General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article


GOG.com Kicks Off Autumn Sales with Free Games

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 01:19 PM PST

GOG SaleGet titles like Mount & Blade and The Witcher 2 at no cost

GOG just launched its 2014 DRM-Free Big Fall Sale with plenty of deals, plus a free game with the chance to snag more no-cost titles. For the next 48 hours, you can grab Mount & Blade for free from GOG's website, no strings attached. Other freebies include The Witcher 2: Assassin's of Kings and the movie The Gamers: Director's Cut, though you have to earn them by visiting GOG's website every day and collecting special stamps. Grab seven and you're golden.

When you're not collecting stamps or playing Mount & Blade, you can browse the site's collection of discounted titles -- there are over 700 games on sale, with discounts that go as deep as 90 percent. There will also be daily deals and flash sales to take advantage of.

For example, the Ultimate Dungeons and Dragons bundle is back by popular demand. It's marked down to $21.10 for the next 24 hours and includes a collection of ten D&D classics -- once the deal expires, it will be shoved aside for another daily offer.

Check it out, and happy gaming.

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Asus ROG Readies Maxwell for Water, Announces Poseidon GTX 980

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 12:39 PM PST

Asus ROG Poseidon GTX 980Hybrid thermal solution offers both air and liquid cooling options

Feeling indecisive these days? Don't sweat it -- Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) this week announced its Poseidon GTX 980 graphics card with DirectCU H20, a hybrid cooling solution capable of keeping temps at bay by air or water, dealer's choice. The benefit of having both is that you can cool the card by air today and make the leap to liquid cooling down the line, if that's your longer-term goal.

According to Asus, the new card runs up to 27C cooler than reference (with water), is three times quieter, and offers 10 percent faster gaming performance in games like Watch Dogs. That's all thanks to the custom vapor chamber that comes in direct contact with the GPU, along with copper heat pipes and extended cooling fins.

"ROG Poseidon GTX 980 is also loaded with ROG technologies and innovations, including dual dust-proof fans for increased card longevity, die-cast thermal armor for improved cooling in the crucial MOSFET area, Digi+ voltage-regulation modules (VRMs) with black metallic capacitors for incredible stability and up to a 5X-longer lifespan than reference," Asus says.

Asus ROG Poseidon GTX 980 Opened

This is the first Maxwell-based card to receive the ROG treatment, which in addition the above includes things like LED lighting and a sturdy backplate.

Connectitivy options consist of a native Dual-Link DVI-I port, HDMI 2.0 output, and three Native DisplayPort 1.2 outputs.

No word yet on when the card will be available or for how much.

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Asus X205TA Windows Laptop Pops Up Online Starting at $179

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 12:17 PM PST

Asus X205TAThe return of the netbook?

We're beginning to notice more low-cost Windows laptops in the $200 range, though one thing we haven't seen is a manufacturer revive the netbook nomenclature. Fair enough, since these machines are more powerful than yesterday's netbooks, and generally cheaper too. The least expensive so far is the Asus X205TA Signature Edition, a $199 laptop that's been reduced to $179 in the Microsoft Store.

The Asus X205TA sports an 11.6-inch HD (1366x768) display powered by an Intel Atom Z3735F quad-core processor (1.33GHz to 1.83GHZ, 2MB L2 cache) and 2GB of DDR3L-1333 memory. It also features 32GB of eMMC storage, a microSD card slot, 480p webcam, 802.11n Wi-Fi (Miracast enabled), Bluetooth, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, micro HDMI output, headphone/microphone combo port, 2-cell battery good for up to 12 hours of run time, and Windows 8.1 with Bing (32-bit).

Asus calls it an ultraportable companion, a seemingly accurate description considering it measures 0.68 inches by 7.61 inches by 11.25 inches and weighs just 2.11 pounds.

It's available now at the Microsoft Store, and also on Amazon, albeit for $199.

