Patriot Viper 3 Series Black Mamba PC3-19200 16GB (2x8GB) Review
Patriot Viper 3 Series Black Mamba PC3-19200 16GB (2x8GB) Review
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Raidmax Horus Review
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Thermaltake Commander F5 Multi Fan Controller Review
Thermaltake Commander F5 Multi Fan Controller Review
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XFX R7 250 Review
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be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 Review
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ASUS ROG Maximus VI Gene Review
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Assassin's Creed Liberation HD Review
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FUNC HS-260 Gaming Headset Review
A close look at the FUNC HS-260 Gaming Headset
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Logitech G602 Wireless Gaming Mouse Review
Logitech G602 Wireless Gaming Mouse
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Logitech G700s Rechargeable Gaming Mouse Review
Logitech G700s Rechargeable Gaming Mouse
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Gamer Storm Lucifer Review
Testing out Gamer Storm's Lucifer CPU cooling solution to see if it is a devil of a cooling solution.
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Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Volos MMO Gaming Mouse Review
Thermaltake eSPORTS Volos MMO Gaming Mouse
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Path of Exile: Sacrifice of the Vaal's Fourth Teaser Screenshot Begs the Question, What's in ...
Developer Grinding Gear Games has released a fourth teaser screenshot for Path of Exile: Sacrifice of the Vaal, which was taken from one of the new Challenge Leagues, Ambush. There's not much to the screenshot except for a giant, glowing-blue safe. What mystical items lurk inside? Well, it wouldn't be much of a teaser if Grinding Gear told us, now would it?
Along with the screenshot, Grinding Gear also linked to a new corrupted item type: maps! Yes, apparently maps can be corrupted as well, and while we still don't know what negative side effects corruption has, it appears the positive effect on maps is an increase in the number of attributes. The particular map linked is called Forgotten Secrets Shore Map.
If you're just tuning in to all this Sacrifice of the Vaal madness, here's a recap of everything that's been teased and unveiled thus far:
- The Official Announcement
- Teaser Screenshot #1
- Teaser Screenshot #2
- Teaser Screenshot #3
- Details and Teaser Video
Source: Official Site
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BioWare Releases Two More Dragon Age: Inquisition Character Kits, Cassandra and Varric
Back in the beginning of the month, Jessica Merizan, Lead Community Manager at BioWare Edmonton-Montreal, announced that that studio will be releasing Dragon Age: Inquisition Character Kits periodically in the coming months. These character kits provide highly detailed and descriptive looks at characters featured in the game, with the goal of making life a little easier for artists, cosplayers, etc.
BioWare smartly started with one of the most popular Dragon Age characters, Morrigan. This week, BioWare brings us not one, but two new character kits: Cassandra Pentaghast and Varric Tethras. Both characters first appeared in Dragon Age II and both have been confirmed as companions in Dragon Age: Inquisition. You can view all the images below, but be sure to check the source blog entry for the PDF files.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is set to release for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in Q3 2014.
Source: BioWare Blog
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Superhuman Bananasaurus_Rex Smashes Spelunky World Record, Scoring Over 3.1 Million
I'm not normally impressed by video game world records, but maybe it's the fact that I cannot even beat Spelunky once – let alone access the secret Hell levels housing the "true boss" – that leads me to truly envy the new Spelunky world record holder, Bananasaurus_Rex. If it was just a name appearing on a leaderboard, it wouldn't mean much, but that's not the case – he actually streamed the feat on Twitch.
Bananasaurus_Rex is actually a fairly famous Spelunky pro, if you follow that type of thing. He was "the first person to ever complete the elusive solo eggplant run," and he was "the first Spelunky player to kill the ghost," which had previously been thought to be unkillable. The most impressive part of Bananasaurus_Rex's runs is not necessarily the world records or world firsts, but rather the ease in which he plays. If you ever played Spelunky, watch just a little bit of the video below and you'll likely be amazed at how fast he moves and navigates the levels, as if he's not playing one of the most grueling and frustrating Roguelikes in modern gaming.
If you want to see the record-breaking moment, skip to around the 7:19:00 mark – yes, the run took more than seven hours. Keep in mind that watching that moment (or a bulk of the video) contains spoilers if you're like me and never even saw the Hell level, let alone got to the final boss. But let's be honest – you're never going to get there on on your own.
