NVIDIA GTX 660Ti Roundup with ASUS, Galaxy, MSI Review
Read More ...
Mass Effect 3 Leviathan DLC Coming Out on August 28
Mass Effect 3: Leviathan is the latest story-based single-player DLC for BioWare's epic space opera RPG, and is set to arrive on August 28 in North America. The add-on further expands on the Mass Effect storyline with Shepard hot on the heels of an enigmatic being known as the Leviathan, an immense entity speculated to be "be powerful enough to destroy a Reaper." Shepard will be encountering new characters in his search for the elusive colossus, along with the inclusion of deadly new weapons such as the AT-12 Raider shotgun and M-55 Argus Assault Rifle. As the content further advances the game's plot, playing the DLC will naturally change the events of Mass Effect 3's ending.
Read More ...
Splitting Beams to Increase Speed
Many researchers are working on bringing quantum security techniques to commercial computing by sending photons with quantum states along fiber optic lines to individual computers. As the quantum state of the photon is changed when it is observed, an eavesdropper can be easily detected. There is a catch though which can stop this technology in its tracks. The frequencies used for fiber optics are in the infrared range while single-photon detectors made of silicon operate in the visible portion of the spectrum. Also the current silicon detectors are not very fast, so even if they could receive the signal, they cannot keep up.
Researchers at NIST and Stanford University however have created a device that uses a crystal which could solve both problems. This device, like others, is able to pump the infrared signals into the red portion of the visible spectrum, but also has the ability to split the beam in two different colors. This splitting can be used to overcome the issue of a detector's relatively low speed by allowing multiple detectors to work together.
The current design of the device splits one beam of light into two, but the researchers believe that can split the beam into even more pieces, thereby increasing the speed even more. Ultimately it may be a device like this that will enable quantum mechanics to secure transmission between commercial computers.
Read More ...
New Gamescom Trailer Arrives for Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition
Every so often a game comes along that challenges even the best, and soon PC gamers will be able to experience one of the most brutal games of the past few years. Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition will finally arrive on the PC next Friday, August 24, which gives you just enough time to gear up for an insanely tough and addicting role-playing game. In Dark Souls, you will die many, many times over the course of the campaign. Do not be alarmed if you die within the first 20 minutes as that simply prepares you for the rest. Mastering Dark Souls will greatly reward you, so it is worth it to keep going forward. To prepare you for the upcoming death, a new trailer for Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition has arrived from Gamescom. In it you will see some of the new content for the PC version (consoles get it later this year) and some truly impressive looking monsters/bosses/things that will kill you.
Read More ...
Sony Provides an Update on The Last Guardian
It was just the other day news came of the expiration of The Last Guardian's trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. At the time Sony said the game was still in development with no new information to report at the time, but that was then and this is now. Today the company has provided an update on The Last Guardian and it may not be exactly what you want to hear. According to Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, Team Ico is making progress on The Last Guardian but some technical issues have taken longer to work out. At one point the developer thought the game would be launched and were even talking of a release window, however the technical issues proved harder to solve than expected. Yoshida said the engineering team had to "re-do" some of their work on The Last Guardian, which is not the best news in the world.
Yoshida did state The Last Guardian is still going to be a PlayStation 3 title and not a PS4 game, so that gives some hope of seeing it in the next year perhaps.
Read More ...
Razer Announces Deathstalker Gaming Keyboard
Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan revealed the new Deathstalker gaming keyboard today at Gamescom and the pictures of it make a great first impression. It will be available in both a Standard and Ultimate version, with the Ultimate version packing a notable extra feature. The standard edition looks similar to many other gaming keyboards currently available and features three backlight color options. The Ultimate edition brings the Switchblade UI from the Razer gaming laptop in place of the ten key numpad. The Switchblade UI features ten customizable LCD keys and a small touch screen customizable LCD display. The Standard edition will retail for $80 and the Ultimate edition will retail for $250, and both are expected to be available next month.
Read More ...
Corsair Buys Part of Raptor Gaming
Corsair has announced the acquisition of Raptor Gaming, a German company focused on gaming peripherals that has a big presence in Europe. With the purchase, Corsair will gain access to all keyboards, mice, headsets, and other accessories that it intends to incorporate into the current product line featuring the Vengeance series of peripherals. President and CEO of Corsair Andy Paul stated, "Raptor Gaming's strong retail presence will allow us to offer a wider range of PC hardware to gamers across Germany." CEO of Raptor Gaming Dirk Schunk added, "Corsair's strong global brand and worldwide distribution will open up Raptor Gaming products to a wider audience of gamers around the world." Follow the link for a look at the products offered by Raptor Gaming.
Read More ...
Single Photon Quantum Key Distribution Achieved
Man has been telling secrets for probably as long as we have been able to tell each other anything, and for almost as long, we have been trying to eavesdrop. A war has since started to keep secrets hidden with codes, encryption, and other methods, but these methods still require sharing a key that cannot be protected (locking your keys in your car may keep people from breaking in, but then you cannot get in either). Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) however uses the laws of quantum physics to protect the keys, so if anyone who should not interact with them does, the legitimate parties know.
As reported by the Institute of Physics, researchers in Wuerzburg, Munich, and Stuttgart have successfully transmitted a quantum key using a single photon source from two semiconductor nanostructures. Previous attempts to send such keys have often relied on lasers which randomly emit photons. This means multiple photons could be produced, and thereby multiple keys, which would enable an eavesdropper to listen in without being detected. Single photon sources prevent there from being duplicate keys and increase security.