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Watch Out Subscription Music Services, YouTube Just Entered the Game

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 11:38 AM PST

YouTube MusicYouTube Music Key is a slightly better name than Google Play Music All Access

Google has figured out there's big potential in the streaming music business, it just has a hard time coming up with names that don't roll around the mouth like a fistful of chipped marbles rubbed in hot sauce. By that we mean first there was Google Play Music All Access, and coming soon, Google is getting its YouTube subsidiary into the subscription music game with YouTube Music Key.

To Google's credit, it isn't the only company having a difficult time naming its music services (Samsung Milk Music, anyone?), and Google Play Music All Access is now just Google Play Music, which sounds much better. But whatever, this about the content and not the name. So, beginning today, there will be a new home just for music in your YouTube app for Android and iOS, and on YouTube's website. It will show your favorite music videos, recommended music playlists, and playlists of trending music across YouTube. You'll find all this under a new Music tab.

As for YouTube Music Key, it's an ad-free subscription service that's rolling out in beta form. Like Google Play Music, it will debut at the promotional price of $7.99 per month before going up to $9.99 per month. It will include background play, offline viewing, and a subscription to Google Play Music with its catalog of over 30 million songs.

"Thanks to your music videos, remixes, covers, and more, you've made YouTube the biggest music service on the planet. To turn YouTube into your perfect music service, we're launching YouTube Music Key as a beta with our biggest music fans first, and then we'll bring YouTube Music Key to the whole world together," YouTube says. "So, if you see an invite in your app or email, try it out for six months for free."

While we haven't been able to confirm this yet, CNET claims that a subscription to either service includes access to both, so if you're currently a Google Play Music subscriber, you'll get YouTube Music Key at no additional cost. If that's the case, it will be interesting to see if those who are paying $9.99/month for Google Play Music will be dropped down to $7.99, or if that will only happen by cancelling service and re-upping through YouTube Music Key's promotional period (which is currently by invite only).

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Microsoft Gives Office 365 Subscribers "Clutter" to De-Clutter Outlook

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 10:52 AM PST

ClutterDe-cluttering your inbox

Microsoft this week started rolling out Clutter to Office 365 business customers to help them better manage their emails. Previously known as Delve, Microsoft's Clutter tool uses machine learning to de-clutter your inbox by moving lower priority messages into a dedicated folder. In theory, what gets left behind are more urgent emails that need your immediate attention.

Clutter works its email management mojo by learning from your actions the types of emails you're most likely to ignore. Using that information, it then begins automatically moving less important messages out of sight as they arrive, though you can still access them any time you want.

"It gets smarter over time, learning from your prior actions with similar messages, and assessing things like the type of content and even how you are addressed in the message," Microsoft explains in a blog post. "The Clutter experience is personalized to each individual and reflects an email experience that adapts to your actions and preferences without you having to do anything. The information Clutter learns from each user's actions are only applied to that user's experience and are not shared with anyone else."

Though it's being rolled out right now, Clutter is disabled by default. You can turn it on as soon as it's available, and if you end up not liking how it works, you can turn it back off at any time.

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Feets-on with the Hendo Hoverboard (Video)

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 09:49 AM PST

The hover board is here and we've ridden it

Ever since I saw Back to the Future Part II in 1989, I've had dreams of riding a hover board. Twenty-five hover board–less years later, I had lost all hope of ever getting my feet on one, that is, until now. The hover board is here, and I have ridden it. 

Check out our feet-on impressions of the Hendo Hoverboard in the video above. 

Created by California-based company Arx Pax, the Hendo hover board uses a magnetic field architecture to transmit electromagnetic energy. One downside here is that it needs a metal surface to hover. 

As someone who skates and enjoys digging his wheels into the ground to carve out the asphalt beneath me, I must admit that the hover board is much harder to control, since there are no wheels that grip anything. The board hovers almost an inch off the floor, and trying to turn on it generally leads to you falling off. The hover engines are also surprisingly loud.  

The board hovers roughly an inch off the ground.

The Hendo Hoverboard currently hovers a little under an inch off the ground. 

In the grand scheme of things, however, the Hendo hover board is really just a proof of concept for a much more ambitious endeavor. The real deal here is what the technology can offer to the transportation sector, particularly trains. Arx Pax tells us that unlike the Maglev trains in Japan and Germany, its technology is much cheaper and much more maneuverable. So maneuverable that vehicles should be able to turn on a dime. 