The video is available at the link below or directly on Twitch.
Source: Eurogamer
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PlayStation 4 Has Officially Launched in Japan
While just a few days ago it was reported that Sony has sold more than 5.3 million PlayStation 4 consoles worldwide since its November launch, that number is surely going to see a huge spike over the weekend. The reason is simple – the PlayStation 4 is finally out in Japan. Yes, despite Sony being a Japanese-based company, Japan had to wait longer than any other major sales region.
It's not all bad though – not only has the system had a chance to mature a little, but to make up for the delay, Sony has included Knack with every system purchase (at least for the initial run). The launch also happens to coincide with the PS4 beta of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, which went live worldwide today. Of course, no launch would be complete without a launch trailer:
Source: Polygon
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Path of Exile: Sacrifice of the Vaal Details Unveiled, Accompanied by Teaser Video
It's been exactly one week since Path of Exile's first DLC, Sacrifice of the Vaal, was announced. During this past week, we had to endure not one teaser, not two teasers, but three teasers. How much teasing can one gamer take? Well finally, the teasing is done – sort of.
While the full reveal is still a week away, developer Grinding Gear Games updated its "promotional image" for the mini-expansion, detailing the "specific areas that SotV improves, including a reveal of a new currency item and the names of the new challenge leagues." The details are as follows:
- Wraeclast's Deadliest Enemy: Queen Atziri
- A Threatened Land: Secret Corrupted Areas
- Temptation and Sacrifice: The Vaal Orb
- Power and Corruption: Vaal Skill Gems
- New Challenge League: Ambush
- New Hardcore Challenge League: Invasion
- Free For All PVP: The Sarn Arena
- Let the Blood Flow: Improved Cut-throat Mode
- Relics of the Past: New Unique Items
Source: Official Site
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Gigabyte Releases Mini-ITX GA-J1900N-D3V Motherboard
A motherboard aimed towards point-of-sale (POS) applications and kiosks was released by Gigabyte. The GA-J1900N-D3V motherboard will have several legacy options, such as a LPT parallel port, two RS232 serial COM ports, and a PCI slot, which are often used in that industry. It'll also have a newer mini-PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot, as well as two internal SATA connectors.
The J1900N-D3V is Gigabyte's newest and world's first mini-ITX motherboard powered by Intel's Celeron J1900 System-on-Chip (SoC). The J1900 is a passively cooled quad-core x86-64 processor clocked at 2 GHz with an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000. The two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots on the motherboard can accept up to 8GB of dual-channel DDR3-1333 MHz memory. Rear I/O connectivity includes PS/2 ports, 6-channel HD audio, D-Sub and DVI display outputs, four USB 3.0 ports, and two gigabit Ethernet interfaces "that can withstand high electrostatic discharges [...] from common electrical surges and even direct lighting [sic] strikes." Pricing for Gigabyte's J1900N-D3V board is currently unknown.
Source: Product Page
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G.SKILL Overclocks Ripjaws SO-DIMM DDR3 RAM
G.SKILL, a leading manufacturer and designer in high performance memory, has recently announced that it has overclocked its Ripjaws SO-DIMM DDR3 RAM to new heights. By using a barebones ASRock M8 system, the Ripjaws, which run at 1.35V, were able to reach 2600MHz with in dual channel operation. Originally, the RAM is clocked at 2133MHz in an 8GB configuration that features a set of 4GB modules. With the Ripjaws SO-DIMM memory being marketed by G.SKILL as a solution for laptops and small form factor computers, it is reassuring that so much performance can be attained through the practice of overclocking.
Source: Press Release
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Risen 3: Titan Lords Outed by German Magazine
Just days after publisher Deep Silver officially announced Sacred 3, according to German magazine PC Games, another one of its RPG series is coming back for a third go: Risen. Entitled Risen 3: Titan Lords, the game is apparently the cover story for the March 2014 issue of PC Games magazine. Technically it doesn't mention Deep Silver being the publisher, but Piranha Bytes returns as the developer, so it's likely Deep Silver is still involved.
Not much else is known at this time other than the cover story being a world exclusive unveil, which will detail some major changes from Risen 2, and of course contain screenshots. For now, all we have is the title of the game and a cover photo. Let the speculation begin!
