F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin + Reborn, an action-horror FPS continuation, is available now for Windows, DRM-free on GOG.com with a 60% launch discount.
Where the original F.E.A.R. succeeded in offering a terrifying, refined first person game - F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin succeeds even more so. The sequel is more open and varied with less linear environments, new gameplay mechanics like movable cover, and even drivable combat mechs. Still, the basic formula remains unchanged - the slo-mo, refined gunplay, effective AI, and a thick horror atmosphere are back in all their gory. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin + Reborn which can still impress graphically and gameplay-wise, is arguably the best in the series. A high-quality shooter even today.
This pack includes the Reborn expansion pack with four new levels, a twisted story, and a brand new perspective from behind the mask of replica soldier Foxtrot 813.
Prepare for your second encounter assault in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin + Reborn, available DRM-free on GOG.com! The launch discount will last for one week, until Tuesday, March 24, at 10:59 AM GMT.
More troubled times for Google+. Just under a year ago, the social network had a major shakeup where Vic Gundotra, the then-head of Google+, left Google. Dave Besbris took over and has been running the social network for about 11 months, but now he's out, too. The new new head of Google+ is Bradley Horowitz, who was promoted from VP of product.
In eleven months under Besbris, Google+ appears to have accomplished almost nothing. The biggest—and pretty much only—feature that launched during that time was voting polls. According to a report from TechCrunch, morale at Google+ has been pretty low since Gundotra left, and over half the original staff has left to take on other projects at Google (which many Google employees are free to do). The blame for this doesn't necessarily all fall on Besbris, but the report mentions that employees weren't given many incentives to stay.
Comments from a few high-ranking Googlers seem to indicate that, as the original reports said, Google+ will be split up into several products. It seems that Photos and Hangouts will be split out from G+ somehow, and the social part is now casually referred to as "the stream." For instance, here's Horowitz's statement on his promotion: "Just wanted to confirm that the rumors are true -- I’m excited to be running Google’s Photos and Streams products!" And Sundar Pichai, SVP of Android, Chrome, and Google Apps, told Forbes "I think increasingly you’ll see us focus on communications, photos, and the Google+ Stream as three important areas, rather than being thought of as one area."
"There are now, depending on how confirmed you want a planet to be, up to over 1,000 confirmed planets," Stanford's Bruce Macintosh told an audience at the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. That's in part because of the ease of the transit method of exoplanet detection, which watches for changes in light as the planets pass between their host star and us. "With a sufficient camera, you can do this with a tiny telescope," Macintosh said, pointing to the HATNet system of 11cm telescopes.
But the transit method also tells us next to nothing about the planet, simply its size relative to the star it's orbiting. Radial velocity measurements, which look at the planet's gravitational influence on its host star, can tell us the mass. Combined, the two can tell us the density, which can provide some hints as to what the planet's composition is.
That's very little information to go on if we're trying to assess things like planet formation models or habitability. To really understand a planet, we have to start looking at the composition of its atmosphere, and there are only a handful of planets we've been able to do that with. And all of them have relied on a technique called adaptive optics. These systems correct for the distortion of the atmosphere by using a mirror that can be deformed to compensate for it.
Leonard Nimoy: 2012 College of Fine Arts Convocation Address
Leonard Nimoy, the actor best known for his role as Mr. Spock, the Vulcan first officer of the starship Enterprise from Star Trek: The Original Series, died on Friday at the age of 83. His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed to the New York Times that the cause of death was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Nimoy announced that he had the disease last year and attributed it to his decades-long smoking habit, which he had given up thirty years before.
As Spock, Nimoy brought joy to millions who identified with the half-human, half-Vulcan who was a hyper-logical hero on his starship but who struggled with human emotions and was often an outcast to his human counterparts. (Well, Spock suffered the insufferable ribbing from Bones more frequently than other Star Trek characters.) His Vulcan salute—and his phrase “live long and prosper”—became a greeting shared frequently between Star Trek fans across the world.
On a recent Saturday morning, Craig Adams stood outside the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was sunny but cold. Adams, who had turned 40 the day before, wore white sneakers and a black T-shirt over a long-sleeve shirt. A fuzz of thinning hair capped his still-youthful face. His appearance would have been unremarkable if not for the red splotch of fake blood on the crotch of his white trousers. The stain had the intended effect: drivers rounding the corner were slowing down just enough to see the sign he was holding, which read “No Medical Excuse for Genital Abuse.”
Next to him, Lauren Meyer, a 33-year-old mother of two boys, held another sign, a white poster adorned only with the words: “Don’t Cut His Penis." She had on a white hoodie with a big red heart and three red droplets and a pair of leopard-print slipper-boots to keep her feet warm for the several hours she would be outside. Meyer’s first son is circumcised; she sometimes refers to herself as a “regret mother” for having allowed the procedure to take place.
It was two days after Christmas. Adams and Meyer had each driven about an hour to stand by the side of a road holding up signs about penises. On that same day, a woman stood alone at what qualifies as a busy intersection in the small town of Show Low, Arizona. She also wore white trousers with a red crotch and held aloft anti-circumcision signs. A few more people did the same in the San Francisco Bay area.
My first captain in Sunless Sea was a natural philosopher known as Captain Shaq. He enjoyed a few brief moments of fame carrying news and resources back and forth between dismal ports of the Unterzee (the underground ocean which provides the setting for Sunless Sea), but it wasn’t long at all before he fell onto hard times. Unable to afford food or fuel, Captain Shaq fought off mutinies and engaged in cannibalism before abandoning his ship and the Unterzee itself in favor of the surface world.
