.
If you're on the fence about which subscription-based streaming music service to cozy up with, Microsoft has an offer it hopes you'll find too good to refuse. That offer is a free Nokia Lumia 520 or 521 handset when you purchase a 12-month pass to Xbox Music. That's not a bad deal on a couple of levels, the first being that you're essentially receiving two months free by paying for a year in advance -- Xbox Music typically runs $9.99 per month.
The second thing that makes this a tantalizing deal is obviously the free Lumia 520 for AT&T or Lumia 521 for T-Mobile. There are no contractual strings attached to either device, meaning you're not obligated to activate either handset with AT&T or T-Mobile. You could use them for target practice if you really wanted to.
If you need a refresher, the Lumia 520/521 sports a 4-inch IPS display with an 800x480 resolution, 1GHz dual-core processor, 5MP rear-facing camera, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, microSD card slot, and Windows Phone 8 software.
As for the Xbox Music Pass, you get unlimited, ad-free streaming to Microsoft's catalog of around 30 million songs. You can create playlists and download songs for offline listening, which comes in handy when traveling through dead zones.
Rumor has it Lenovo is interested in Sony's Vaio PC business
Reports emerged over the weekend claiming Lenovo, the world's No. 1 PC maker in terms of shipments, has been in talks with Sony about a possible joint venture involving the sale of Sony's Vaio PC business. Considering that Sony's Vaio PC division is operating at a loss, not to mention Lenovo having just announced plans to purchase Motorola Mobility for $2.91 billion, investors are spooked.
As a result, Lenovo's share price dropped more than 16 percent today, Reuters reports. Lenovo has been doing well by outperforming its competitors in the PC space, though it decided to go on a spending spree in recent weeks, highlighted by the Motorola acquisition. The company also purchased IBM's low-end server unit for $2.3 billion.
The PC maker declined to comment on the Vaio rumor. Sony, on the other hand, denied the accuracy of the report, though admitted it was looking at various possibilities for its Vaio PC division.
Since announcing the IBM deal last week, Lenovo's market value is down nearly $3.8 billion. In addition, Lenovo's drop in share price today is the company's biggest one-day dip in more than 5 years.
World's most popular online playground turns 10 years old
They grow up so fast, don't they? One day they're these little immature things making friends, and the next they're forming alliances and making tons of money. We're talking about social networks, of course, and though it might be hard to believe, Facebook is celebrating its 10th anniversary today. Mark Zuckerberg used the occasion to reflect back on the past 10 years as well as ensure users that he fully expects Facebook to be around for another decade, and beyond.
"People often ask if I always knew that Facebook would become what it is today. No way. I remember getting pizza with my friends one night in college shortly after opening Facebook," Zuckerberg reflects in a Facebook post. "I told them I was excited to help connect our school community, but one day someone needed to connect the whole world. I always thought this was important -- giving people the power to share and stay connected, empowering people to build their own communities themselves."
His remembrance of Facebook's birth differ from what was portrayed in the docudrama The Social Network, but no matter how it came to be, Facebook is here and it's bigger than ever. According to Zuckerberg, the past 10 years have been all about bootstrapping the social network.
"Now we have the resources to help people across the world solve even bigger and more important problems," Zuckerberg says.
One of those problems is the simple act of connecting to the Internet. Zuckerberg points out that two-thirds of the world's population lack Internet access, and over the next decade he would like to use the power Facebook wields and continued advancements in technology to change that.
Zuckerberg avoided the topic of relevancy. As Facebook grows older and more people flood the network, including parents and grandparents, those all important teen and young adult demographics tend to flock elsewhere. MySpace is a real world example of a popular social network losing its luster. Even though Facebook is much bigger than MykSpace ever was, it will still be a challenge to remain relevant for another decade.
Steve Ballmer's replacement was under Microsoft's nose the entire time
After announcing his impending retirement in August of last year and giving Microsoft 12 months to find a replacement, Steve Ballmer can now exit stage left for last time now that it has a new leader. Microsoft's board has named Satya Nadella Chief Executive Officer (CEO), promoting from within to fill the position for only the third time since Microsoft was founded 39 years ago in 1975.
