The Korean dev. team introduced some details about the new class Kyran. Except for Kyran, another two classes are being developed and will be playable in the near future.
Eyedentity Mobile announced that their new mobile action RPG "Grand Chase M", which was officially launched worldwide on July 30th, has been downloaded more than 2 million times in Google Play and the Apple App Store within the first week after its release.
Rovio's first full sequel to Angry Birds, following a number of successful licensing diversions, has absolutely rocketed to the top of the download charts on iOS and Android
The closed beta has come to an end – with 37Games putting the finishing touches on Felspire and implementing suggestions from the already extremely active Felspire community
Different from E3, Gamescom 2015 provides not only developers booths, but also provides booths for game derivatives from Square Enix, Blizzard and so on.
Though Gamescom is not well-known for the showgirl as ChinaJoy, the life-size models of the game characters at the exhibition are extremely eye-catching. Today let's take a look at the the pictures of the scene.
The exciting moment finally came at Gamescom 2015, Blizzard has unveiled the long anticipated new expansion for World of Warcraft -- Legion, the great burning shadow falls over Azeroth once more!new class Demon Hunter is also revealed.
There is only less than a week before the launch of Skyforge's first major patch: Crucible of the Gods. Today, the dev team released a landing page with a collection of all the patch notes
Gamescom 2015 is taking place in Cologne, Germany with lots of gaming information unveiled. At the conference EA has showed off plenty of new footages for its games, among them, Star Wars: The Old Republic reveled trailer for its expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire which will be launched on October 27th.
Two New Maps Revealed at Gamescom 2015 recently, Volskaya Industries and Numbani, which are two objective-based maps. Volskaya Industries is a Point Capture map located near St. Petersburg, Russia, and Numbani is a Point Capture/Payload hybrid map set in a utopian city on the edge of the African savanna.
Skyforge is different from most MMOs, bringing with it things that you just have to love. If you haven't given the game a try yet (or even if you have), here are 5 of the most lovable aspects of the game.
"Things We Love About… Defiance", the post-apocalyptic MMORPG from Trion is next up on our list to get a little love and attention and to tell you what it is that we love about this free to play sci-fi adventure. As players step into a familiar but drastically changed near future Earth they take on […]
Eager to find how things are looking like on this year’s Gamescom? Then have a look at our pics in order not to miss the huge trade fair held in Cologne, the world’s largest video games event.
The unclassified email system belonging to the Pentagon's Joint Staff has been offline for the past two weeks. Officials shut it down after discovering a "sophisticated cyber intrusion" that occurred on or near July 25, according to NBC News, which was first to report the incident. No classified information was stolen, though the unclassified accounts and emails belonging to around 4,000 military and civilian personnel who work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff were compromised.
This time around officials are pointing the finger at Russia, not China or North Korea, both of which have been blamed for other high profile cyberattacks occurring in the past year. Due to the sophistication of the cyber intrusion, U.S. officials believe it was "clearly the work of a state actor," though they're unsure if it was sanctioned by the Russian government or if individuals carried it out.
The attack used an automated system that was able to quickly gather large amounts of data -- it then only took a minute for that information to be distributed to thousands of Internet accounts. Hackers also used encrypted accounts on social media to coordinate the cyber assault.
Though the incident is being described as "sophisticated," The Daily Beast reports that hackers broke into unclassified email networks by way of spear phishing -- sending legitimate looking emails that ended up being laced with malware.
CNBC News says the email system will up and running again sometime today.
Windows 10 is a free upgrade if you already possess a valid license for Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, but if not, you're looking at $100, right? Not so fast. Check out today's top deal for Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit (OEM) for $85 with $3 shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [BTEWIN22]). See where we're going with this? If you're building a new system and need a new license, you might as score a discount for an earlier version of Windows and then claim your free upgrade.
Now that Windows 10 is here and off to a fast start, Microsoft wants to ensure that it stays on top of security vulnerabilities. Using the "it takes a village" approach, there's a bug bounty program in place, and Microsoft just doubled the maximum reward from $50,000 to $100,000 for what it calls Bounty for Defense.
The max reward applies to defensive ideas that accompany a qualifying Mitigation Bypass submission, which itself are novel exploitation techniques against protections built into Windows 10.
The new max payment brings the Bounty for Defense reward on par with offense, which already tops out at $100,000 for novel exploits found in Windows 10.
"Learning about new exploitation techniques earlier helps Microsoft improve security by leaps, instead of capturing one vulnerability at a time as a traditional bug bounty alone would," Microsoft said.
In addition, Microsoft is doubling the reward for authentication vulnerabilities submitted through its Online Services Bug Bounty program during the bonus period that runs from August 5, 2015 to October 15, 2015. These boil down to Microsoft Account (MSA) and Azure Active Directory bugs, which will now pay up to $30,000 instead of $15,000.
The last change is that Microsoft has added RemoteApp as a new property to its Online Service Bug Bounty program.
If you're looking for new PC gaming peripherals, Corsair has a handful of products you might be interested in. The company announced several new items at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, including a pair of keyboards, three headsets, and a mouse.
Starting with the keyboards, Corsair unveiled the Strafe RGB and Strafe RGB Silent, both of which are mechanical planks with Cherry MX key switches. The silent version is the first to use new Cherry MX Silent switches, which Corsair says delivers the speed and precision of linear mechanical switches but with significantly quieter actuation.
They're apparently based on Cherry MX Red switches, which are known for being quiet. The Silent switches differ in that they're the first to feature fully integrated noise reduction technology through the use of a "precision-engineered glass fiber reinforced base and two integrated component tappets." Combined with the noise-suppressing architecture of the Strafe RGB Silent's chassis, mashing keys is 30 percent quieter than other mechanical planks, Corsair claims.