After Shaq I took control of a former solider named Krauser, haunted by the horrors of battle. He was much better at naval combat than Shaq was, and so prevailed more readily against the rampaging pirates and squiggly horrors of the Unterzee. He gathered a skilled crew and managed to carve out a decent living for himself through the smuggling of illicit human souls. He escorted his mysterious cook to the Sea of the Lillies and even fell in love with a woman in Fallen London, all while seeking clues regarding the location of the bones of his father.
That’s just the kind of game Sunless Sea is.
Misadventure on the low seas
Sunless Sea is a roguelike game of survival, exploration, and piracy set in a world that is decidedly Weird — and that’s Weird with a capital “W.” This is a game made to appeal to fans of that corner of the horror/sci-fi genre known as Weird fiction, a style popularized in the past by writers like H.P. Lovecraft and carried on today in the form of the New Weird by figures like China Miéville and Jeff Vandermeer. If these names sound familiar (and these days there’s little excuse for now knowing who Lovecraft is) then you probably already know whether Weird appeals to you as a genre. If it does, then Sunless Sea is a fantastic way to get your fill of tentacles, spectral figures, and demonic rites.
Even if you aren’t a diehard fan of the Weird, though, Sunless Sea has a great deal to offer as an innovative, story-heavy roguelike. You begin the game by designing a captain and outfitting your ship, then set sail into the dark underground ocean to begin mapping your way through a collection of islands which change position from one playthrough to the next. Ports offer both rewards and danger, with random elements and your particular captain’s own statistics coming into play to determine the outcome.
In contrast to many roguelikes, Sunless Sea doesn’t feature character classes in the usual sense. Instead you’ll choose a backstory for your captain which will in turn influence your stats (which consist of things like Hearts, Mirrors, and Iron, responsible for defense, perception, and offense respectively) as well as providing you with a choice of victory conditions for your character. While many of your captains will die or simply run out of money and fuel and be forced into an ignominious retirement, it’s also possible to retire on your own terms or to win by accomplishing a particular task you determine at the start of the game. On my run as the solider Captain Krauser, for example, my long-term goal was to find the bones of my father, lost somewhere in the Unterzee.
When you find yourself approaching the end of your run, there are a variety of different ways to arrange for bonuses to carry into your next playthrough. Depending on your particular choices you may craft an ironclad will with which to leave your heir treasures, or you might take control of a rival captain who managed to get his hands on your former captain’s deck gun.
Tweeting while sailing
The gameplay in Sunless Sea can occasionally drag a bit, especially once you’ve explored most of the locations near your home port. That’s when it becomes necessary to undertake longer and longer journeys to advance the game. While these voyages can occasionally turn dangerous if your run into pirates or monsters, a bit too much of your time will be spent sailing through empty, though wonderfully moody, seas.
I fell into the awful habit of checking Twitter on my phone while absentmindedly sailing just to pass the time. I think the game would have been better off adding some sort of minor engaging activity, such as monitoring ship systems or tweaking the engines to get small boosts, to keep you focused during longer voyages. As it is, the “full power to the engines” option is much too fuel-costly to use except in cases of emergency.
Combat is another area of Sunless Sea which would benefit from a bit of tweaking. Interesting strategic options and powerful items become more common once you’ve amassed enough riches to upgrade your ship, but as this is roguelike you’ll be spending a lot more time in the game’s beginning stages, with a pathetic boat and weak gun that takes ages to fire. Early battles can often be extremely simplistic, with little in the way of strategy to think about. It can also be frustrating to be repeatedly forced to return to port in order to repair your fragile ships during the game’s opening portions.
Stories all the way down
But of course combat isn’t what Sunless Sea is all about. Instead it’s a game about stories, and in that sense it’s an astounding success. I put up with the lengthy sea voyages over and over again because every unexplored area of the map held fantastic and fascinating wonders. Landing in an unfamiliar port I never knew exactly what I would find. Each port holds its own weird tale, ranging from funny to horrifying, and you almost always have interesting choices to make which can result in rewards or doom.
The wide open Unterzee can cause some problems as well, since if you haven’t discovered a particular location you often have no idea at all where to start looking. This spells trouble when you have an important mission to complete and no clue as to where your goal might be — a common problem when dealing with the shady smuggling operation run out of Fallen London.
In the end, though, anything that pushes you to explore the world of Sunless Sea is directing your towards the game’s best features. It doesn’t matter, in the end, if you set off on a doomed one-way trip into the darkness, as you’ll be rewarded with wonderful bits of weird flavor. Even those geographic features you can’t actually land on add to the experience with their evocative and ominous names. The further you travel from your home port the more dangerous and bizarre your encounters will become; I lost track of the number of times I said “What the hell is that?!” when finding a new enemy or location.
My View
These are the criteria I consider most important for reviewing Sunless Sea.
Gameplay: 8/10
Sailing can drag a bit and early-stage combat would benefit from fleshing out, but the exploration, survival, and interactive fiction elements of Sunless Sea are rock solid.
Presentation: 8/10
The top-down view of the Unterzee and your ship works perfectly, and gives you the feeling that you are sailing across a lavishly detailed map. Locations and features are often flat-out beautiful. The soundtrack is phenomenal, though it’s a shame there aren’t more songs. Ship graphics could use some more variety and the portraits and icons used throughout the game are pretty bare-bones.
Replay Value: 8/10
The best thing about Sunless Sea is the mystery and unpredictability of it, so if you play the game enough to become familiar with all the locations it will lose a bit of its luster. The randomly shifting maps and varying end-goals are a great way to enable a variety of playthroughs.
