Reeven Justice RC-1204 Review
Reeven Justice RC-1204 review.
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MechWarrior Online Now Supports DirectX11 and Gets a New Banshee Mech
If spending $60-80 on Titanfall is just not something you want to do right now, there are plenty of other games that feature titan-like mechs, and they won't cost you a penny. HAWKEN has officially returned to free-to-play following a brief Early Access period on Steam, while MechWarrior Online has been out of beta since September. If you haven't tried out either, now is as good a time as any, especially with this week's update to the latter.
MechWarrior Online has been updated with optional DirectX 11 support for those that want a little more graphical fidelity. As of now, the update simply adds MSAA to the game's video settings, but it opens the door for more DX11 features in the future, as Piranha Games president Russ Bullock alluded to on Twitter:
@MatejZelic Can do MSAA if you like and TXAA and 3D vision soon. Mostly opens more graphics options moving forward.
— Russ Bullock (@russ_bullock) March 4, 2014
Keep in mind that it's not all rose and rainbows though – several people are reporting drops in framerate, including PC Gamer's Patrick Carlson. So if you don't have a beefy gaming PC, you may want to hold off on turning on MSAA at the moment until it's better optimized. But even if you can't handle MSAA, the update does have something for everyone – a new Hero 'Mech. Well, everyone who wants to spend money. As with all Hero 'Mechs, this new addition, called the "La Malinche" Banshee, can only be purchased with Mech Credits, which are obtained by spending real money. However, on March 18, a Standard Variant of the Banshee chassis will be available for purchase using C-Bills, the in-game currency.
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DRAM Price Fixing Case Reaches $310 Million Settlement
If you happened to purchase a computer or other product that used DRAM around the start of the 21st century, you may soon be getting a little bit of cash. More than a dozen DRAM manufacturers (including Samsung, Toshiba, Hynix, and Hitachi) have reached a settlement in a class-action and attorneys general lawsuit that alleged price fixing between the companies. The settlement is for $310 million, with about $200 million of that reserved for affected customers and businesses. Claims can be made for purchases between January 1, 1998, and December 31, 2002, on any device that used (or uses) dynamic random access memory. So that means computers, game consoles, DVD players, DVRs, printers, PDAs, MP3 players, video cards, and servers are covered, but not DRAM itself purchased from the manufacturer.
Currently there's no proof of purchase required to file a claim, but that could change later on if the court demands it. If you still have proof of purchase, be sure to hang on to it a little while longer just in case. The amount you could get for your claim is variable, as it can be anywhere from $10 to $1,000. Larger purchases will obviously be on the higher side of that spectrum, but smaller ones could be too, if there aren't a lot of claims. If less than 2.5 million people file a claim, payouts are pro-rated to increase up to the original amount of damages, with a $25 million cap in small claims payouts. If more than five million claims are filed, then no money is set aside for small claims payouts, and instead $40 million is given to non-profit organzations.
Claims have to be filed before August 1, 2014, so don't delay too long to try and get a little something back.
Source: PC World
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Batman: Arkham Knight Gives the Batmobile the Attention it Deserves
With Batman: Arkham Knight's official reveal earlier in the week, along with the subsequent story details, one thing was clear – Batman's iconic Batmobile will be a major feature. While Rocksteady had always wanted to include the Batmobile in its previous two games, there were simply too many technical constraints to overcome. Thanks to Arkham Knight being "next-gen only" (or really, current-gen at this point), Rocksteady can finally realize its ambitions.
There is no "driving section" in Arkham Knight – the Batmobile is "seamlessly integrated with Batman's traversal." You can be grappling and gliding to your heart's content and then with the press of a single button, call upon the Batmobile and leap into its cockpit as it races to you. You never have to keep track of where you've parked it because it's "always sort of tracking Batman so it's always just around the corner for you to call in if you need it." The seamless integration works in reverse as well – as you're speeding along in the Batmobile, you never have to come to complete stop, you can simply eject "hundreds of feet in the air" and continue in a glide.
The Batmobile is also pretty much indestructible – and Gotham's thugs know this. While enemies may amass in the streets, they're "scared of the Batmobile," so if you show up in it, they'll scatter and not just let you ram them. If anyone happens to try and mess with it while you're busy fighting, "the Batmobile is equipped with a defensive taser unit to protect it from would-be carjackers and thieves." In addition, Batman isn't concerned about stepping on the gas and crashing through lampposts, retaining walls, or fences because of the deadly toxin threat by Scarecrow – drastic circumstances call for drastic measures.