Nadella, who previously served as Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group, was rumored to be the front runner to succeed Ballmer after some high-profile external candidates dropped out of the race, including Ford chief Alan Mulally and Ericsson's Hans Vestberg. Nadella also beat out Qualcomm COO Steve Mellenkopf and former Nokia chief Stephen Elop, among others.
"During this time of transformation, there is no better person to lead Microsoft than Satya Nadella," said Bill Gates, Microsoft's Founder and Member of the Board of Directors. "Satya is a proven leader with hard-core engineering skills, business vision and the ability to bring people together. His vision for how technology will be used and experienced around the world is exactly what Microsoft needs as the company enters its next chapter of expanded product innovation and growth."
That's a pretty strong endorsement coming from company co-founder Bill Gates, who will step into a new role as Technology Advisor. Gates will spend more time at Microsoft grooming Nadella for the position and helping him navigate the company through what have become some rough waters as of late.
Can't get enough hell raising fun on your PC? There's a solution, and it's the same for anyone who feels obligated to keep the Black Soulstone out of the hands of Malthael -- you know, that creepy Angel of Death who's always up to no good. The solution is to check out today's top deal for Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls for $33 with shipping for $1 (normally $40 -- use coupon code: [EMCPWGW72]). The expansion releases on March 25, 2014, giving you a month to celebrate having secured a copy at a discount before it's time to save the world.
Asus has revealed that it is releasing its own Chromebox. With a starting retail price of $179 the small, compact device, measuring 4.88x4.88x1.65-inches, will give users access to Google's web services and web store.
Consumers who purchase the Chrome OS-based device will be provided with 100GB of Google Drive space that can be accessed with the built-in dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi. There will be two different Chromebox SKUs available in North America. The first is powered by an Intel Celeron 2955U processor while the second comes with an Intel Core i3-4010U processor. There will also be a third SKU featuring an Intel Core i7-4600U processor but, as of now, will not be available in the North American market.
All three models will come with integrated Intel HD Graphics (up to 4400 according to Asus), offered 2GB or 4GB of DDR3 memory, and have one HDMI and one DisplayPort output, allowing for dual monitor capability while also supporting 4K displays. Other features include a 12GB SSD, four USB 3.0 ports, one LAN port, one Kensington lock, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 2-in-1 card reader.
An optional wireless keyboard and mouse combination will also be offer alongside the device though no price has been provided.
The Asus Chromebox will be available for purchase in March with the starting price of $179.
Regular readers of this column may have noticed that I spend very little time discussing Guild Wars 2's PvP scene. Some of you may have even jumped to the conclusion that this is because I suck at PvP and my only reason for even entering the Mists-based sPvP lobby is to try on clothes in the locker, so I'm here today to set the record straight: You are absolutely correct.
I do enjoy World vs. World, both in spite of and because I am terrible at traditional team-based PvP activities -- unless you count some specialeventminigames, which I am inexplicably OK at. On the whole, ArenaNet has done a pretty good job in GW2 at giving someone who has no business trying to poke fancy cutlery at other players avenues through which to do it anyway without bringing the whole structure crashing down.
Age of Conan's January Game Director letter delved into the game's most recent patch as well as the upcoming re-balancing of PvP armor, an update on the crafting system overhaul, and a look at new daily quests. Additionally, the next world boss to start rampaging through Hyboria (which will have more frequent spawns than those before it) will begin its menacing spree on February 5th.
PvP armor will be receiving the same re-balancing treatment that PvP weapons recently got, giving newly level-80 players a fighting chance to land some good blows and dish out damage in PvP. As an update on the long-awaited crafting revamp, the letter notes that all existing items can be broken down into salvaged components for upcoming crafting recipes. And finally, new daily location quests will give players a reason (and rewards) for traveling across Hyboria each day and visiting different locations.
You might have heard a wee bit about this little thing called EverQuest Next Landmark this past weekend. With the surprise dropping of the NDA not even a full day after the alpha was launched, it's been the talk of MMO town. Along with the first impressions pieces, livestreams, and plenty of news, there is a quite a cacophony of chatter about the new sandbox on everything from forums to Twitter. And yet that's still not enough, so we grabbed Director of Development Dave Georgeson to learn even more.