Atmosphere: 10/10
A stunningly creative setting comes through in the game’s music, visuals, and writing to create one of the most memorable gaming experiences around.
Overall: 8.5/10
Fantastically weird and powerfully written, Sunless Sea is sure to satisfy genre fans and could very well make some new converts into the world of Weird fiction.
GameCrate reviews represent the opinions of the GameCrate writer who wrote them, and not necessarily those of Newegg. In most cases, GameCrate reviews are performed using products or samples provided by the manufacturer/producer of the product.
Review: Sunless Sea is a wonderfully weird nautical roguelike
It didn't take long for the Voltera V-One circuit printer to blow past its $70,000 goal on Kickstarter. Within the the first 35 minutes, it hit the $100,000 mark, and a day later (today), it's approaching $231,000 with 28 days left to go. Obviously there's quite a bit of interest in a machine that can create a prototype PCB from your work bench, complete with conductive ink to create the traces and an insulating ink as a mask between layers.
"These boards aren't meant to replace mass manufactured PCBs - this is a prototyping tool that helps you get there faster," the developers explain. "How many times have you tossed out a board because you used the wrong footprint or because you forgot a pull-up resistor? If you're anything like us... more times than you'd like to admit. Now you can quickly test an idea without wasting money or two weeks of your time!"
Ease of use is the name of the game here. There's only a single button and the ink cartridges snap on and off magnetically. The included software holds the user's hand every step of the way and handles file conversions.
In addition to creating PCBs, it can function as a solder paste dispenser as well. So if you have multiple pre-fabbed boards that need to be populated, the Voltera V-One can handle that, and will also provide heat for the reflowing process.
Early Bird pricing of $1,199 is all gone, so the next cheapest cost of entry is $1,499 for the second batch (estimated to ship in January 2016), followed by $1,799 for the first batch (estimated to ship September 2015).
While DDR4 has been available to consumers for over half a year now, it hasn’t been as quick to catch on as manufacturers have hoped. DDR3 is by and large the most popular RAM type on the market, and part of the reason is that DDR4 can only be used on Intel’s X99 chipset, which is more expensive than its predecessor.
More important, however, is that the benefits of DDR4 over DDR3 aren’t immediately obvious, which is why tech and hardware publication AnandTech took it upon themselves to thoroughly test its real world performance.
According AnandTech’s tests, DDR4 didn’t show any significant improvement over DDR3 in both video game performance and video conversion applications. When used with video games like Sleeping Dogs and converting video to a Hybrid x265 format, AnandTech’s tests revealed that DDR4 RAM actually performs worse than DDR3 RAM. Overall, the performance variance between the DDR4 and DDR3 was under 10 percent.
While DDR4 has a faster clock speed than DDR3 RAM, it suffers from similar latency when compared to DDR3. In terms of initiating a read, DDR4-2133 takes 14.06 nanoseconds to initiate a read compared to the 13.75 nanoseconds of DDR3-1600, which translates to no real latency difference between the two types of RAM.
The only salient benefit of DDR4 is the reduced voltage used to run DDR4, which is 1.2 volts compared to the 1.5 volts of DDR3. While the power consumption difference might not be significant for home users, we could see real savings if DDR4 was adopted in heavy duty applications like server farms.
What do you think about DDR4? Do you see yourself adopting the new standard any time soon?
Being an independent game developer comes with a certain number of caveats such as a lack of marketing power and smaller budgets to work with but it also comes with quite a few benefits such as the unfettered ability to make some truly creative design choices. Developer Alien Trap Games made several such choices when it turned what was supposed to be a successor to its first game, the sci-fi platformer/shooter Capsized, into a metroidvania-style platformer-RPG with a unique Ancient Greek pottery motif. Apotheon has a little something for everyone including fun platforming, tense combat, massive explorable environments, and even some light RPG elements which it houses in a beautifully-rendered world based on Ancient Greek mythology. While some of its moving parts may not run as smoothly as Alien Trap intended them to, Apotheon is still a wonderfully-crafted game that does its source material proud.
Of Gods and Men
If you’ve played Sony’s God of War franchise, Apotheon’s plot will paint an eerily similar picture: after the god Zeus abandons the race of men and convinces several of his fellow deities to do the same, his spurned wife Hera decides to undermine his efforts and recruits the mortal Greek warrior Nikandreos to aid her in laying Zeus and his brethren low. As Nikandreos, players explore the vast kingdom of Olympus and venture into the realms of gods such as Apollo, Poseidon, and Artemis, fighting through their cohorts and eventually doing battle with the gods themselves to wrest their unique artifacts from their grasp in order to gain the power necessary to challenge Zeus himself.
Apotheon’s pottery art motif is used to great effect in bringing each god’s unique world to life. The green-hued swamps and forests of Artemis’s realm feel vastly different from the terrifyingly claustrophobic darkness of Hades’ underworld or the bright yet deadly architecture of Apollo’s palace. There are also several hub worlds where players can purchase new equipment and upgrade Nikandreos’s skills using the treasure they earn on their adventures. More sinister players can even commit crimes such as theft and murder while in these hub worlds, similar to the sort of dastardly freedom one has when playing games such as Skyrim. However, the massive amount of wrath you incur if caught is rarely worth the extra goodies you can nab, giving Apotheon’s sense of freedom a very noticeable limit.
The Tools of the Trade
Apotheon’s opening moments do a great job of teaching the basic controls for both exploration and combat and the controls themselves are both fluid and easy-to-learn (though having the attack button mapped to the right trigger on PlayStation 4 takes some getting used to). Combat is handled in a twin-stick manner when using a controller with the left control stick handling where Nikandreos moves and the right stick determining where he looks when aiming his attacks. While the controls where very conducive for platforming and exploration, I found combat to be a little more problematic due to Apotheon’s spotty hit-detection and most enemies’ habits of jankily running around to avoid my strikes.
