AMD Drops Prices on HD 7000 Series
It has finally happened. After weeks of wondering and speculation, AMD has announced it will drop prices on its Radeon HD 7000 series video cards. This is a move long expected, especially since NVIDIA launched the GeForce GTX 680 at a lower price than the AMD HD 7970, but with better performance. Now, AMD will lower prices on the 7900 and 7700 series, but there was no mention of the 7800 series. The HD 7970 will drop from $549 down to $479, the HD 7950 from $449 to $399, and the HD 7770 will go from $169 to $139. The HD 7870, 7850, and 7750 were not mentioned as receiving price cuts, so those should all remain the same. AMD is also launching a "Three for Free" program, where you can get three games bundled with the purchase of a high-end card (presumably the 7970 and 7950). The three games are: DiRT Showdown, Nexuiz, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution and its The Missing Link DLC.
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CD Projekt RED 'Finished' with The Witcher 2 - Enhanced Edition Out Now
Today marks the release of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition, which you can grab for free if you already own the game. Anyone purchasing the game on the PC or 360 (yes, there is a console version now) will receive the Enhanced Edition of the game. CD Projekt RED is celebrating the release of the Enhanced Edition by saying it is "finished" with The Witcher 2. The game's level designer feels this version of The Witcher 2 is "the most polished and refined version" yet, so it sounds like the team has nothing else planned. The Enhanced Edition is based on player complaints, with the 10GB patch addressing the game's third act to bring it more in line with the first two. There are also new quests, cinematics, balance fixes, and various tweaks applied to The Witcher 2, so if you own the game, do yourself a favor and upgrade to the Enhanced Edition. If you do not own the game yet, now is the perfect time to join the party.
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More Details on Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition Revealed
The team at Beamdog's Overhaul Games are hard at work on Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, and Beamdog's Trent Oster has been answering a plethora of fan questions on Twitter. Some unannounced pieces of information have also leaked out, but it helps to give a bigger picture of just what Beamdog and Overhaul have planned for BGEE. For starters, there will be no console version of the game at all. Beamdog has had bad experiences with Nintendo, which rules out a Wii U version, while the Xbox controller has presented some problems with adapting the control scheme. I would imagine the PlayStation controller would have the same issue, so right now BGEE is only for PC, Mac, and iPad. A boxed copy of the game is being considering, so fans may be able to pick up a retail copy if they do not want to go with all digital. Nothing is set yet, but the fans are asking for a boxed edition of BGEE.
As for the game itself, the enemy AI will be just as challenging in the Enhanced Edition as it was in the original version. The party in BGEE will still have a maximum of six characters at a time, with no plans to expand that. Overhaul has been auditioning voice actors to help expand the voice content for BGEE, but fans of Minsc (namely, everyone) can rest easy knowing Jim Cummings, the original voice, has agreed to reprise the role. Mod support will be improved, but updates for the game will be slower going than originally discussed. Baldur's Gate 3 is a possibility, but would require heavy reworking, while Ultima is not being considered at all. Like I said, Trent Oster has been answering a lot of questions on Twitter, and I am sure he will have plenty more as well.
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Patriot Unveils New Flash Storage Options
Patriot has announced a new line of flash storage, the Extreme Performance Series. As part of this new line, Patriot will release flash storage in the SDHC and SDXC form factors. The new cards are compatible with UHS-I devices, and as a result will be able to double the transfer speeds of current Class 10 cards. When used with a compatible device, the cards have read and write speeds up to 50MB/s and 35MB/s, respectively. Capacities of 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB will be available, with the 128GB cards able to hold up to 2,560 minutes of 1080p video or more than 26,000 HD photos. A five year warranty is included, but no mention of price or availability date was made available.
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Major League Gaming Announces Partnership with CBS Interactive
CBS Interactive has announced a new partnership with two of the big names in competitive gaming, Major League Gaming and TwitchTV. MLG hosts several events throughout the year that feature several games, and TwitchTV provides live streams of professional and amateur gamers as well as streams of many events. As part of the sponsorship, TwitchTV will have access to the advertising channels of CBS Interactive, which will now "exclusively sell advertising, promotions and sponsorships for this community." CBS Interactive will also be the exclusive online broadcaster of all MLG Pro Circuit events, and will take responsibility for advertising as well. The CEO of MLG, Sundance DiGiovanni, commented on the new partnership, saying "Leveraging the reach of CBS Interactive, we will now be able to create a premiere eSports destination for current and future fans alike, while providing some of the most powerful brands an opportunity to reach this coveted, passionate audience."