Although currently busy with a slew of EQN Landmark work (if you doubt that, follow him on Twitter), Georgeson sat down with me to talk a bit about the game's alpha and the plans moving forward, revealing some promising tidbits about incoming crafting specializations, fast travel options, landownership, and the upcoming alpha roadmap. He also expounded on the world's shortest NDA.
Grab your controllers tank drivers, World of Tanks: XBox 360 Edition will launch globally next week on February 12th. Players who currently have an Xbox Live Gold account can download and play the game for free; Xbox Live account holders will get a seven-day timed trial to the game. Developed by Wargaming West (formerly Day 1 Studios), the game will start off with over 100 tanks from the US, Germany, and the UK, and features revamped controls for the console as well as a new user interface.
One thing's for sure: January surely went out with a bang! Bree, MJ, and Justin almost don't know where to start on the news for this past week in Massively Speaking, but that's certainly better than having nothing to talk about. From strange collaborations to an 18-hour NDA, from pre-order controversy to a studio being raided by the feds, we've got it all in this week's episode!
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Good news first: Guild Wars 2 players will be able to get their hands on the new World vs. World map Edge of the Mists in today's content update. Now for the bad news: Scarlet Briar's minions will be able to get their hands on it, too. If you want to help Braham Eirsson and Taimi, who have gotten themselves stranded on the mysterious floating land mass, then you'll need to fight off Scarlet's invading Aetherblades. Back in Tyria at the Dead End Bar, players can also help Marjory Delaqua and Kasmeer Meade puzzle out the terrible truth behind Scarlet's grand plan using clues from previous living world chapters.
Edge of the Mists is a dedicated overflow map that will allow GW2 players to jump right in to playing WvW while queuing up for the bigger battle on the Eternal Battlegrounds and Borderlands maps. This release also features an overhaul of the WvW UI to make it more informative and streamlined.
Today, Galactic Starfighter officially launches in conjunction with Star Wars: The Old Republic Update 2.6. Free-to-play players as well as preferred and subscribed players can now jump into 12v12 freeform space battles. All players can choose to pilot one of four Starfighter archetypes: scout, strike fighter, gunship, or bomber. Two team deathmatch maps joined the pre-launch domination maps, giving pilots four possible arenas to dogfight. But if space isn't your thing, BioWare also introduced a new dynamic flashpoint called Kuat Drive Yards that changes every time you run it.
It's not often that the Hyperspace Beacon coincides with the launch of a SWTOR update let alone the official launch of an expansion. This week, I intend to give you all the juicy details of the new type of starfighter, the new Starfighter PvP maps, and the brand-new flashpoint. I also had a moment to ask a few of questions of Producer Blaine Christine and GSF Lead Designer Michael Backus. But first, let me show you a few screenshots from the new content below and a launch trailer after the break.
As our Week in Review on Sunday showed, Sony Online Entertainment and ZeniMax Online couldn't be treating their individual NDAs more differently. The Elder Scrolls Online still has an NDA firmly in place despite the fact that launch is a mere 60 days away, whilst EverQuest Next Landmark has already abolished the NDA despite still being in obvious stated alpha. Finding two more extreme examples operating at the same time would be nigh-on impossible. The question is which one is right.
On the one hand, lifting the NDA earlier implies a great deal of confidence in the game being developed. It's hard to look at a long-running NDA and think that the company behind the game is sure people will like the game on release. But on the other hand, letting people talk freely about a game can lead to no mysteries left on release, which might drive some people away and lead to overload for others. What do you think? How soon should a game lift its testing NDA?
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 first round of Star Citizen's Next Great Starship competition got underway this week, pitting 24 teams of artists and technical wizards against each other for a chance to get their ship design in the game and win the $30,000 top prize. The latest Elite: Dangerous newsletter clarified that there are three major alpha stages coming and that each stage will proceed onto the next only when developers consider it ready.
The League of Legends Championship Series is off to a great start with Gambit breaking Fnatic's undefeated winning streak in the EU circuit. On the smaller end of the competitive scene, Razer has come under fire for allegedly unfairly disqualifying a team in its own $1,000 tournament. Dota 2's New Bloom update has introduced a hilarious new game mode that lets players trade skills with each other and added a clever new feature that lets players jump into recorded games and take control of them.