Fortunately, Apotheon’s large variety of different armaments helps to keep combat from feeling like a complete chore. Nikandreos can wield several different weapon types including swords, daggers, clubs, and spears, each of which have their own attack speeds and hit-boxes. Since all weapons have a limited durability, players must carefully manage which weapons they are using since many of the game’s tougher battles can be made a lot less tough if you go in with a powerful flaming sword instead of a dinky low-quality dagger. Players can also find reagents dropped by defeated foes and utilize Apotheon’s crafting system to create health potions and other useful tools on the fly, helping to avoid the need to make constant trips back to the hub worlds to restock.
The combat is also on full display in Apotheon’s local competitive multiplayer mode in which two players can duke it out for glory and bragging rights. The multiplayer has a nice selection of maps and custom game rules to fiddle with but it serves as little else other than a small distraction whose fun doesn’t last longer than a match or two.
Grinding For Glory
As beautiful as Apotheon’s world is to look at, navigating through said world quickly falls into a predictable (and oftentimes tedious) routine of going to a new world, completing 3-4 different objectives, fighting a boss, and repeating. The objectives themselves, which include both combat and platforming/puzzle-related tasks, contain enough variety to keep players motivated but having to slog through massive open environments (even ones as pretty as Apotheon’s) just to reach these objectives stops being fun after the first or second time.
Apotheon’s boss fights however are well-worth the tedium as they are some of the most innovative and engaging boss fights I have ever encountered in a 2D game. Whether you’re playing a deadly game of predator and prey with Artemis or turning Apollo’s stolen command of the sun against him or weaving along multiple levels of breakable platforms to stab the Cyclops right in his single eye, the boss battles in Apotheon challenge you to think on your feet and put both your combat and platforming skills to the ultimate test in unique, creative ways.
An Odyssey Well Worth Taking
While there are some hiccups here and there, Apotheon is still a very solid 2D platformer that combines exploration, combat, and beautiful Ancient Greek imagery into a unique package that will appeal to both platforming fans and Greek Mythology buffs. Whether you’re looking for a fun new casual game to pick up and play or an immersive and challenging experience you can really dive into, Apotheon is the rare sort of game that will make you happy in either case.
My View
Here are the criteria by which I reviewed Apotheon:
Story: 7/10
The main plot of the player being pitted against select members of the Greek pantheon of gods isn’t exactly original but there are enough twists and turns in the narrative to keep it engaging throughout.
Presentation: 9/10
All of Apotheon’s unique worlds come to life thanks to the game’s impeccably-rendered Greek pottery motif. The somewhat tedious task of navigating these worlds does little to diminish their aesthetic beauty.
Gameplay: 7/10
Combat is a bit spotty and inventory management can sometimes become a chore but the platforming and exploration elements are top-notch. Thrilling, unique boss fights are just the icing on the cake.
Longevity: 8/10
Thorough explorers will be rewarded for their efforts thanks to the many hidden areas and treasures tucked away in each realm. The local multiplayer can be a fun distraction but it’s not engaging enough to keep players coming back.
Overall: 8/10
Apotheon strikes the perfect balance between casual accessibility and the old-school challenge of early Metroidvania games. The game definitely stands out thanks to its 2D Ancient Greek aesthetic but the beautifully-rendered Greek pottery visuals are just a small part of what makes Apotheon a must-play indie game experience.
Review: Apotheon is a beautifully-rendered, solid side-scroller
I keep trying to decide whether the FCC is really doing this because they have integrity and it's the right thing or if there is some other kind of angle to it.
I'm just so jaded on government/companies etc. it's hard to believe they would do something beneficial like this especially when the big corporations are crying so loud against it.
Either way though, hopefully ATT and the rest choke on a dick and lose any legal battles they try to fight and lose them hard.
AT&T will probably be one of the first companies to file a lawsuit if the Federal Communications Commission follows through on a plan to impose stricter rules on broadband. But FCC officials say they’re on solid legal ground.
In a call with reporters to discuss Chairman Tom Wheeler’s net neutrality proposal this week, an FCC official said that AT&T’s threatened lawsuit isn’t a surprise and FCC officials don’t expect it to be successful. AT&T is arguing that broadband has to be considered an information service and not a telecommunications service. This is important because only telecommunications providers can be treated as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act, a designation that Wheeler will use to impose net neutrality rules.
The FCC official said it’s a simple matter: broadband providers offer, for a fee, a service to the public consisting of the transmission of packets. That makes it telecommunications in Wheeler’s view.
The war over net neutrality isn't over, but it did just swing somewhat in favor of those who support a level playing field, one that's devoid of paid fast lanes. Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), confirmed today that he wants to reclassify and regulate the Internet as a public utility under Title II, a section of the Communications Act of 1934.
This is a big deal because it pulls the rug out from under ISPs that want to create their own rules, like allowing certain types of Internet traffic to run faster than others, or even outright blocking services altogether. As it currently stands, the Internet is regulated as an "information service" under Title I in the Communications Law. That means they're considered as "common carriers" and not subject to the same rules and regulations as the telecommunications industry. It's also why a U.S. Appeals Court ruled last year that the FCC didn't have the legal power to impose net neutrality rules on ISPs.
By classifying the Internet as a public utility, power would shift back to the FCC, which could then impose rules to prevent ISPs from speeding up or slowing down broadband traffic, effectively banning paid prioritization.