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Plan to Reshape American Science Education
There is a great interest in the United States by regular citizens and politicians to improve science education. Everyone recognizes it takes scientific research for a nation to advance into the future, and with more science and technology in our lives, science literacy is also valuable. This interest has led to numerous Science, Technology, Engineer, and Mathematics, or STEM, programs to foster interest in these fields. Now researchers at Michigan State University, after six years of work, are suggesting a new approach to teaching science in the classroom.
The traditional way to teach science is by splitting classes into the different fields, such as chemistry, biology, and physics. In the professional scientific community though, these fields are not that distinct and in some cases multiple fields claim one sub-field (nuclear physics is nuclear chemistry). What the researchers suggest is to teach the basic ideas to all of science, with the 8+1 plan.
Atoms, cells, radiation, systems change, forces, energy, conservation of mass and energy, and variation comprise the eight basic ideas the researchers list, with inquiry, a fundamental part of science, being the +1. By focusing on these ideas, instead of certain scientific topics, the researchers believe students will better understand the material, as they will see how it is all connected. After all, most of the sciences are not pure, with biology in chemistry, chemistry in physics, and physics in biology.
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Worldwide Launch Date of November 6 for Halo 4
When November rolls around, folks in the United States will have two things to do that first week. November 6th is election day this year, and it is also the release date of Halo 4. Microsoft announced this is a "worldwide" release for Halo 4, meaning everybody will be able to pick up their copy on November 6th. Presumably that means once it is November 6th in your part of the world, so people in Japan and Australia will get it before those in Europe and North America. Still, Halo 4 is the return of Master Chief. Development duties have fallen to Microsoft's in-house 343 Industries since Bungie has moved on, but the series looks to be in capable hands. Halo 4 is set four years after the end of Halo 3, where Master Chief will have to "confront his destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe." Sounds like pretty heady stuff, so we will just have to wait until November to see how it all unfolds.
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Innotruck Test-Bed for Future Tractor Trailers
While some are working to make the modern tractor trailer more environmentally friendly, others are just reinventing it. Meet the Innotruck, an experimental design being developed by Technische Universitaet Muenchen with Siemens and other companies. The researchers are constantly changing and improving the Innotruck as they think of new ways to make the future of trucking better, except of course when they take it to trade shows.
The innovation of this electric vehicle extends beyond its appearance and batteries. The researchers are designing it to be a smart grid on wheels, with the ability to stabilize electric power grids where ever it is plugged in. Diesel Reloaded, the project the Innotruck is a part of, is not just reinventing the truck though, as they are making the interface adaptable for the driver and the truck’s environment.
With a heavy level of computer integration, the software is meant to adapt to the driver’s abilities and behaviors. This will likely improve the experience of the drivers as they navigate their routes. Also the on-board computers monitor the road and adapt to traffic and driver alertness. When there are multiple trucks in the area, they can connect to optimize traffic-flow as well. The researchers are actually working to get a permit for using their drive-by-wire systems on the road.
Instead of just trying to meet new environmental standards, these researchers are trying to set the new standard in trucking. While some of their advances may not make it to the commercial market in the near future, others will, but all of them will very likely influence the future of the industry.
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Kickstarter for Grim Dawn Launches, Existing Pre-Orders Able to Upgrade
Kickstarter has definitely grown in popularity just this year, especially with the success of Double Fine and inXile Entertainment. The folks over at Crate Entertainment have taken notice, and now its upcoming action RPG Grim Dawn has arrived on Kickstarter. There is a funding goal of $280,000, and with 31 days remaining, there should be no problem hitting it. The first three rewards tiers are the same as the ones offered on Grim Dawn's website, which means existing pre-orders are grandfathered in to the corresponding one. The pre-orderers can also have their existing amount refunded to be able to jump to a different reward tier, but Crate will only be able to refund the difference between tiers, not the full amount.
The other reward tiers all have various dollar amounts and incentives with them, from boxed copies to Will-O'-Wisp pets to even the chance to design your own side-quest for Grim Dawn. The side-quest is part of the $8,000 reward tier, so it is for those with plenty of extra income. There are plenty of other benefits to supporting Grim Dawn, like ensuring the spiritual successor to Titan Quest can launch. Right now Crate Entertainment has a projected launch of August 2013, but your donations can help the former Iron Lore team not worry about the cost of development.
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Emissions Cut in Real-World Diesel Trucks
Tractor trailers carrying mail, food, clothes, and other goods are pretty common sights on the highways. Powering them are diesel engines, which are not traditionally known for being kind to the environment. This prompted emission regulations on trucks purchased during and after 2010. To meet these regulations new technologies had to be incorporated into the trucks, which increased their cost. Researchers at North Carolina State University decided to investigator if these costs were worth it.