Keeping with the theme that "Batman's official policy is that he doesn't kill," the Batmobile is equipped with a vehicle immobilizer that allows you to stop fleeing enemies. Yes, as hinted at in the trailer, it appears enemies will have vehicles as well. That probably means it's safe to assume there will be at least one "car chase" mission or side objective – maybe even a racing objective à la the AR Glide drills.
Lastly, creative director Sefton Hill confirmed that the fast travel system Warner Bros. Games Montreal introduced in Arkham Origins will not be present in Arkham Knight. Simply put, "You're looking at the fast travel system. I think we felt that it would take away from the experience rather than add to it because moving through the city is definitely part of the game." With reports that Arkham Knight is five times bigger than Arkham City – which means roughly double the size of Arkham Origins – I'm not sure that is the smartest move. But hey, if the Batmobile is as fun to drive as it sounds, maybe we won't notice the absence of fast travel.
Source: Game Informer
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BioWare Releases Fourth Dragon Age: Inquisition Character Kit, Vivienne
Back in the beginning of February, BioWare announced that the studio will periodically release Dragon Age: Inquisition Character Kits, which provide highly detailed and descriptive looks at characters featured in the game – an artist's and cosplayer's dream. While BioWare is referring to today's entry as Character Kit #3, it's actually the fourth character released, since the previous Character Kit blog post included two characters, Cassandra and Varric, to go along with the initial offering of Morrigan.
Today's entry is Vivienne, an Orlesian human mage, who will be joining Cassandra and Varric as one of the companions available in Dragon Age: Inquisition. As always, you can view all the images below, but be sure to check the source blog entry for the PDF file.
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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ASUS Announces Two Motherboards for AMD AM1 Socket
ASUS has announced a pair of new motherboards, the AM1M-A and AM1I-A, designed for the AMD AM1 System-on-a-Chip (SoC) Athlon and Sempron APUs. The AM1 APUs "combine high processing power, advanced Microsoft® DirectX® 11.1 graphics, and Fusion controller hubs (FCHs) in one small, efficient package — improving performance by over 50% compared to the previous (‘Brazos 2.0’) generation of AMD APUs." The SoCs provide an excellent balance between power efficiency and graphics performance to make the boards a good choice for systems like HTPCs. Both boards can accommodate 32GB of DDR3 in two memory slots, provide HDMI and DVI-D video output, and have two SATA 6Gb/s ports. The AM1I-A has a single PCIe 2.0 x4 slot while the AM1M-A has an x16 slot and the AM1M-A also has an additional two USB 3.0 ports.
Source: Press Release
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PowerColor Announces TurboDuo R9 280 OC
PowerColor has added to its lineup of AMD R9 based video cards with the TurboDuo R9 280 OC. The TurboDuo is built on the GCN Architecture, giving users "astonishing performance and breathtaking image quality, making it a top choice for enthusiasts who eager for the best." The card is packed with 1792 stream processors to handle all of the heavy lifting with extensive parallel processing a real possibility. The GPU core runs at 855MHz and can be boosted to 960MHz, and 3GB of GDDR5 runs at a frequency of 1250MHz. The features of this card are rounded out with the PowerColor Gold Power Kit which includes Multi-Phase Design, DirectFET, and Digital PWM. A pair of 90mm fans blow air over multiple heat pipes and an aluminum cooling fin.
Source: Press Release
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Prototype Vibration Dampening Material Created
In some situations, a project requires certain vibrational properties and getting them requires carefully selecting the materials and using carefully engineered geometries. This can be limiting, especially if there is ever a need for the vibrational properties to change over time. Researchers at EMPA and ETH Zurich have recently created a prototype material that can have its vibrational properties programmed electronically.
The prototype consists of a long strip of sheet metal, one meter long, one centimeter wide, and one millimeter thick, with ten aluminum cylinders attached to it. Between the sheet metal and the cylinders are piezo discs. These discs can convert electrical energy into mechanical energy, so when they are electronically stimulated, they change in thickness. By manipulating the discs, the researchers were able to make the entire material behave as an adaptive phononic crystal, with the ability to change how vibrational frequencies are dampened on it.
As the material is currently just one dimensional, this research is just a step toward programmable materials. It does still show that it may be possible to build electronic circuits onto a material, so that it can react to vibrations to change its properties as needed.