"I am proposing that the FCC use its Title II authority to implement and enforce open internet protections. Using this authority, I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC," Wheeler said in an op-ed piece posted at Wired. "These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services. I propose to fully apply—for the first time ever—those bright-line rules to mobile broadband. My proposal assures the rights of internet users to go where they want, when they want, and the rights of innovators to introduce new products without asking anyone’s permission."
Contrary to what ISPs would have you believe, Wheeler says the above can be accomplished while still encouraging investment in broadband networks.
As stated, however, the war isn't over -- you can bet that ISPs and certain lobbyists will oppose Wheeler's proposal. In fact, negative reactions are already starting to pile up.
"Heavily regulating the Internet for the first time is unnecessary and counterproductive," said Michael Glover, deputy general counsel for Verizon, according to CNET.
Joystiq will not grow to be much older than ten years. That's a massive expenditure of time, if only to receive an unfinished creation in return. I, and my best friends in the world, leave Joystiq unfinished. We leave it as it was always going to be....
The Super Bowl is this Sunday, but if you have no idea what the Super Bowl is, I don’t blame you. Apparently it’s the biggest American football event of the year, and this year the Seattle Seahawks will be facing off against the New England Patriots.
However, when you compare the NFL to League of Legends e-sports, it is easy to see how the NFL pales in comparison to this still growing behemoth. Here are five reasons why League of Legends is better than the National Football League.
1. You don’t need cable to watch League of Legends
Every week Riot Games and their affiliates stream all of the professional games that go on around the world. This week alone, over 40 games are played at the highest level of professional League of Legends. All of these streams are available for viewers to watch free on Twitch.tv. However, to watch every NFL game requires special television packages that cost anywhere from $60 to $130 – and that’s before taxes, installation fees, and convenience charges.
2. You can play and enjoy League of Legends at home
There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. You are safe, you are sound, and you can do whatever you want. Going to outdoor stadiums with other people is nowhere near as wonderful. Not only do you have to abide by social norms, but you might get stabbed!
Playing League of Legends allows you to stay at home or, on special occasions, go to a friend’s house. Unlike League of Legends, playing American football forces people to be outside and among other people who may or may not be escaped convicts.
3. League of Legends is played globally
The 2014 League of Legends Finals in South Korea
Everyday, millions of young and hopeful gamers log onto their computers to watch or play League of Legends around the world. According to Forbes, almost 67 million players log onto League of Legends servers each month. A search of the number of football players in the world gives you results that actually refer to soccer, so we’re going to go ahead and assume it’s less than 67 million.
4. League of Legends players aren’t involved with countless scandals
The latest League of Legends scandal was during the MLG Summer Championship in 2012. Dignitas and Curse Gaming agreed to not try hard in the final match and instead split the winnings. This was a huge issue about the integrity of League of Legends as a legitimate sport, but with the LCS and Riot’s rules and fines, nothing as big has happened since.
5. League of Legends doesn’t involve grappling with big sweaty men
When players log on to play League of Legends they do not have to worry grappling or colliding with large men. As mentioned previously, the NFL has a serious issue involved with concussions occurring from the constant collisions experienced by the players. The most dangerous thing that could happen to you when playing League of Legends is forgetting to eat.
In conclusion, League of Legends is way better than the NFL, and you should spend this Sunday watching something that really matters.
Homeworld Remastered Collection, a compilation that includes Gearbox's modern take on Relic Software's strategy game series, will make contact with Steam on February 25. As announced during Gearbox's presentation at PAX South 2015, the bundle include...
UPDATE: We've updated the story to include more info on Microsoft's PC gaming initiative and talked more about the tweaks to Windows 10.
Microsoft held a Windows 10 press conference today and revealed a massive amount of details from the upcoming OS and much more. After many rumors, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 10 will be free to Windows 8, 7, and Windows Phone users...for the first year, at least. The company views it as an incentive for users to quickly jump on board to the Windows 10 platform. Microsoft believes this will solve one of its biggest OS issues for developers, and that is OS fragmentation. Beyond the initial year, however, Microsoft hasn’t revealed any pricing details for how much the OS will cost.
Another rumor that Microsoft confirmed is that Windows 10 will support Cortana, which the company is pitching as the OS’s personal digital assistant. In short, the character Cortana is based off the character from the Halo games and is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Siri. With Cortana, Microsoft is saying "she" is really tailored for the PC experience and you will be able to use voice commands to search for locally stored files or files on your One Drive account. These file types will include documents, pictures, music, and more. In the live demo that Microsoft gave on stage, Cortana was able to provide information on the weather, flight information, and more. What’s quite impressive about Cortana is that her voice sounds extremely realistic, much more so than either Apple’s or Google’s equivalents. Microsoft is also saying that Cortana will be able to get smarter and learn about you. For instance, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore asked her what she thinks the Super Bowl score will be. Knowing that Joe is from Seattle, she jokingly said that the Seattle Seahawks would win in dominating fashion. If you’re a little creeped out by this, you’ll be able to clear some of her history about you. She will also be able to tell you more about any particular web page you’re browsing and you’ll be able to right-click on words to get definitions and more.
To go along with Cortana, Microsoft is also creating a new browser. Codenamed Project Spartan, Microsoft's new browser will use a new rendering engine and will support note taking with either a stylus or a person's finger. Project Spartan will also let you click on words/phrases and leave comments. You'll then be able to share pages with your comments on them on the various social media outlets. Project Spartan will also enable saving web pages to view offline, much like the Get Pocket app.