The researchers specifically measured the Particulate Matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) of trucks that have to meet the current regulations and trucks still under the old regulation. Both of these materials cause health problems in humans and are not very good for the environment. NOx contribute to low-level ozone which can disrupt breathing and PM, while also damaging the respiratory system, contains a great deal of black carbon which contributes to climate change.
The older truck produced 110 grams of NOx and 0.22 gm of PM per gallon of fuel. The newer truck emitted just 2 gm of NOx, a 98% decrease, and PM emissions also dropped by 95%. The benefits to human and environmental health are obviously great here, especially when considering how much time these trucks spend on the road.
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Watch a Riveting Steampunk Assassination in Dishonored's Debut Trailer
Finally, Bethesda and Arkane Studios' stealth FPS Dishonored has stepped nimbly out of the shadows and graced us with a long-overdue trailer. It features the unjustly framed Corvo, our protagonist who's sentenced for the murder of an empress. While the gripping trailer shows no in-game footage, it sets up the grim totalitarian world of Dishonored impressively, and gives us a glimpse of Corvo in action with some pretty slick powers of assassination. If you're getting waves BioShock déjà vu from this, that can only mean a good thing. Even as Corvo frantically dashes outdoors we're seeing glimpses of Half-Life 2's City 17 to good effect, although in contrast Dishonored's corpse-littered streets are plagued with a thriving population of rats. If we're lucky enough, we'll be traversing Dishonored's virtual dystopian city this year.
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Looking for your Favorite Music Can Distract Drivers
It is hard to imagine there is anyone old enough to drive who has not been told that talking on the cellphone while driving can cause an accident. The reason is because cellphones can distract the driver from the road, so they miss the brake lights, turn signals, or whatever else. Now a study published by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society has looked into MP3 players in cars and found the problem is not getting better.
People want to listen to their music while driving, which is why 90% of new cars sold in the US have MP3 connectivity. Looking through a playlist to find the song you want can take some time and a driver’s attention away from the road, so companies have started making aftermarket controllers for our media devices. Unfortunately this study has found these controllers are not necessarily helping the issue.
The researchers tasked subjects in a driving simulator to find a song on playlists of different length, or change the radio station. Those who had to look through long playlists of 580 songs looked away from the road more frequently and for longer times than those searching shorter lists. When the people were able to use the aftermarket controllers though, they ended up looking away from the road for longer periods of time; the exact opposite of what they are supposed to do.
Hopefully better controllers will be made soon, because every time a driver looks away from the road, their chance of getting in an accident goes up. Until then though, maybe make a driving playlist, so you will not need to find your favorite song.
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Wasteland 2 Generates a Total of $3 Million in Funding
Wasteland 2's Kickstarter campaign ended on a spectacular note, with an amazing $2.93 million in funding thanks to the donations of 61,289 backers. An additional $108,803 also coursed through PayPal, totalling to over $3,000,000 to make Brian Fargo's post-apocalyptic sequel finally come alive. As an added bonus for reaching that impressive figure, we'll be getting a mod kit that allows personally crafted items to be used on the game's day one release. Obsidian Entertainment will lend inXile Entertainment some tools to increase asset integration, plus Chris Avellone will offer his talents to one of the most-requested RPG sequels around. In these days where publishers usually dictate how games should be made, Wasteland 2 stands out (along with the Double Fine Adventure game) as a compelling example of how dedicated fans can make their dream game happen.
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Hardware Roundup: Tuesday Edition
in today's roundup we have another review of the Corsair Vengeance K90 mechanical keyboard for your reading enjoyment. Sapphire enters the X79 chipset motherboard fray with its Pure Black X79N board, and Neoseeker checks out the $499 offering to see what you get for your hard earned dollars. Western Digital has a new model of its VelociRaptor 10K RPM drive out with a 1TB capacity, a big jump from the previous 600GB unit. We also have a look at NVIDIA's Adaptive VSync technology and the HIS Radeon HD7870 IceQ 2GB video card.
Input Devices
Corsair Vengeance K90 Mechanical Keyboard @ Benchmark Reviews
Motherboards
Sapphire Pure Black X79N @ Neoseeker
Storage/Hard Drives
Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB Review - 10K RPM Hits a Larger Capacity @ PC Perspective
Video
NVIDIA Adaptive VSync Technology @ [H]ardOCP
HIS Radeon HD7870 IceQ 2GB @ XSReviews
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