MMOGaming News

MMOGaming News


Elsword’s Maniacal Recluse Returns as the Arc Tracer!

Posted:

Elsword's Maniacal Recluse Returns as the Arc Tracer!


KOG Games has announces the new Arc Tracer Job Path for Add, the 9th playable character in popular 2.5D side scrolling action game Elsword. Add's quest for mastery of Nasod Technology and psychic power is underway! Prepare to deal massive damage with psionic explosions, shock inducing Nasod Drone strikes, and more.

Perfect World 2 CH Character Customization and Opening Zone

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Perfect World 2 CH Character Customization and Opening Zone


I showed you PW2 a week ago in the MMO show. But with so many other games that came first. I didn't get a chance to even get into this game until now. For starters you need a Perfect World Chinese account. Most of you have those already now.

To Know More about Lingxiao City and The Path of the Departed in Age of Wushu

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To Know More about Lingxiao City and The Path of the Departed in Age of Wushu


New details have been revealed about a feature of the upcoming expansion to Age of Wushu: Winds of Destiny, including info about the back-story behind the new region and accompanying the new game features.

Equipment Knowlodge in Black Desert Online

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Equipment Knowlodge in Black Desert Online


The first way to make your character stronger in the Black Desert Online is to improve his equipment. If the character is growing, and the attack power or the protective properties are not enough good to battle with strong opponents, then its time to work on the improvement of your equipment.

RIFT's Nightmare Tide Open Beta Is Now Live!

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RIFT's Nightmare Tide Open Beta Is Now Live!


Batten down the hatches and prepare for the surge, Nightmare Tide Open Beta has arrived in Rift! Trion World is inviting you to join the journey by simply opening Glyph, and then browse to RIFT, select "PTS" from the list of servers in the top-right corner, click "INSTALL" (or "UPDATE"), and prepare to be transported to the murky depths of the Plane of Water!

Legend of the Condor Heroes: Zero First Look

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Legend of the Condor Heroes: Zero First Look


I won't waste your time trying to analyze this. I'll be frank this game is a clone. I usually don't like to be lazy and use a term like that. But sometimes games leave you absolutely no choice. Now when I say clone. I'm talking about what the game takes after.

MMORPG Reviews

MMORPG Reviews


Closed Beta Keys for Trove

Posted: 02 Oct 2014 12:48 AM PDT

Last week, Trove, Trion World‘s free-to-play voxed-based sandbox building MMO, entered closed beta . Have you already got access to this new game? Don’t worry that hasn’t been the case yet. Today, we’ve got a giveaway just for you. Claim your CBT key and start building your own world in Trove. In order to obtain your key, just follow these […]

The post Closed Beta Keys for Trove appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

Content Update for Warface

Posted: 01 Oct 2014 09:36 AM PDT

Warface has just received a new update which introduces new maps and gameplay improvements including a dynamic spawn system. Players will now also receive higher scores for assisting team-mates when taking down foes in Co-op as well as Versus play. Other enhancements included in the update allow new players to use all four soldier classes […]

The post Content Update for Warface appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

Bigpoint Announces Shards of War

Posted: 01 Oct 2014 08:20 AM PDT

A new free-to-play sci-fi MOBA title has seen the light of day. Bigpoint has just communicated plans to launch of Shards of War, which will offer a new twist on the classic MOBA game mode. The game combines the typical MOBA strategy with the pace and WASD style controls of top-down shooters to create a […]

The post Bigpoint Announces Shards of War appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

Hands-On with Monkey King Online

Posted: 01 Oct 2014 05:39 AM PDT

SCORE: Graphics: 6 Gameplay: 4 Sound: 4 Overall: 5 Pros: Great graphics, automated AFK mode for those who don't want to play the game themselves Cons: Automated AFK mode… We've lately had a look at Monkey King Online, an MMORPG from R2Games which is based on the popular Chinese novels Journey to the West and features […]

The post Hands-On with Monkey King Online appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.