Microsoft wants to push gaming with Windows 10. "We will treat gaming on Windows 10 with as much passion as on Xbox One," said Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox division. In addition to supporting DirectX 12, which the company vaguely stated will run up to 50 percent faster than DX11 equivalents, the company announced that users will be able to stream Xbox One games to any Windows 10 PC over a local network. This includes Windows 10 tablets/convertibles. Currently, the build that the company is using only supports 30fps/720p streaming, but Microsoft hopes to up that to 60fps/1080p by the offical release date of Windows 10.
Microsoft also revealed the Xbox app, which will allow you to capture and record the last 30 seconds of gameplay in any PC game, much like Nvidia’s ShadowPlay feature. This includes games from Steam, Uplay, or Origin. In addition, you’ll be able to cut and trim the beginning and ends of clips and share them with your Xbox Live friends on the Xbox app. When we asked if there were plans to integrate the Xbox friends list with Steam’s friends library, the company said it certainly wasn’t against it and said it was in talks with Valve.
Currently, the software only records the last 30 seconds of gameplay, but when we asked if there were plans to be able to up the time limit, the company said that was possibility down the road.
Microsoft also announced that Fable Legends would no longer be Xbox-exclusive, and will come to PCs. Even better, PC gamers and Xbox One owners will be able to play together online. This is a start of a strategy in which Microsoft envisions cross-platform play. The company confirmed that Xbox achievements will be making their way to PC titles as well.
Another sector that Microsoft said it was interested in improving in the PC gaming space pertains to battery life. With gaming laptops becoming more popular, Microsoft says it's working on optimizing the OS for gaming battery life.
Beyond the gaming stuff, Microsoft went over a multitude of other OS updates. Windows 10 will work across a wide variety of devices including phones, tablets, desktops and laptops, and would even eventually come to the Xbox One in some form. Power desktop users worrying that their OS will be compromised with a mobile OS (a la Metro) needn't worry, because the Start button is indeed back. There is, however, a tablet mode where the start button opens up and shows many more touch-friendly icons, but unlike Metro which was quite in-your-face, users can ignore this altogether if they so desired. Other features include the melding of the control panel and settings menus. The company said looking at the data, users were confused by which tool did what.
One of the biggest issues with current versions of Windows is 4K scaling. Everything either looks too tiny, or certain programs aren't optimized for the resolution and look blurry. Microsoft said it is working hard to solve this issue both internally and with third-party developers. Considering that 4K seems to be a mere stepping stone for UHD panels at this point, Microsoft also told us that Windows 10 will support 8K.
The company's various software suites will be getting updates as well. Outlook will be getting Microsoft's popular ribbon tool, allowing you to properly compose and format letters from your email client. Power Point will support hardware acceleration for fancier transitions. Microsoft is also introducing a new photo-organizing tool, which will collect your images and categorize them by location and time. This photo tool can also enhance images automatically to remove red-eye, and delete duplicate images.
The company also announced Surface Hub, which is a Windows 10 PC integrated into an 80-inch 4K TV with a mic, cameras, and touch screen. Using it, you'll be able to use a stylus to draw on PowerPoint presentations, etc. The Hub is being designed for enterprise in mind and will cater to professionals who use Skype video conferencing.
Microsoft’s last announcement was arguably the most exciting: Hololens. Many suspected that Microsoft would release a head-mounted display for VR to compete with Oculus Rift/Project Morpheus, however the company opted to go the augmented reality route. Hololens is a head-mounted display, but unlike VR headsets, the Hololens grants you full vision of your surrounding with a clear glass overlay in front of your eyes. In the glass, you’ll have a video feed that beams on to it in real time. The end result is you looking at virtual objects lying around your real living room space. Furthermore, you’ll be able to use the company’s new HoloStudio program to easily build 3D models with your hands. Microsoft is calling it the best print preview for 3D printing out there.
We got a chance to try the headset and can say we walked away incredibly impressed. Expect a more detailed write-up on it soon. There’s still a lot that we don’t know. For instance, we don’t know how it will interact with Windows 10 PCs considering it is it’s own dedicated, wireless device. We will say that we were pleasantly surprised by it and like VR, it has the potential to be transformative if it’s pulled off right. While no release date was given, Microsoft told us that it would come out during the Windows 10 launch timeframe.
When is Windows 10 releasing? The company says it is aiming for this year. When we asked them if it would be coming out during Q4, Microsoft said it hopes to release before then, but gave no concrete date or time frame.
What did you think of Microsoft’s various announcements? Let us know in the comments below.
This game was alright, I liked their skill system, I think it just came around at the wrong time for me. Might check it out again in the future
The event which many MMO players have been expecting would happen has finally been confirmed: The Elder Scrolls Online, Bethesda’s foray into the MMO gaming space that failed to garner as strong of a following as Bethesda had hoped, will be abandoning its subscription fee just a few months before its console debut.
Starting on March 17, The Elder Scrolls Online will officially transition into a buy-to-play (or “B2P”) revenue model, similar to the model used for ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2 or Funcom’s The Secret World. Potential players will only have to pay a one-time fee when first purchasing the game and after words will be able to enjoy a large portion of the game’s content absolutely free with no recurring subscription required.
As is the case with other B2P and F2P games, the new model, which Bethesda is calling “Tamriel Unlimited,” will include optional microtransactions and DLC purchases which will include cosmetic and convenience items as well as adventure packs that allow players to access new quests and other features. There will also be an optional subscription service called “ESO Plus” which will grant bonuses to xp, gold, and crafting as well as access to all of the game’s DLC content and a monthly stipend of Crowns (the new in-game currency which will be used for microtransactions).