The regular Strafe RGB comes with either Cherry MX Red or Brown switches. Key switches aside, all models sport customizable multi-color backlighting (up to 16.8 million colors) with various effects, macro support, onboard memory, textured and contoured keycaps, and built-in USB pass-through for your mouse, USB drive, or wireless headset adapter.
The Strafe RGB ($150) and Strafe RGB Silent ($160) will both be available in October with pre-orders in August.
Moving on, Corsair also announced its new VOID gaming headset available in wireless, USB, or analog stereo modes. Each one has earcups that are shaped to fit the human ear, while the USB and wireless models boast additional features like InfoMic status LEDs and a CUE Control dial.
All three have customizable RGB lighting, EQ controls, and Dolby 7.1 surround.
Look for all three models to be available in August. Best Buy will be the exclusive carrier of the VOID Wireless SE Yellowjacket ($150). The VOID Wireless Carbon will sell for $130, the VOID USB for $100, and the VOID Stereo for $80.
Finally, Corsair rolled out a new rodent, the Scimitar RGB. It's built for MMO/MOBA gaming with a dozen mechanical side buttons. It also has a patent pending Key Slider control system, 12,000 DPI optical sensor, and of course customizable lighting.
The Scimitar RGB will be available in September for $80.
Well that was fast. In this new era of Windows as a Service (WaaS), Microsoft has released its first cumulative update for Windows 10, which some are calling Service Release 1 (tongue in cheek, of course).
Microsoft lists the update as KB 3081424 and it's a big one. It replaces KB 3074683, which you likely already installed since updates are automatically applied to Windows 10 Home machines. Same goes with Windows 10 Pro, though Pro users can opt to put them off for eight months.
Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't provide a ton of details about the cumulative update, and instead tosses out a ho-hum description of what you're getting.
"This update includes improvements to enhance the functionality of Windows 10," Microsoft says. "Windows 10 updates are cumulative. Therefore, this package contains all previously-released fixes (see KB 3074683). If you have installed previous updates, only the new fixes that are contained in this package will be downloaded and installed to your computer."
That said, be aware that KB 3081424 checks in at around 325MB. You'll also be required to restart your PC to finish applying the bug fixes, so save your work.
Expect more of the same, at least initially. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley heard from one of her contacts that Microsoft is planning to dole out more cumulative updates in the future, possibly every week for the first month of Windows 10 availability.
Defragmentation, SMART monitoring, and more tips to keep your hard drives chugging along
In an age of increasingly affordable flash storage, hard drives are slowly disappearing from enthusiast rigs and mass-market laptops alike. Although SSDs are markedly faster than their platter-based counterparts, hard drives are still useful for long-term storage, archival, and massive media libraries that don't require fast read/write speeds. Keeping your hard drives spinning can mean the difference between enjoying a music collection and having a pricey paperweight. Fortunately, it's not all that hard to maintain HDDs since they're a lot like all your other computer components.
Avoid Drops, Kicks, and Other Physical Damage
Unlike other components, hard drives are particularly susceptible to mechanical damage. Hard drives are manufactured with minimal tolerances that make them especially vulnerable to damage during operation. The spinning disks arranged inside each hard drive can usually tolerate slight movements, but aren't meant to withstand being dropped or shaken—especially not during read/write. Physical damage is the death knell of most drives because a misaligned or otherwise obstructed platter simply can't spin correctly.
Keep Things Cool
It's generally a good idea to keep things from getting too toasty inside your PC. Hard drives are designed to operate within a specific range of temperatures. The numbers vary between specific drives, but most hard drives can function normally anywhere from 5 to 60°C (~40-140°F). Drives aren't especially sensitive to temperature changes, but it's still a good idea to prevent unnecessary wear and tear whenever possible.
Provide Constant, Stable Power
Hard drives are fickle beasts and require a constant, uninterrupted power source. Brown outs, black outs, and even static discharges can cause permanent data loss. An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) can be a godsend, but they're probably not feasible for most people. Instead, make sure you keep your computer on a surge protector and avoid turning your PC off and on unnecessarily.
Whenever you're digging around your PC's internals, make sure to ground yourself before handling your hard drives—or any other components for that matter. Static discharges are particularly dangerous in dry climates, but can happen anytime, anywhere.
Defragment, Defragment, Defragment
Due to the nature of hard drives, data is stored across a physical disk and thus fragments of individual files are written to various physical areas. Over time, these separate fragments can lead to diminished read/write performance. Regular defragmentation—but only when the disk in question is actually fragmented—is an important step in ensuring that your hard drives aren't working overtime for everyday tasks.
Monitor S.M.A.R.T. Data
Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology can be used to monitor the status of your hard disk drives. SMART provides information on various drive-related statistics like Read Error Rate, Spin-Up Time, Start/Stop Count, and how long the drive has been powered on. There's plenty of free drive monitoring software, such as Acronis Drive Monitor. Keeping tabs on hard drive errors, warnings, and critical events can provide insight into the impending death of a drive or its day-to-day operability.
Switch to an SSD
If you're especially worried about HDD failure, consider switching over to high-capacity SSDs. Prices are dropping and flash memory is less prone to catastrophic failure because of the absence of moving parts. A set of chips on a PCB are a lot less fragile than spinning disks.
Back up Important Files
This last tip isn't related to maintaining your drives, but it's probably even more important. Your data is arguably the most important piece of your computing experience. Essential documents and media are worth more than the initial cost of a drive. All components fail, so it's important to keep any files that you need backed up.
Have any tips or tricks that you've used in the past to maintain your drives? Share them in the comments below!