Third-person MOBA SMITE introduced its first limited edition skin and has pledged to add $5 from each purchase to the prize pool of its upcoming launch tournament. Turn-based MOBA Arena of Heroes hit version 1.44 this week and got its official release on iPhone and Linux. Diablo III showed off the contents of its Reaper of Souls expansion collector's edition box, and a new Path of Exile video shows content update 1.0.6's awesome new summoning spells in action.
Dota 2's New Bloom update is now live, bringing a new map variant, two new heroes, and a ton of other interesting features to investigate. Join Massively's Mike Foster as he explores some of the changes New Bloom introduces and jumps into a live match with one of the all-new heroes. The action begins at 7:30 p.m. EST.
Game:Dota 2 Host: Mike Foster Date: Monday, February 3rd, 2014 Time: 7:30 p.m. EST
How's the Landmark alpha going? Pretty well, according to SOE producer Dave Georgeson. Earlier this evening Georgeson posted a lengthy state-of-the-alpha update on the game's forums (you'll need to be logged in with your SOE account to view the link). In it, he says that developers are currently working on server stability, logout position issues, and template fixes. He also mentions art team deliverables like new biomes, character customizations, and props.
Finally, Georgeson announced on Twitter that Landmark will only support 64-bit operating systems going forward. He explains why in the aforementioned forum post.
"To prevent our voxel database from crashing under load, we are converting it to 64-bit processes. That will make our DB very stable, and we can then ensure that any other issues no longer have this variable in the discussion so we can narrow down any other 'voxel loss' issues quickly," he said.
There's one thing that Star Trek Online players crave: story-based missions. And when we get them, we devour them like starving locusts. After what can only be described as an incredibly frustrating first day, the new anniversary events are now live on Star Trek Online. Community Manager Brandon Felczer had his hands full during multiple game crashes last Thursday that were blamed on "network issues" as opposed to server overload.
I was able to ride out the network issues long enough to play the most recent mission, which highlights the voice talents of actor Tim Russ as he reprises his role of Tuvok from Star Trek: Voyager. There are a lot of spoilers ahead; you've been warned! But I won't make any mention of the specific story choices that can be made during the mission. I want to leave some things a surprise.
Guild Wars 2 offers every player a personal journey to explore. Each character in ArenaNet'sfantasy MMO is given an adventure to undertake, with choices to be made and enemies to be slain. Tonight, Massively's Mike Foster continues along the path of the Guardian, helping those who need helping and slaying those who need slaying. What new story discoveries will he unearth? Tune in at 6 p.m. EST to find out.
Game:Guild Wars 2 Host: Mike Foster Date: Monday, February 3rd, 2014 Time: 6:00 p.m. EST
Dave Georgeson, who must be the busiest manon Earth right now, has penned a director's letter for fans of EverQuest II explaining how Sony Online Entertainment plans to change the way in which it delivers new content to the nine-year-old game. According to Georgeson, the fan response to SOE's current method of content delivery (three big updates, one expansion, and a bunch of smaller stuff in between) was a resounding "meh," so the studio is looking to shake things up.
Future content for EverQuest II will now work like this: Feature refinements, short adventures, holiday events, and other small content will launch every week. Every month, a bigger addition will be made, such as an overhaul an existing dungeon, the addition of a series of quests, or the creation of a new world event. All other resources will be invested into developing full expansions for the game, which are still slotted for annual releases.
Georgeson promises that SOE is locked into the new schedule, saying, "Yes, we mean it. We're going to work hard to make it happen regularly and dependably."
Everyone knows that it's not truly a fantasy MMORPG without a stealth class, and Brad McQuaid's brainchild Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is no exception. In a post on the game's Kickstarter page today, the devs revealed that the latest class to join Pantheon's roster is the Rogue, everyone's favorite dagger-wielding, backstabbing shadowstepper.