In addition to transportation, Arx Pax sees its hover engines being used to one day levitate buildings. The company asserts that this could be used to protect structures in areas that are prone to earthquakes.

It remains to be seen whether any of this will end up panning out as intended, but the company will soon be selling a white box developer kit with four hover engines that users can experiment with, for $200. If all else fails, hopefully we get some hover parks out of this.

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday Update Squashes 19-Year-Old Windows Bug

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 08:51 AM PST

Windows 95 SetupA critical bug went unaddressed since Windows 95

The second Tuesday of every month is known as Patch Tuesday for Windows users, and if you didn't install yesterday's batch of security updates, there's a good reason why you might want to put it on your short-term list of things to do. One of the patches in yesterday's Tuesday roundup addresses a critical bug in Windows that went unnoticed for 19 years and is present in every version of the OS from Windows 95 on up.

A security researcher for IBM discovered the bug, which an attacker use can use for drive-by attacks to remotely run code and take over a victim's PC. The vulnerability also allows a remote attacker to sidestep the Enhanced Protected Mode (EPM) sandbox in Internet Explorer 11, as well as the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) anti-exploitation tool Microsoft offers for free, the researcher says.

The bug affects Windows Server platforms as well. It's been compared to Heartbleed in potential severity, and though it doesn't appear it's been exploited in the wild, nor does a proof-of-concept exist, now that it's been made public, there could be attacks on unpatched systems.

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Newegg Daily Deals: Dell 23-inch IPS Monitor, Intel 530 Series 120GB SSD, and More!

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 06:24 AM PST

Dell P2314H Monitornewegg logo

Top Deal:

We love living on the cutting edge of technology, so we won't begrudge all those pricey 4K monitors and emerging 5K panels, and if a manufacturer wants to release an 8K monitor for a king's ransom, then so be it. Of course, our budgets always slap us back to reality, and there's no shame in owning a Full HD 1080p panel, especially since they're less demanding on your GPU for gaming at their native res. If you're in the market for one, check out today's top deal for a Dell P3214H 23-inch IPS Monitor for $150 with free shipping (normally $190 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWW83]). It has nice viewing angles, can switch between portrait and landscape mode, and mulitple connectivity options (VGA, DisplayPort, DVI-D, USB).

Other Deals:

Intel 530 Series 2.5-inch 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive for $65 with free shipping

AMD A10-7850K Kaveri 12 Compute Cores (4 CPU + 8 GPU) 3.7GHz Socket FM2+ 95W Desktop Processor for $150 with free shipping (normally $160 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWW224])

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit for $80 (normally $100 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWW89])

Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card for $240 with free shipping (normally $290 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWW42]; additional $30 Mail-in rebate)

MMORPG News

MMORPG News


Moonrise: Setting the Tone

Posted: 10 Nov 2014 05:12 PM PST

Setting the Tone

Today we're discussing the tone of our game's story. Tone is one of the hardest things to define for a game, especially before you start writing. Everyone can sit down, talk about touchstones, and agree on a target, but at the end of the day, tone is something that develops during the creation process, not something you just decide to do in advance.

Elder Scrolls Online: Time to Slow It Down, ZeniMax

Posted: 10 Nov 2014 05:30 PM PST

Time to Slow It Down, ZeniMax

Timing is everything. The last time in this space, I wrote about The Elder Scrolls Online rebounding from mistakes and negative first impressions moving forward. Since that was published, a major error happened with the latest round of patching, causing discrepancies between what was supposed to be included and what actually made it to the live server, as well as additional bugs, and, for a time, major login errors.

EverQuest II: Altar of Malice All-Access Play Begins

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 04:42 AM PST

Altar of Malice All-Access Play Begins

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that the EverQuest II expansion, Altar of Malice, is now available to All-Access members who can jump into the game to start adventuring through the eleventh expansion. Players will be able to progress to level 100 and have new quests, gear and zones to explore.