General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article


Build a DIY Micro-Tower PC with Liquid Cooling

Posted: 01 Oct 2014 04:20 PM PDT

Most people would never build their own small form factor PC, fill it with high-end hardware, liquid-cool it, then overclock it. Luckily, we're not most people

The Mission The interest in small form factor (SFF) computing seems to have reached a fever pitch over the past few months, but boutique system builders tell us they've been selling an S-load of them for some time now. The reason for their popularity is not hard to understand—they pack all the firepower of a full-sized ATX machine but take up half the space due to clever engineering. It takes equally clever building to fit a full-sized video card, an internal power supply, storage devices, and even liquid cooling into such a tiny box. That's no small feat, and to be honest, it sounded like just the kind of challenge that we wanted to take on for Build It. The problem is, the micro-tower form factor hasn't been around very long, so it still has some kinks to work out. We've worked with several of these systems over the past few months, and the degree of usability varies quite a bit. However, Silverstone recently announced the Raven RVZ01, a case that seems to have the ease-of-use that we like; plus, the company has demo'd the chassis using a liquid-cooling system, which we found downright nifty. All we had to do was get our hands on one and go to work.

Birds of a Feather

To construct a PC inside a mini-tower like the Raven, you really have to be prepared to build in a completely different way than you have before, and using some atypical parts, too. For example, in this case (which is a preproduction model, so retail units might differ slightly) the optical drive bay only holds a "slim" design, as its front bezel is less than half the size of a standard 5.25-inch drive. The power supply is also not standard ATX: a Silverstone ST45SF-G from the company's SFF SFX line of PSUs designed for tiny rigs like this. It can't supply as much juice as a full-size ATX power supply because it's so small, but it's still able to throw down 450 watts. Surprisingly, this is actually enough wattage for a system with a single video card and a relatively efficient Intel Haswell CPU.

When we say "single card," we mean any single-GPU card you can find, as there's more than enough room for even super-long boards. We stuffed an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti into our box and had plenty of room left over (We know at the time of online publish, the 780 Ti is being phased out by the newer GTX 980, but if you act now, you should be able to find them pretty cheap). (We could have fit a dual-GPU card, but the power supply wouldn't be able to handle that.) There's also enough room for a 3.5-inch hard drive in the RVZ01, in addition to two 2.5-inch drives, but we ended up sacrificing our 3.5-inch drive to the liquid-cooling gods. Since we were using an expensive CPU cooler, we figured we might as well go top-shelf all around, so we went with Intel's Core i7-4770K CPU and the Maximum VI Impact motherboard from Asus.

 

INGREDIENTS
PART Price
Case Silverstone Raven RVZ01

$100

PSU Silverstone ST45SF-G 450W $100
Mobo Asus Maximus VI Impact $230
CPU Intel Core i7-4770K $325
Cooler Corsair Hydro H75 $85
GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti $700
RAM 2x 8GB Corsair Vengeance LP $160
SSD Corsair Neutron GTX 480GB $400
Optical Drive Silverstone SOD02 8x DVD Burner $70
Cables Silverstone PP05-E Flat Power Cable Kit $25
OS Windows 8.1 64-bit OEM $100
Total   $1,983

1. Prey Drive

Since this Build It is more of an experiment than a full-fledged gaming or productivity system, we felt comfortable sticking to just one solid-state drive (SSD) for our storage needs. One of the main benefits of using just an SSD in a small system like this is that it cuts down on the cabling we'd need to wrestle with later, which can take up a surprising amount of space. An SSD is also much smaller than a desktop mechanical drive and makes no noise since it has no moving parts. In the RVZ01, SSDs are mounted on a detachable section that also holds the video card and the optical drive. This design makes the SSD quite easy to access, and adding a second drive is easy, too.

2. Mother-birds

The RVZ01 features an "inverted" design, so we had to flip the Asus Maximus VI Impact motherboard upside down and rotate it 180 degrees, which is why the connectors in the photo look backward. The case's side panel that's behind the motherboard tray is permanently attached, so we had to install the liquid cooler's backplate before we installed the motherboard. This motherboard also has a riser card that needs to be installed if you want to take advantage of the mobo's integrated sound. There's another optional add-in card that offers Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which contains yet another connector, this time for M.2—the successor to mSATA, which is designed for ultrabooks and other systems too small to fit an SSD. And there's a third pre-installed riser at the bottom of the board containing extra capacitors for overclocking. We removed the riser's two screws, because those holes double as motherboard mounting points. Then we put the I/O shield in the case, followed by the board.