This new “Tamriel Unlimited” model will also be used in the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Elder Scrolls Online which are both set to launch on June 9. Even though an active subscription will no longer be required to play the console versions, an active Xbox Live Gold/PS Plus subscription will be.
To commemorate the announcement, Bethesda has released the last in a series of cinematic trailers for The Elder Scrolls Online, this one titled “The Confrontation.” You can watch it below.
Given the huge number of exoplanets discovered in recent years, the discovery of two new planets would come as no surprise—except that these two, discussed in a new study, may be part of our Solar System.
The presence of the closer of the two planets had already been suggested in a previous work. The new study provides more evidence for its existence and adds a second planet. Both studies are based on observations of objects far beyond Neptune’s orbit, called extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs). These ETNOs display shared patterns in their orbits, which suggests they’re all being influenced gravitationally by heavier objects, much further away from the Sun.
While this conclusion is based on a small sample (13 bodies), the authors confirm that their results are statistically significant and that at least two planets, orbiting far beyond Pluto’s orbit, are the most likely explanation for the observations.
When International Space Station Commander Barry Wilmore needed a wrench, NASA knew just what to do. They "e-mailed" him one. This is the first time an object has been designed on Earth and then transmitted to space for manufacture.
Made In Space, the California company that designed the 3D printer aboard the ISS, overheard Wilmore mentioning the need for a ratcheting socket wrench and decided to create one. Previously, if an astronaut needed a specific tool it would have to be flown up on the next mission to the ISS, which could take months.
This isn't the first 3D-printed object made in space, but it is the first created to meet the needs of an astronaut. In November astronauts aboard the ISS printed a replacement part for the recently installed 3D printer. A total of 21 objects have now been printed in space, all of which will be brought back to Earth for testing.
With the Wintersday festival coming on December 16, we’re releasing a new version of the daily achievement system. With this new system, we want to give players the opportunity to try things they may not normally experience and feel like the rewards they earn for doing so mean something. Rather than having a generic reward for all achievements, each one will give players something that is thematically tied to the content they’re playing. Completing a fractal daily achievement will get you an extra pristine fractal relic, some additional agony resistance , and a tome of knowledge; taking a tower in WvW for an achievement will grant you World vs. World experience and additional badges of honor; or capturing a point in PvP will give you additional reward track progress. We want the rewards to help drive players to the content, not general rewards for all achievements.
To help accomplish this, we’ve broken the daily achievements into three distinct categories based on their game types: PvE, WvW, and PvP. Additionally, we’ve created a separation of easier achievements like “Killing 3 Players in WvW,” and more challenging ones like “Win 1 Match in PvP as a Mesmer” or “Defeat the Shatterer.” Easier achievements are quicker to accomplish, but harder achievements will give players greater rewards.
As part of this change, we removed achievement points from the individual dailies. In the past, if you wanted to max out your achievement points, you’d have to do all ten daily achievements in a day and run all over the world. Instead, we’ve created a new meta-achievement for completing any combination of three daily achievements from any category. Completing this meta-achievement will award you a flat 10 achievement points that count toward your daily achievement point cap. So now players concentrating on achievement points only need to ensure they finish three daily achievements. Players will earn rewards other than achievement points if they complete additional achievements; you can do more achievements if you’re excited about the additional rewards, but you don’t have to feel pressured to do all of them every day to reach your achievement point max.
With the launch of this new system, December will be the last month to include monthly achievements. The monthly achievements provided larger goals to players but were still fairly generic and repetitive, and they don’t fit well with the new reward paradigm. Because some of you have already made progress on your monthlies, we will leave them in for this final month, allowing you to earn bonus laurels.
Finally, in a release coming early next year, we will merge the existing daily and monthly achievement point caps into one pool. This will allow players to continue working toward the maximum point totals for the daily achievement system without the existence of monthly achievements. “What about the rewards from the existing daily and monthly achievements? What about the laurels and Mystic Coins?” you might be asking. Well, fear not!
Log-in Rewards
One of the things we want to do is reward players for being fans of Guild Wars 2. So we’ve moved the original rewards from daily and monthly achievements, thrown in some new items for good measure, and combined it all into a new bonus system that rewards players just for logging in to the game. The first time you log in each day, you’ll receive a new bonus reward. The items on this new reward track are not only a combination of the previous daily and monthly achievement rewards but also some additional items we’ve added, including bags full of trophies needed for crafting and an exotic equipment chest guaranteed to give you an item for the profession of your choice.
One way to think of this is like a holiday calendar that gives you a new present from ArenaNet each day. There are 28 individual rewards on the track, each one building toward an epic chest containing a permanent 1% increase to account gold find and your choice of either ascended crafting materials, materials necessary for crafting your legendary weapon (including mystic clovers), an additional sum of laurels, or tomes of knowledge.
Missed a day because of work, vacation, or a work vacation? No worries, your progress is still there! The next time you log in, you’ll pick up where you left off. The system will only reset once you’ve claimed the 28th and final reward.
With the new daily achievement and log-in reward systems, players should have more things to do each day and feel more rewarded for being a hero. Happy achievement hunting, and we’ll see you in Tyria!
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is charging back into gaming with a surprise pincer attack. Not only is the 1999 turn-based strategy returning to Windows PC with widescreen-friendly HD visuals, but it's also coming to iOS and Android, albeit for tablets ...
"Germany's Sky Deutschland has programmed a temporary channel called Sky Star Wars HD, and it's dedicated to airing the entire Star Wars franchise on a 24/7 loop."
Awesome
The first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Seemingly the entire world had rebels on the brain after JJ Abrams and company released its first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And mere days after the opportunity to endlessly dissect one minute and 39 seconds of footage frame-by-frame, a cable network in Germany was ready to provide some alternative alliance distractions.