Sadly this technology is not quite ready for real-world use, as this experiment only sent the photons 40 cm. That is not far enough to be of much use right now, but numerous teams around the world are working on this and related technology.
Read More ...
Epic Games Says Mobile Games are Competing with Current Consoles - Soon to be PC
Epic Games is certainly one studio that has never shied away from voicing its opinion. Whether it is the entire studio or specific members, Epic does not sit quietly by. The latest opinion may not be a huge shock to some people, but still it is something interesting to consider. Epic's Niklas Smedberg says mobile games are "starting to compete with current consoles," which in turn has made development more complex. Smedberg likened mobile development to PC development by saying there are dozens of hardware specifications and platforms to consider. Epic scales its development from high to low for the games, since Smedberg says the studio never does the minimum.
PC games have different resolutions and graphics options like low, medium, and high, and Smedberg thinks mobile games will eventually have the same thing. The developer also says the next-generation of mobile chips will be "up to 20 times more powerful" than today, which could greatly enhance the graphics of games. More powerful chips means bigger resolutions to take advantage of it all, and since the iPad already has a crazy high resolution, maybe Smedberg is on to something.
Read More ...
Amazing Ion Acceleration Achieved
A number car manufacturers enjoy touting is how quickly their vehicles can go from 0 MPH to 60 MPH, as well as the reverse because you need to be able to stop quickly as well. Researchers at NIST have likely just broken every car's acceleration records by getting a stopped ion up to 100 MPH and stopping it again in just microseconds. All of this is achieved without disturbing the state of the ion either.
The researchers' setup used an ion trap that would cradle the ion as it accelerates, like a marble in a bowl. As the bowl moves the marble moves with it, but any acceleration of the bowl can cause the marble to move around within it. This movement was actually useful to the researchers because they could precisely time the ion trap stopping with the oscillation of the ion within the trap, so they would come to a stop together. Very importantly, while the ion's quantum state does change while being transported, after it has come to a stop, it returns to how it originally was.
This could impact quantum computers that will use ions for their qubits, as opposed to photons. Previously an issue with ionic quantum computers is that it took longer to move the qubits than to actually process them, but this and other research has narrowed the gap considerably. Next the researchers are going to work on improving the design so heating an noisy electric fields will not disturb the ion, or ions as they also achieved this with two ions in the trap.
Read More ...
Total War: Rome 2 Screenshots Depict the Battle of Carthage
The first Battle of Carthage ended with the ancient city's absolute destruction and the end of an empire, and looking at the latest awe-inspiring screenshots of Total War: Rome 2, we will be getting more than the general's eye-view of the all-out sacking. Creative Assembly's upcoming Total War title features a brand new engine capable of rendering a bleak sky polluted with smoke and flaming projectiles, but best of all, land and sea clashes will no longer be mutually exclusive encounters, as soldiers will able to disembark off ships and dive straight into the thick of battle. Still, the gorgeous backdrop of Carthage being burnt to ruins takes some getting used to, and should be all the more jaw-dropping on a no-holds-barred gaming PC.
Read More ...
Command & Conquer Generals 2 Going Free-to-Play
When Command & Conquer Generals 2 was first announced at last year's VGA it was developed by BioWare Victory as a traditional retail game, but now the upcoming RTS will instead be going free-to-play, spearheading the new "Command & Conquer" universe. Slated for a 2013 release window, EA states that Generals 2 will usher in a new era of F2P C&C gaming, allowing players unprecedented access to a first-rate strategy title (unlike Tiberium Alliances) complete with stunning Frostbite 2 graphics and all-out destruction. Those wanting more action can sign up for a chance at closed beta access on the website, while Gamescom is set to reveal more intriguing bits and pieces of this surprising C&C spin-off.
Read More ...
The Secret World to Offer New Free Three-Day Trial
Still looking for reasons why you shouldn't play The Secret World? Players unable to join in on the conspiracy fun of TSW despite the game's first free weekend celebration get another chance, as Funcom is opening up another free three-day trial starting August 15th. Anyone can sign up beginning 9AM GMT through the TSW website, and players who complete 30 missions during the trial period get two more days of extra game time, along with 1200 bonus points. The bonus points can still apply to those who haven't earned it from the celebration weekend, and these will expire on September 30, 2012. Regular players who stick to TSW for the long haul will also be treated to upcoming new content such as the game's first ever raid, and a nifty new rocket launcher for dispatching those pesky monsters.
Read More ...
Testing Plasma Theories
Plasma research has been increasing in importance of late as work on creating nuclear fusion reactors intensifies. The plasmas needed for nuclear fusion are superhot and super dense, which makes them difficult to study, but researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Oxford University, and many other institutions have done just that thanks to the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-Ray laser.
While making the 2 million Kelvin plasma may seem like the harder part of this experiment that has been accomplished before. The challenge is in actually collecting data from the plasma but the precisely tuned LCLS laser was able to cut through the chaos and gather valuable information like the energy required to knock out electrons from highly charged atoms. What the researchers found however is actually quite important as it shows the currently used model for such extreme plasmas is incorrect. Ironically, a model developed in 1963, three years before the current model was developed, is more accurate, but even it is not sophisticated enough.
The researchers hope that their results will spur others on to developing a new model that more accurately represents the plasma we want to use for nuclear fusion. Without an accurate model, it will be impossible to study these plasmas in the virtual environment of computers, which are much easier to work with than something hundreds of times hotter than the surface of the Sun.
Read More ...
Available Tags:NVIDIA , GTX , MSI , Sony , Gaming , Keyboard ,
No comments:
Post a Comment