 


 

3. Bird on a Wire

Inside this black cage is the junior-sized Silverstone power supply. The cage is attached to the case with four standard screws. Take those out, slide the PSU in with its connectors facing up and its intake fan facing toward the fan grill on the side panel, secure it to the bottom of the cage with the four provided screws, and put the whole thing back in. We routed most of the front-panel wiring underneath the cage, to leave more room up top for other wires. The short flat cables come from Silverstone's PP05-E flat power cable kit, which is sold separately from the PSU. They are highly flexible and a godsend in tight quarters like these.

4. Eagle Eyes

This removable ledge contains the optical drive and a platform for the GPU. As you can see, only a "slim" style of optical drive will fit, and luckily, Silverstone has one named the SOD02, which is an 8x DVD burner. Sure, it's not a BD-R drive and it's not cheap, but if you need an optical drive in this case, you don't have a ton of options. To install it you have to remove the top half of the case's interior by removing six Phillips screws around the rim, and the drive slides into the front. The mounting holes for the optical drive were too small for the heads of the screws that come with the drive, so we couldn't put them in. You need to use the screws that come with the case, instead. The drive was surprisingly snug without the screws anyway, so we just left it "loose" in the slot.

5. Spreading Our Wings

The detachable section is also where we installed the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti. We could shave about $450 off this build and go with a more moderately tuned GPU like a GTX 760, but we wanted to see if both the case and PSU could handle a full-powered and full-sized GPU. We chose  the GTX 780 Ti because it's currently the fastest single-GPU available, and produces a decent amount of heat, too. To install it, we had to first plug the GPU into a PCI Express riser card, then attach the PCIe power cables to the card before putting this entire section back into the case; the connectors on the card become inaccessible once it's installed. To make the cabling nice and neat (again, we used those flexible flat cables) we strung them behind the card and curled the cable over the top and into the connectors. Once everything was connected, we plugged the whole contraption back into the case, with the riser pictured below going right into the motherboard's x16 PCIe slot.

6. Survival of the Fittest

CPU cooling duties were handled by a Corsair H75 unit, but to get it to fit we had to swap out the standard 120mm fan, which was too chunky. Instead, we used the slim fan that was pre-installed on the side panel. Although this fan allows us to install the radiator on this super-slim case and still get the door to close, the size of the fan blades mean it won't be able to move as much air as a larger fan. Also, since the fan is thinner we had to use shorter #6-32 3/4-inch machine screws that we bought at a local hardware store to attach it to the radiator. The H75 is a good choice for a small form factor case like this one because of its flexible and relatively narrow tubes. We looped the tubes toward the front of the case, then back, to keep them out of the way of the radiator. We experimented with intake vs. exhaust and push vs. pull; in the end , we went with push exhaust (though pull exhaust is shown in the photos).

Something to Crow About

For a micro-tower, the RVZ01 has particularly accessible areas for the video card, storage devices, and power supply. We've had buzz-killing frustrations installing those components into smaller enclosures before, so the design of this chassis was definitely to our liking. Unfortunately, the case's smaller dimensions meant that cooling was a challenge. The GTX 780 Ti was getting plenty of air, but we struggled to push the CPU beyond its stock specifications. We first ran it up to 4.2GHz, but in extended testing under load, temps were hovering at 90 C when running the x264 encoding benchmark. That's not good, and too hot for our tastes. We've overclocked with the H75 in a tight space before (February 2014 issue), so we knew the cooler could handle the task. Upon investigation, we realized the case's stock "slim" fan that we attached to the Corsair H75's radiator doesn't have a lot of focused air pressure, so it's not great for cooling a rad. (Silverstone makes some excellent high-pressure fans, but they won't fit here.) There's also no intake fan in this part of the case, and no exhaust fans at all. Because of these issues, we ended up running the CPU at stock clocks, but with the motherboard's "Multi-Core Enhancement" pushing all CPU cores to the same speed when under load. Without MCE or manual tweaking, several cores will run below the chip's "turbo boost" rating of 3.9GHz.

We had much better luck with the video card. Despite the GTX 780 Ti having a stock cooler, we were able to overclock the core by 100MHz and the memory by 400MHz (effective), thanks in part to the 120mm intake fan right next to the card. At 4K/UHD, we sustained over 80 FPS in Batman Arkham City, with just PhysX and anti-aliasing disabled. A more demanding game like Hitman Absolution was in the mid-40s, and Tomb Raider (2013) was in the low 30s. That's still very respectable for a single GPU with a stock cooler. Our seemingly "underpowered" 450-watt power supply chugged right along and was totally stable. We plugged in a power meter and discovered that the system didn't draw over 350 watts during the gaming benchmarks, which would be the heaviest real-world usage.