In Pantheon, Rogues will fill the roles of DPS and debuffer and notably will have the ability to disarm traps or even "alter the trigger so they fire on enemies only." In addition, Rogues looking for a bit more focus can specialize as an Assassin or a Planestalker. The Assassin is exactly what it sounds like: stab things, poison things, and generally make things more dead. Planestalkers, on the other hand, are described as Rogues "that have exposed themselves to the planar energies emanating from Terminus." The post notes that by doing so, they have "given up much oftheir influence on the physical plain," but in exchange, they can see and sever a creature's "magical connections," which can cause "ill effects" such as lowering a target's damage or hampering its spellcasting, so it would seem that they tend toward the debuffer end of the spectrum. If you want the full details on Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen and its latest class, just head on over to the game's official Kickstarter page.
"Expect to see two digital expansions in 2014 just like you did last year," Maclean said, "with one similar to Galactic Starfighter in scope and one more closely resembling Rise of the Hutt Cartel."
Maclean also gave out a few specific dates for the near future. Tomorrow, February 4th, Galactic Starfighter will open up to the free-to-play crowd with additional content for all. Game Update 2.7 is scheduled for April 8th and includes two new flashpoints, a nightmare mode Dread Fortress operation, a Quesh Huttball warzone, and an additional space battle zone. Then on June 10th Game Update 2.8 will arrive with a nightmare mode Dread Palace operation and more ships for the Galactic Starfighter battles.
One thing to note is that the team will be moving to a nine-week cycle between major content releases to allow for more minor patches and bug fixes.
Once EverQuest Next Landmark's alpha went live, you probably thought you'd never see Massively's MJ again! That, or at least not for a long, long while as she'd be deep in the thrall of alpha-land. However, with that short-lived NDA out of the way, she can now take you along on a tour of the new sandbox. She'll show off some gathering, crafting, and hopefully some building as well! Of course, that all depends on how well the alpha servers behave right at that moment. If you are curious about the game, join us live at 4:00 p.m. for a quick look-see. There will probably be squeals.
Game:EverQuest Next Landmark Host: MJ Guthrie Date: Monday, February 3rd, 2014 Time: 4:00 p.m. EST
The player council members are listed by forum handles and will serve the studio and the community by providing feedback and testing for DDO throughout the year. According to Turbine, the council is representative of "a wide diversity of players and playstyles" and is under an NDA while serving.
DDO also posted a FAQ about the player council and its NDA for those with more questions.
The Secret World fans who have been itching to slaughter Flappy, that annoying flying Filth monster that punts them off the Agartha ledges, will be delighted to hear that their chance to exact revenge is almost at hand! Besides giving an update on the progress of Issues #9 and 10, TSW'sJanuary Game Director letter announced that the final phase of The Whispering Tide event will be launching in just a few days.
This last step in clearing the way to Tokyo will involve open 40-man raid instances that are available for 30 minutes every three hours. Any player can simply walk into the lair; when that lair is full, a new instance will open. However, the first group to defeat Flappy during each round will receive a reward bag as well as bonus silvers and fragments. Additionally, the reward bags might contain raid-level items.
In many respects, The Secret World is a strange MMO that doesn't follow the typical paths that its contemporaries do. It probably has fewer quests that most MMOs, and even factoring in the increased time and difficulty to accomplish them, I suspect that it's not as content-rich of a game as its ravenous community expected it to be.
Months ago I "beat" the game as I see it, having finished all of the missions and main storyline. That left me feeling off-kilter because I didn't know what to do next. I still am feeling less focused than I had been while leveling because the core of TSW to me is the excellent missions and the stories tied to these zones, and I simply wanted more of them. Even with the generally excellent issues from 2013, I'm still endlessly pining for Tokyo, and if that doesn't get here in February, then I'm going to start developing long-distance telepathic powers to make it get done.
So I've been chewing on what to do now. It's not as though TSW lacks options; it's just that they're either quite different from the game that I've played up to this point; they're repetitive or group-dependent or require some self-motivation to go after them. I made a list to help focus my future efforts and thought I'd share that with you today.
It's a Sid Meier explosion
Headset being shipped out to stores today
A potential candidate for a home brewed Steam Machine
Say hello to Maximum PC Lab Midwest
Microsoft continues to wheel and deal
Rumor has it Lenovo is interested in Sony's Vaio PC business
World's most popular online playground turns 10 years old
Steve Ballmer's replacement was under Microsoft's nose the entire time
Small package with Cloud space
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 