Runescape: Lost City of the Elves Opens Its Gates

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 04:38 AM PST

Lost City of the Elves Opens Its Gates

Runescape players can now enter the entire Lost City of the Elves, Prifddinas. The city first opened its gates in September and with the latest update, the entire city is available for player exploration. Prifddinas specifically caters to the high level Runescape player community with several features that can only be found here.

Pillars of Eternity: Pre-Orders Open Up Worldwide

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 04:24 AM PST

Pre-Orders Open Up Worldwide

Paradox Interactive has announced that pre-orders of Pillars of Eternity have opened up worldwide. Players can grab a copy of the game from various digital retailers that will include in-game items and much more. In addition, Josh Sawyer will be on hand on November 13th for a special live stream event that will showcase never before seen locations and game play.

EverQuest: The Darkened Sea Flows Into Game

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 04:19 AM PST

The Darkened Sea Flows Into Game

The twenty-first EverQuest expansion has been released and will give players lots of time at the beach in pursuit of new quests, new gear and much more. Called "The Darkened Sea", the expansion gives players an opportunity to revisit characters and locations from the past that have been reimagined in new ways. Of note is the new "mount keyring" that places all mounts in a single location in order to free up inventory space.

ArcheAge: Aurorian Upheaval

Posted: 09 Nov 2014 06:19 PM PST

Aurorian Upheaval

Trion Worlds dropped the ball this week. A triple-whammy of bad decisions has managed to push players away from the game just in time for the holidays. Let's take a look at what went wrong.

General: Recent Unanswered & Unanswerable Questions

Posted: 10 Nov 2014 02:48 PM PST

Recent Unanswered & Unanswerable Questions

While I won't go as far as to say it usually happens, neither is it uncommon that when I look back at the recent past in order to decide what to write about, I end up with unanswered or unanswerable questions. This is at least partly due to how my mind works in relation to the MMOG space; I seldom take what I see or hear at face value. Some of the titles I've had cause to wonder about lately are Overwatch, Dawngate, WildStar and Otherland.

MMORPG Reviews

MMORPG Reviews


EverQuest Launches Its 21st Expansion

Posted: 12 Nov 2014 12:51 AM PST

EverQuest‘s 21st expansion is already available. Titled ‘The Darkened Sea‘, it introduces new zones and items and also increases the level cap to 105. Players will be able to return to the Buried Sea where familiar storylines and characters in brand-new areas as well as re-imagined areas await. “With The Darkened Sea, we wanted to […]

The post EverQuest Launches Its 21st Expansion appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

WildStar Gets Major Content Update

Posted: 11 Nov 2014 08:25 AM PST

Mystery of the Genesis Prime, the biggest patch yet, arrives to WildStar, providing players with brand-new lore, content, new zones, quests, enhancements to the Runecrafting system in order to make raiding more accessible as well as some fixes. “It's been a long time coming, but I think the players will be pleased with the direction […]

The post WildStar Gets Major Content Update appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

InnoGames Unveils Elvenar

Posted: 11 Nov 2014 07:35 AM PST

InnoGames has just communicated the birth of Elvenar, their new fantasy-based strategy MMO game focusing on 3D battles and city-building. Closed beta testing for Internet browsers is scheduled to begin in January and we’ve also learnt there are plans for mobile versions as well. Elvenar will allow players to opt for either Humans or Elves […]

The post InnoGames Unveils Elvenar appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

NBA All Net Launch Giveaway

Posted: 11 Nov 2014 01:35 AM PST

NBA All Net is going to launch on iOS on November 12 (Android users will have to wait a few more days until November 26), which we want to celebrate by offering you a gift pack packed fulled with rare items. These codes will be valid from now until December 31. Each gift pack includes: 2 Rare Cards, […]

The post NBA All Net Launch Giveaway appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

Giveaway with Gift Packs for MU Online

Posted: 11 Nov 2014 01:03 AM PST

Season 9 arrives to MU Online, introducing to the game several changes concerning the PK and Pet systems, as well as new content, such as the new Muun mounts. And we have a special treat just for you. Whether you’ve already played MU Online or are new to the game, you’ll be amazed by this giveaway. From now […]

The post Giveaway with Gift Packs for MU Online appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

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