This build was an experiment from the start, so a lack of CPU overclocking was more a learning experience than a shortfall. There's only so much space in a micro-tower to get fancy with CPU cooling. You're probably better off with a "cube" micro-tower for that.

Benchmarks

ZERO

POINT

Premiere Pro CS6 (sec) 2,000 2,544 (-21.2%)
 
Stitch.Efx 2.0 (sec) 831 829 
ProShow Producer 5.0 (sec) 1,446 1415
x264 HD 5.0 (fps) 21.1 17 (-19.5%)
Batmans Arkam City (fps) 76 78 
3 DMark 11 5,847  5,393 (-7.7%)

The zero-point machine compared here consists of a 3.2GHz Core i7-3930K and 16GB of Corsair DDR3/1600 on an Asus P9X79 Deluxe motherboard. It has a GeForce GTX 690, a Corsair Neutron GTX SSD, and 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.

Try Out Microsoft's Windows 10 Technical Preview Today

Posted: 01 Oct 2014 10:34 AM PDT

Windows 10 Technical Preview on a Laptop

Kick Windows 10's tires for free

Microsoft surprised quite a few people yesterday when it unveiled its next generation of Windows. It wasn't that Microsoft announced a new version of Windows, but that it decided to skip over Windows 9 and go straight to Windows 10. The reason behind the decision is because the new version is the beginning of a new era for the Windows platform, so Microsoft decided it warranted a numerical skip. Curious about the new OS? If you join the Windows Insider program (free), you can download and install the Windows 10 Technical Preview today (also free).

"As a member of the Windows Insider community, you will have an active role in helping us build Windows 10 and be among the first to see new stuff," Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc explains in a blog post. "You will automatically receive new builds as we release them with the latest features we're experimenting with – and our freshest bugs. Some of these features may not be fully 'baked' – meaning they may not work correctly as you are seeing these features as we work on them. And there's no guarantee that what you see will be part of the final release. But as a Windows Insider, you'll have the ability to impact and influence those types of product decisions."

Keep in mind that this is pre-release software you'd be dealing with, so it's probably not wise to install the Technical Preview on a mission critical system or any other rig that favors reliability. However, if you're curious about Windows 10 and want to help shape the direction it goes in, this is your chance to give it a spin and let your voice be heard.

There's a Windows Feedback app you can use to report any issues you run into, or to simply tell Microsoft, "Hey, I don't like this feature and that feature," but hopefully with more detail than that.

Also bear in mind that what you see today isn't the whole Windows 10 package. The final version will ship in 2015, and by then, it's likely to look and act a bit differently than what the Technical Preview portrays at this moment in time.

All that said, if you still want to check out the Windows 10 Technical Preview, click here and follow the instructions.

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NVIDIA Shield 32GB LTE Gaming Tablet Now Available for $399

Posted: 01 Oct 2014 10:16 AM PDT

Nvidia Shield tabletDouble the storage and with LTE connectivity

For those of you who've been waiting for Nvidia to start shipping its Shield gaming tablet with 32GB of on-board storage and 4G LTE connectivity baked in, the wait is now over -- you can order the Shield 32GB LTE gaming tablet for $399 direct from Nvidia's website. That's twice as much storage as the 16GB model, plus you get LTE connectivity in addition to Wi-Fi access, additions that come at a $100 premium.

Otherwise, both Shield tablets are the same. Both versions pack an 8-inch Full HD 1080p (1920x1200) display, Tegra K1 SoC (192 core Kepler GPU, 2.2GHz ARM Cortex A15 CPU), 2GB of RAM, front-facing stereo speakers with dual bass reflex port and built-in microphone, 802.11n Wi-Fi (2x2 MIMO), Bluetooth 4.0, 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo port, micro-SIM, 5MP front-facing camera, 5MB rear-facing camera with auto-focus, mini HDMI output, micro USB 2.0 port, microSD card slot, DirectStylus 2 with 3D Paint, and various software bits, including Android KitKat.

In addition to the tablet itself, there are some accessories available, including a wireless controller, tablet cover, an additional stylus, and an additional AC adapter.