Running now through December 14, Germany's Sky Deutschland has programmed a temporary channel called Sky Star Wars HD, and it's dedicated to airing the entire Star Wars franchiseon a 24/7 loop. Fans able to access Sky Star Wars HD (meaning subscribers in Germany and Austria) will get all six films plus 20 making-of featurettes and two series documentaries (Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy and Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed). According to Broadband TV News, that slew of additional content includes two exclusive In the Life of… episodes with actors Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker (aka C-3PO und R2-D2). Fans hoping for a re-airing of the rare holiday special or screenings of related films like the long-lost Black Angel or fan-made ThePeople v. George Lucas will have to look elsewhere.
"We all know that for Star Wars fans it is too long to wait till Dec. 18, 2015," Sky Deutschland VP of Programming Gary Davey told The Hollywood Reporter. The company hopes its marathon will make the wait "a bit sweeter."
Rek’sai the Void Burrower is the second champion to be revealed this month after Kalista the Spear of Vengeance. The new champion is described by Riot as a combination of a land-shark and a burrower, making her an ideal fit for the jungler role.
Rek’sai’s is able to burrow underground and sneak up on enemies as well as use tunnels to exploit enemy positions. Attacking enemies fills up Rek’sai’s fury, which she then uses to burrow and regenerate health, allowing her to get out of hairy situations and achieve ganks when paired with an ally.
Considering the massive changes that Riot Games is bringing with the upcoming patch, Rek’sai may become a popular choice for those looking to main a new jungler. League of Legends community member Pawnce recently revealed a video detailing Rek’sai’s different abilities and what her role might look like in a regular game.
One of the most prominent features that was introduced to World of Warcraft with the release of its most recent expansion, Warlords of Draenor, was a visual upgrade to the game’s player character models. Unfortunately, the upgraded visuals for Blood Elves weren’t ready in time of the expansion’s launch. Now, Blizzard has finally pulled back the curtain on what the spruced-up Blood Elves will look like.
Longtime World of Warcraft players will likely not be surprised to hear that the elements which received the most attention for the upgraded Blood Elf models were their faces. In a new blog post, Blizzard senior artists Dusty Nolting and Joe Keller explained both the more noticeable and more “subtle” elements of the visual upgrades:
“For the female specifically, something we did often was move things around in small but deliberate increments, to make sure everything was just right. It’s the delicate details like her nose shape or fingertips that represent the most challenging parts of upgrading the female.”
“The male Blood Elf meanwhile already has a lot of character with his easily recognizable pose and stylish hair. Our update just gives us a chance to define and focus on that. His anatomy, facial features, and hair will all get an update while still maintaining his iconic look, bringing him to the level of the other new character models.”
An exact date for when the new Blood Elf models will be implemented has yet to be announced but Blizzard promises it is working to make it happen as soon as possible.
Any serious Bitcoin user will preach the benefits of cold storage: keeping the bulk of your bitcoins offline somewhere, like on an encrypted USB stick, or even printed on a piece of paper. The idea is that by keeping that data offline, it’s far less susceptible to being hacked.
So, the theory goes: what could be safer than keeping it inside your own body?
For the last 10 days, Martijn Wismeijer, a Dutch entrepreneur and Bitcoin enthusiast, has lived with an NFC chip embedded in each hand. One has data that he’s constantly overwriting; he can put his contact details in simply by having another person scan his hand with an NFC-enabled phone. But the other contains the encrypted private key to his wallet.
Overnight, the European Space Agency (ESA) got a clearer picture of what happened during yesterday's landing on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The news is mixed. Philae is definitely on 67P, but it did not land flat—only two of its legs are in contact with the comet. It also landed in the shadow of some of the comet's topography, which limits the amount of solar power it can generate. But perhaps most significantly, we're not entirely sure exactly where Philae sits.
Last night, as the initial data from various instruments started to come in, some data suggested that rather than landing, Philae had bounced twice before settling, executing a total of three landings. Today, the ESA has confirmed that there were two bounces, and one of them was rather large. The initial touchdown was within 100 meters of the intended landing site. But the first bounce was large, lasting about two hours and taking the lander roughly a kilometer away. That was followed by a low-velocity bounce (3 cm/second) that lasted only seven minutes.
Incidentally, we reported that the lander's harpoons had successfully fired yesterday, which could have prevented these bounces. That idea came up in today's press conference as well. It turns out that sensors had read that the harpoons had read the touchdown signal and responded by starting to wind in the cables, which made it appear that they worked as intended. Further checks, however, revealed that the touchdown signal never triggered the firing mechanism.
Print your own circuit board from home
A big win for net neutrality advocates
Joystiq will not grow to be much older than ten years. That's a massive expenditure of time, if only to receive an unfinished creation in return. I, and my best friends in the world, leave Joystiq unfinished. We leave it as it was always going to be....
Homeworld Remastered Collection, a compilation that includes Gearbox's modern take on Relic Software's strategy game series, will make contact with Steam on February 25. As announced during Gearbox's presentation at PAX South 2015, the bundle include...
Free, Surface Hub, Cortana and Hololens
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is charging back into gaming with a surprise pincer attack. Not only is the 1999 turn-based strategy returning to Windows PC with widescreen-friendly HD visuals, but it's also coming to iOS and Android, albeit for tablets ...
![New_Blood_Elf_Models_1[1]](http://www.gamecrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/New_Blood_Elf_Models_11.jpg)
![New_Blood_Elf_Models_2[1]](http://www.gamecrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/New_Blood_Elf_Models_21.jpg)
