NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti & MSI GTX 750 Gaming Review
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PC is Platform of Choice for North American Development; Wii U Development Barely Alive
The Game Developers Conference's (GDC) second annual State of the Industry Survey has provided some interesting data on the direction the games industry is heading. The survey polled more than 2,600 North American game developers who attended GDC 2013, inquiring about "platform preference, crowdsourcing, team size, live streaming, localization and topics in-between." The most noteworthy results revolve around platform development and funding.
When asked "On which platform(s) do you anticipate your *next* game will be released? (Choose all that apply)", PC and smartphone/tablet development were the clear leaders, taking 52.04% and 50.63%, respectively. PlayStation 4 lead all consoles with 19.66%, narrowly beating out Xbox One's 16.95%, while the Wii U garnered only 4.42%, not even beating the PlayStation 3 (6.06%) or Xbox 360 (6.13%). Surprisingly, Nintendo's hit portable, the 3DS, only managed 1.90% compared to PlayStation Vita's 7.74%. Of course, it's important to note that only North American developers were polled and Nintendo clearly has a larger Japanese development contingent. Still, it's certainly telling.
While the industry leaning toward PC and smartphone/tablet development is probably not surprising – nor is the doom and gloom of the Wii U – the response to "Where does your funding come from? (Choose all that apply)" was quite interesting. A whopping 51.99% said they use their company's existing funds and 45.76% said they use personal funds. What may be a bit surprising is that only 10.77% said they have used crowdfunding, despite all those successful Kickstarter campaigns we've seen grab the headlines (like the current Kingdom Come: Deliverance).
It is unclear if or when the full report will be released to the public. GDC 2014 takes place in San Francisco, March 17-21.
Source: GDC Blog
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Warning Issued for Belkin WeMo Products
The WeMo line of products from Belkin offers a number of devices used for home automation purposes. Researchers from IOActive recently discovered "multiple vulnerabilities in Belkin WeMo Home Automation devices that could affect over half a million users." Belkin hasn't addressed the issues yet and the researchers recommend "unplugging all devices from the affected WeMo products." Compromised devices could face a variety of attacks ranging in severity from constantly flashing a lamp to starting a fire. Another possible issue documented by IOActive could wreak havoc on more devices in the home, "Additionally, once an attacker has established a connection to a WeMo device within a victim's network; the device can be used as a foothold to attack other devices such as laptops, mobile phones, and attached network file storage."
Source: Network World
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Intel Developing 15-Core Server Processor
The Intel Xeon E7 v2 line of server CPUs will have up to 15 cores built on the Ivy Bridge architecture. The new chips are targeted at the most intense applications including "high-uptime servers with up to 32 sockets, which typically handle enterprise applications such as databases, analytics tools and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software." A number of improvements including increased memory throughput due to more data transfer lanes and up to 1.5TB of memory capacity per socket help to make these the most powerful server processors available from Intel. Intel will offer 20 varieties of the new Xeons that will run from 1.4GHz to 3.8GHz with power use ranging from 40W to 150W.
Source: PC World
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Back to the Future Part II Power Laces Arriving Right On Schedule
There are a great number of people who have seen the Back to the Future movies, and many are aware that we're just a year away from when Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel into the future. While we're all still waiting on our hoverboards, Nike is taking us one step closer to another piece of technology from Back to the Future Part II: power laces. When Marty is in the year 2015, the shoes he wears automatically lace up to help get him ready faster. Now we'll soon have power laces of our own, as Nike designer Tinker Hatfield confirmed in a recent event that yes, power laces are due to arrive next year. Hatfield didn't say what shoe they'd appear on or anything of that sort, but at least Nike is trying to match the technology from the movie.
In 2011, Nike released a version of the shoes from Back to the Future Part II, but the power lacing technology wasn't ready then. Those shoes, dubbed Nike MAGs, were auctioned off to the tune of $6 million to help benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. There's no telling if Nike will follow suit again with the power laces, so we'll just have to wait and see. Now, all that's left is for Mattel to get that hoverboard working.
Source: Sole Collector
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Do Not Expect a Fallout 4 Announcement for 'A While'
For those hoping Bethesda was going to announce Fallout 4 in the near future, I have bad news – we may have to wait longer than we thought. Speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun's Nathan Grayson, Bethesda game director Todd Howard said, "We don't [have a timeframe for our next game announcement], but I think its gonna be a while. We've gotten fairly used to all the questions and curiosity over the years. Everyone wants information. Right now, we're just trying to figure out which of our ideas are going to stick and finding an appropriate time to talk about it."