You can order the Shield tablet in 16GB Wi-Fi ($299) and 32GB Wi-Fi + LTE ($399) from Nvidia's website.

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Third Place Up for Grabs in Tablet Market Share

Posted: 01 Oct 2014 08:54 AM PDT

Samsung TabletSamsung's and Apple's share of the tablet market is eroding, though they still lead the pack

It will be tough (not impossible) to catch up with and/or surpass Apple or Samsung in the tablet race, though the sprint for third place is a ferocious one led by Lenovo, Amazon, and Asus, as well as other "emerging vendors," according to ABI Research. Lenovo is especially well positioned to take the No. 3 spot in tablet market share and is expected to ship 21 million slates by 2019.

That would give Lenovo a 7.3 percent share of the overall market and solid footing in third place. The potential to increase its standing is particularly high with each passing quarter, as Samsung and Apple can't seem to maintain any kind of forward-moving momentum.

Between the first and second quarters of 2014, Samsung saw a 35 percent decline, while Apple suffered a 19 percent drop. The two firms' combined share of the market slid from 72 percent to 66 percent during the same time period, ABI Research says.

"The questionable need and longer lifecycle of tablets is creating a stall in advanced and mature markets," says research analyst Stephanie Van Vactor. "This stall is giving other vendors the opportunity to close the prominent gap and claim third place. The dent emerging vendors are creating in the market is impressive, but continuing that success is going to be the real challenge."

For consumers, the positive in all this intense competition is the potential for prices to drop. Alternately, price points could stay the same, but tablets could come with more features baked in as vendors try to one-up each other.

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Corsair Flash Voyager Vega Boasts USB 3.0 Connectivity in a Compact Package

Posted: 01 Oct 2014 06:32 AM PDT

Corsair Flash Voyager VegaLow profile storage on the go

You only need to bump into a standard USB thumb drive protruding from your laptop once to realize why companies make smaller alternatives. Sure, they're easier to lose, but if you've ever ruined a USB port by being clumsy, that's a tradeoff you're willing to make. There are several options, including Corsair's new Flash Voyager Vega family of ultra compact USB 3.0 flash drives.

Slim and low profile, these new drives measure less than 5mm thin and 24mm long. Each one comes with a built-in key ring loop so that you'll only lose your flash drive as often as you misplace your keys (which may or may not be a good thing!).

They also feature scratch-resistant hard chrome plated zinc alloy enclosures, which add a bit of aesthetic zip and ruggedness. And when you're transferring data, a discrete blue LED lights up.

The Flash Voyager Vega drives are available in 16GB ($17), 32GB ($25), and 64GB ($45) capacities (prices are MSRP) and are backed by 5-year warranties.

Corsair Flash Voyager Vega in Radio

What about performance? Read and write metrics aren't listed on any of the Flash Voyager Vega product pages. We've reached out to Corsair for rated performance numbers and will update this post when/if we receive a response.

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Newegg Daily Deals: WD Black Series 4TB HDD, Asus 24-inch LED Monitor, and More!

Posted: 01 Oct 2014 05:55 AM PDT

WD Black Series 4TB HDDnewegg logo

Top Deal:

It's easier than you think to fill up a 1TB hard drive. Those vacation photos and videos add up, as do the content in that special hidden folder that only you know about. Before you know it, you're having to delete data just to make room for something new you want to save. What if you didn't have to do that? One possible solution is the topic of today's top deal -- a WD Black Series 4TB Internal Hard Drive for $200 with free shipping (normally $235 - use coupon code: [EMCPAGP56]). This is a 7200 RPM drive with 64MB of cache and a SATA 6Gbps interface. It's also backed by a 5-year warranty - not back for roughly a nickel per gigabyte (after coupon code).

Other Deals:

Asus 24-inch 144Hz 1ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD 3D Monitor for $250 with free shipping (normally $270 - use coupon code: [EMCPAGP22])

AMD A10-7850K Kaveri 12 Compute Cores (4 CPU + 8 GPU) 3.7GHz Socket FM2+ 95W Desktop Processor for $170 with free shipping (normally $180 - use coupon code: [EMCPAGP85])

Asus GeForce GTX 780 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card for $306 with free shipping (normally $350 - use coupon code: [EMCPAGP88]; additional $30 Mail-in rebate)

G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory for $144 with free shipping (normally $160 - use coupon code: [EMCPAGP63])

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