UPDATE: Well it seems shortly after I published this article, AGB managed to acquire some awesome screenshots and concept art. And by "awesome," I mean the stuff nightmares are made from. As alluded to above, Risen 3 certainly is a major change from Risen 2, ditching the pirate theme and returning to more of a high-fantasy, middle ages theme.
Source: All Games Beta [1] and [2]
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Far Cry 4 Set in the Himalayas, with Yetis?
Considering the success of Far Cry 3 (and the Blood Dragon spin-off), it should be no surprise that Far Cry 4 is most definitely in development. According to industry insider Superannuation, Far Cry 4 is set in "the Himalayas or adjacent locale." Oh, and it has "monsters."
Ubisoft has obviously declined to comment, but the apparent leak occurred on Twitter, with Superannuation tweeting two hours later, claiming the original tweet was meant as a direct message.
Far Cry 4 sounds super
boring from the rumors. It's the third game more or less transposed to
the Himalayas or adjacent locale + monsters(?)
— superannuation (@supererogatory) February 5, 2014
Well, I thought I sent that as a DM. Oh well. ¯\_(?)_/¯
— superannuation (@supererogatory) February 5, 2014
Considering Ubisoft has already done the jungle, and desert thing, a snowy environment would certainly be a nice change, especially with some sweet weather effects and maleable snow a la Company of Heroes 2. The "monsters" rumor is a little more disturbing though. Excluding Blood Dragon, Ubisoft's Far Cry games have been steeped in at least some sense of realism. The original Far Cry, developed by Crytek, featured "monsters" known as Trigens, and they were arguably the worst part of the game – and by "arguably," I mean, if you don't agree, you obviously didn't play the otherwise exceptional game. That being said, one common "monster" associated with the Himalayas is the yeti, which could actually be kind of cool. Maybe yetis would be super rare and there will be a quest to track and hunt one down? I'd be okay with that.
Nevertheless, these rumors should be treated as such. There is absolutely no proof or confirmation of either of these things, not to mention plans can always change.
Source: VG247
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Amazon's Android-Powered Set-Top Box Arriving Next Month?
Amazon is set to release a new product before long, but it isn't a Kindle. No, this time Amazon is gearing up for an Android console or set-top box launch, with the latest pegging it as early as next month. It's not known whether Amazon's product will be a set-top box, like the earlier rumors said, or a game console à la the Ouya, like last month's rumor said. Considering we're a week removed from March, Amazon is definitely playing things close to its chest.
Regardless of what this new product will be exactly, chances are high it will run Google's Android operating system to easily take advantange of Amazon's Appstore. However, there's no telling if the console/set-top box will use stock Android, the heavily modified Fire OS, or something else entirely. It's likely the price will be under $300, and considering Amazon recently acquired game developer Double Helix Games, maybe there will be a killer title on it before long.
The Mobile World Congress starts in a few days, so could we have an announcement made there or soon after? We'll just have to wait and see.
Source: Recode
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Thermaltake Announces NiC Series CPU Coolers
Thermaltake has announced its new series of CPU heatsinks, known as non-interference coolers. The new series, including models NiC L31 and NiC L32, focuses heavily on being compatible with all types of RAM including high-end and overclocked RAM which are generally taller than traditional modules. High performance RAM is incompatible with most other CPU coolers due to height restrictions by the heatsinks, but the new NiC series coolers by Thermaltake are able to provide enough clearance to support the RAM.
A total of three heat pipes, which are solid and measure in at 8mm, are used in order to cool the CPU effectively. The incorporated design features an aesthetically appealing look while providing an even dissipation surface. Thermaltake has implemented a PWM fan which allows users to control the fan speed from 500 RPM to 1800 RPM, providing both quite operation and performance. An additional fan can be added to the coolers, enabling even more heat dissipation, while still be optimized for compatibility with all types of RAM available.