So if you're been following all the Fallout 4 rumors in our forum, it sadly seems like we won't find out the truth any time soon. That being said, "a while" is quite the vague timeframe and can mean different things to different people. In my opinion, four months is "a while," so maybe the official Fallout 4 announcement will come at E3 2014. Of course, that's just more speculation. The truth is, we just don't know, and it sounds like maybe even Bethesda doesn't know when the announcement will be either.
The good news for us PC gamers is that Howard sees the PC as "resurgent" and was very pleased by the huge success Skyrim enjoyed on the PC. With the new consoles being "very PC-like," he sees it opening up new avenues for him and his team going forward. Those new avenues are likely the source of the delay, but hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.
Source: Rock Paper Shotgun
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Copper's Current Carrying Capacity Compared to Nanotubes
Though we may not see them, we all rely on copper or aluminum wires to provide power to our homes. While these cables work well, people have searched for better solutions. Researchers at Rice University have recently found that fibers made of carbon nanotubes could be a viable replacement.
Carbon nanotubes are known for their conductivity, so this discovery may not be too surprising, but it is when considering how many kinds of nanotubes there are. The best for conducting electricity are shaped like armchairs, but this variety is difficult to produce in bulk. Instead the researchers worked with nanotube fibers that are less conductive. To measure the nanotubes current carrying capacity, the researchers built a custom rig that charges a cable in a controlled environment until the heats causes it to break. What they found is that their nanotube fibers performed the best of any reported carbon-based fibers, but they still had worse resistivity than copper by an order of magnitude. However, because the nanotubes are so light, a cable of nanotubes, equal in mass to a copper cable, could carry four times as much current.
One of the researchers has suggested that because of how light the nanotube fibers are, one could potentially use them to power an aerial device from the ground. The fibers would be like a kite string, connecting the airborne device to a terrestrial power source.
Source: Rice University
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Path of Exile: Sacrifice of the Vaal's Second Teaser Screenshot Shows the Addition of Socketed ...
With just two days to go until details are finally released for Path of Exile: Sacrifice of the Vaal, developer Grinding Gear Games has posted a second teaser screenshot. Aside from what appears to be a new quiver design, the major unveal is an "Unset Ring" laying on the ground with a blue square next to the name. For those unfamiliar with the game, that means the ring contains a blue socket, and indeed Grinding Gear's Chris confirmed it with a link to the actual item. The current version of the game does not contain any rings with sockets.
While the ring in the screenshot is vanilla, the Unset Ring is a base type, which means it can roll with attributes as well, or you can always craft the vanilla ones to make them into magic or rare rings. It is not stated whether you will be able to add sockets to non-socketed rings via crafting like you can with other pieces of equipment, but that seems likely. It's also obviously unclear whether the new sockets just apply to rings or if there will also be an Unset Necklace base type as well. If necklaces can roll with sockets with the release of Sacrifice of the Vaal, then that would leave belts as the only main equipment slot to be socket-less, unless those will also be getting them.
Remember, Sacrifice of the Vaal goes live March 5, 2014; but we should know more details this Thursday. You can find the first screenshot here.
Source: Official Site
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Microsoft Launches Bing Fitness Application
Microsoft has introduced its new health and fitness application that ties into its search engine, Bing. Available for Windows Phone devices, the Bing Health & Fitness application provides workout videos, anatomy information, nutritional information, food journals, a symptom checker, and more. The application is meant to provide mobile users with the ability to maintain physical health through a multitude of different features while providing helpful information along the way. Since the application is available for other platforms besides Windows Phone, any users who owns multiple Windows 8 devices will find that information within the application will synchronize automatically.
Bing Health & Fitness is available for immediate download from the Windows Store and supports 50 different languages.
Source: PC Magazine
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Star Citizen Developer and Kingdom Come: Deliverance Developer to Collaborate
Chris Roberts, the mastermind behind Star Citizen, posted an interesting article on the Star Citizen site. He starts by simply informing Star Citizen backers of the Kingdom Come: Deliverance Kickstarter campaign, but then takes it into a rather surprising direction. Both games are being built with the CryEngine and Roberts was impressed by "the characters and outfits [he] saw working in-engine in the trailer." He reached out to the Kingdom Come team, Warhorse Studios, and now both studios will be sharing the work they've done with each other.
The games couldn't be more different – one's a space shooter, the other's a medieval RPG – but since the technology behind them is the same, both studios can benefit from one another. According to Roberts, "we will be sharing with them the tricks for working with CryEngine we've learned over the last 18 months and they will be letting us in on the secrets and the tech behind what they're doing!"
Kingdom Come creative director Dan Vavra has confirmed this collaboration in a Kickstarter update and the announcement comes accompanied by three new screenshots of Kingdom Come, which can be seen below. There is still roughly 50 hours to go in the Kingdom Come Kickstarter campaign, with it fast approaching the £900,000 stretch goal.