Source: Press Release
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Hardware Roundup: Friday Edition
It's the end of the second to last week of February, and we have some reviews to help kick off your weekend. There's the Gigabyte mITX Z87N-WIFI motherboard that carries a ton of features, yet a more affordable price tag to appeal to a large market. We have a review on the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 low noise CPU cooler, which has a cooling capacity of 250W TDP. For some potential audio bliss, there's the SteelSeries Siberia Elite gaming headset, with its distinctive design and included USB sound card. Cooler Master's ROC tablet and notebook stand gets put to the test to see how well it functions. We have another cryptocurrency article, however this time looking at any increases NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 750 Ti can bring. Finishing up is a podcast looking back at all the latest news from the past week.
Motherboards
Gigabyte mITX Z87N-WIFI @ Madshrimps
CPU Cooling
be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 Low Noise @ Frostytech
Speakers/Headphones
SteelSeries Siberia Elite Gaming Headset @ Madshrimps
Miscellany
Cooler Master ROC Tablet & Notebook Stand @ ThinkComputers
NVIDIA Coin Mining Performance Increases with Maxwell and GTX 750 Ti @ PC Perspective
Podcast #288 @ PC Perspective
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Closing a Loophole in Physics Theorem of Universe
There are multiple physical theories and mechanics that influence the world around us, and some of them even compete with each other, in certain scenarios. For decades now, physicists have been questioning which theories form the basis of the Universe, but finally we may be drawing close to an answer. Researchers at MIT have recently devised a way to test and potentially close a loophole in Bell's inequality, which could indicate if the classical or quantum mechanics are the foundation of the Universe.
Bell's inequality was developed fifty years ago to address the disparity of classical and quantum mechanics, as it pertains to certain phenomenon, such as entanglement. Entanglement is when two particles become so strongly coupled that measuring one will immediately affect the other, no matter how separated they are. Bell's inequality would limit entanglement, if classical mechanics is at the heart of the Universe. Since it was developed, researchers have been testing it, and finding loopholes. One major loophole still remains, the so-called 'free will' loophole. According to this loophole, the particle detectors measuring the particles may be biased towards certain measurements, due to some shared causal past. Therefore, the detectors, and the scientists operating them do not truly have free will, as the particles is concerned.
What the MIT researchers have proposed is taking advantage of distant quasars to make the measurements. By selecting two quasars, which can be nearly the age of the Universe, on opposite sides of the visible Universe, one should be able to assume that they and the light they emit have not shared any information since the Universe was born. The light from these quasars would be used to determine the settings of the particle detectors, and after enough measurements it should be possible to say if the particles are more strongly entangled than classical mechanics allows, thus indicating the Universe is based on quantum mechanics. Usefully, the proposed experiment can be completed with current technology, so it could happen in a few years.
Source: MIT
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Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare Will Launch Without Microtransactions
It has been known for awhile that PopCap Games' quirky multiplayer shooter Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare will have various customization options. Customizations and upgrades are unlocked via stickers, which are purchased with coins. Those coins can be earned by playing the game or purchased for real money. But surprisingly, those coin pack microtransactions will not be available at launch.
Speaking to GameSpot, producer Brian Lindley explained that following Garden Warfare's release, PopCap will "look at in-game metrics and player feedback to determine how best to move forward." PopCap had previously told Polygon "that players can earn an average of 15,000 to 18,000 per hour by playing the game," though it wasn't stated how many coins stickers cost. That being said, senior franchise marketing manager Gary Glay told Polygon that "everything is unlockable through gameplay," which is certainly a good thing. I think withholding microtransactions at launch is a smart move, as it'll show players that they can unlock in-game items simply by playing the game – not to mention it makes EA look less greedy.
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare launches on Xbox One and Xbox 360 on February 25th, while the PC version is still listed with a vague "Spring 2014" release date. If you haven't watched the excellent live-action trailer, be sure to do so.
Source: GameSpot and Polygon
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Microsoft Lets Users Test Xbox One Updates
After a recent update for the Xbox One caused users to experience a black screen bug, Microsoft is taking a closer look at testing updates for its gaming console before they are officially released. Microsoft is announcing that it will provide select Xbox Live members with invitations to test new Xbox One updates, to include an update that is due in March of this year that is meant to prepare the console for Titanfall. Users who choose to accept the invitation will continue to receive updates earlier than the expected release date in order to test them for issues. Feedback for the updates can be provided through a private forum that will be available to individuals that are a part of the program. The testing contains no fulfillment requirement, as users can opt out of the program at any time.
Source: CNET
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