Source: Chris Roberts
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Over 5 Million PlayStation 4 Consoles Sold
Following news from The NDP Group concerning PlayStation 4 sales, Sony has revealed that it has sold 5.3 million PlayStation 4 gaming consoles worldwide as of February 8, 2014. The console is currently available in Europe, Latin American, North America, and other parts of Asia. While the console is undoubtedly popular internationally where it is available for purchase, it has seen a massive amount of support from consumers within the United States as it continues to compete against the Xbox One for marketplace.
The PlayStation 4 sales figures from Sony come just a few days before the console is set to launch within Japan on February 22, 2014.
Source: TechHive
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Android KitKat Coming to Various Samsung Devices
Various devices by Samsung will soon be receiving the latest Android 4.4.2 operating system, known as Android KitKat. Samsung announced that the newest version of Android will begin to roll out to devices starting today, and will continue into the coming months. The timeframe of the update being available for download depends of course on specific carriers and devices. Users of devices that will be receiving the update will see notable changes within Android KitKat, including the ability to search for any number through a redesigned dialer along with search results now being queried from both web and application data sources
Samsung devices that will receive the update include the Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S4, Galaxy S4 Mini, Galaxy S4 Active, Galaxy S4 Zoom, Galaxy S3, Galaxy S3 Mini, Galaxy Mega, Galaxy Light, Galaxy Note 8.0, Galaxy Tab 3, Galaxy Note 10.1, and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition.
Source: CNET
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BioShock Developer Irrational Games Shutting Down
If you happen to visit the Irrational Games website today, you'll be greeted by "A Message From Ken Levine," co-founder and creative director. The message is a lengthy letter to fans, but the gist of it is clear – Irrational Games is shutting down.
Levine will be starting "a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two" with about fifteen members of the current Irrational team, which unfortunately means laying off a lot of people. He's not quite ready to announce this new "endeavor," but does state a clear goal: "To make narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable." Interestingly, Levine was actually ready to jump ship and start his own independent studio, but Take-Two convinced him "that there was no better place to pursue this new chapter than within their walls."
For BioShock fans, it's important to note that this does not mean the end of the BioShock franchise. Levine and Irrational have handed the reins over to 2K Games and you can bet after the success of BioShock Infinite, there will surely be another addition to the franchise.
Source: Official Site
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Xbox Suffers Black Screen Bug
Due to the latest update that was released from Microsoft for Xbox One consoles, a new bug has been reported that causes the video feed on the screen to go black. The problem exists when users of the newest Xbox console attempt to press the Xbox button on their controller. When the screen goes black, some users are reporting that the audio playing in the background still continues even though they are unable to see anything. Users that are suffering from the new bug have noted that the issue can be fixed by holding the power button down on the Xbox One, while others are stating that the issue can only be solved by unplugging the console for a brief moment. Microsoft has confirmed the bug that causes the black screens and recommends that users press and hold the power button for 10 seconds, which resets the gaming console.
Source: CNET
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HTC Launches Advantage Program
Starting today, HTC is offering customers who purchase its top of line smartphones brand new, to include the HTC One, HTC One max, and HTC One mini, benefits through a new loyalty program known as HTC Advantage. The program offers many benefits, including free screen replacement if a claim is filed within six months of device purchase, device updates for major Android versions, 25GB or 50GB of free Google Drive storage for two years from the date of device purchase, cloud backup provided by HTC Backup, and support offered through live chat or telephone. The announcement of the new program comes shortly after HTC revealed that it would indeed provide customers with major Android updates for two years.
HTC Advantage is only available to customers who purchase supported aforementioned devices from this day forward, as smartphones purchased prior to the announcement do not qualify for the program.
Source: HTC
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Testing Graphene's Interactions with Water
Graphene is a somewhat popular material in research labs because of its many wonderful properties, including high strength and conductivity. The atom-thick sheet of carbon also has some weird properties, such as being hydrophobic, except when used to create narrow capillaries. Two years ago researchers at the University of Manchester have tested how graphene dioxide is at filtering water vapor and now they have tested it for filtering liquid water.
In the previous experiment the researchers found that laminates of graphene dioxide were impermeable to all gases and vapors besides water vapor, which passed through as though nothing were there. Even helium, the smallest molecule could not escape. Graphene dioxide was used because it allowed for atom-wide capillaries to be formed by stacking layers on top of each other, forming the laminate. When immersed in water, the laminates did swell up as it absorbed water, but water was still able to flow through very quickly.
Some ions were also able to pass through the membrane, but only those smaller than nine angstroms, or 0.9 nanometers. However the researchers do believe that with more work they will be able to reduce that value, allowing for an ultrafast filtration system that could remove even some of the smallest ions found in seawater.
Source: University of Manchester
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