Source: Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)
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Darkseid Comes to Injustice: Gods Among Us, Exclusively on Mobile Devices
When I fired up Injustice: Gods Among Us on my iPhone last night, I was pleasantly surprised to not only see the message of a new challenge event, but to see it was for a brand new character to the series – Darkseid. With past challenge events in the mobile game, the characters had always been ported from the console game. Not only does the current challenge event mark the first time a new character debuts in the mobile game, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released a statement today that says Darkseid joined the roster "exclusively for the mobile game."
The challenge event lasts from March 6-24 and grants a Gold Darkseid Character Card upon completion. As a
Source: Press Release
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Tomb Raider's 2013 Reboot "On Course to Become the Best-Selling Game in the History of the ...
Back in January, Tomb Raider executive producer Scot Amos told Eurogamer that the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot finally achieved profitability toward the end of last year. Today, in a "Special Note" to fans, Crystal Dynamics' studio head Darrell Gallagher wrote, "By the end of this month we will surpass 6 million units for our Tomb Raider reboot, and, having achieved profitability back in 2013 Tomb Raider has exceeded profit expectations and continues to make significant contributions to our overall financial performance." Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the game's initial release.
While publisher Square Enix was initially "very disappointed" in Tomb Raider's sales performance, it seems that's no longer the case. Not only did the game have the most launch day sales and first month sales in franchise history, it is now poised to become "the best-selling game in the history of the franchise!" It is unclear whether these numbers include the "next-gen" Definitive Edition, but either way, it's quite the feat.
If you have yet to experience the Tomb Raider reboot and you're a PlayStation 3 owner with a North American PS+ subscription, you can currently grab the game for free as part of the Instant Game Collection. A sequel is currently in development, but no further information has been divulged, except for Gallagher saying that Crystal Dynamics is "looking forward to building on the success and lessons learned from the reboot to continue redefining and setting new benchmarks for Tomb Raider in the years to come."
Source: Tomb Raider Blog
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WebRTC Support Now Available in Opera for Android
WebRTC, which is an open source project that allows for browser-based video chat by using JavaScript and HTML5, is now supported in the latest Opera version for Android. Opera Software Mobile Chief, Peter Wallman, stated that he feels that the integration of WebRTC within Opera for Android goes along with the idea of the Internet being a place for all types of communication to take place. Users of Opera 20 for Android can go to a website that features a compatible WebRTC application and invite others to chat, provided that the other users also are utilizing a compatible Internet browser. At this time, Internet Explorer, along with Safari for Mac and iOS, are the only major Internet browsers to not support WebRTC.
Source: Greenbot
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Verizon Offers Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2
In a surprise offering by Verizon Wireless, the major cellular carrier is now selling the newly released Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2. The device is incredibly powerful and versatile, offering a quad core processor, 3GB of RAM, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, and a massive 12.2-inch display that boasts a 2560 x 1600 resolution. Samsung is also including its S Pen stylus to the Note Pro 12.2, which adds extra functionality to the tablet. Verizon Wireless is offering the immersive Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 with a two-year agreement for $749.99. Customers who do not want a contract with the device purchase can secure the Samsung tablet from Verizon Wireless for $849.99.
Source: Unwired View
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Thermaltake Announces Boom Box for Smartphones
Thermaltake has announced the availability of a boom box speaker system targeted at smartphones. The GroovyT Magic Boom Box Speaker is released under the LUXA2 brand name and offers a quick method to turn your smartphone into a stereo. The T in the product name stands for "touch" as that is how devices are connected. Users only need to place their devices on the GroovyT and the sound will begin to play through the speakers. An 800mAh battery provides for up to five and a half hours of playtime and a charge time of three hours ensures that you will be back to listening in a small amount of time. The GroovyT will be available at an MSRP of $14.99.
Source: Press Release
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Yahoo Maps Implements Indoor Location Navigation
Although Google has had the ability to provide users with maps of indoor locations for some time, the feature has just been announced for Yahoo. Director of Product Management, Fred Benz, notes that users of Yahoo Maps can now find maps for select indoor venues around the world. The implementation of the new feature is likely due to a prior partnership that Yahoo made with Nokia, using the maps and navigation services offered by Nokia. Some of the locations that have been added to Yahoo Maps include airports, shopping malls, and train stations. Contact information for businesses located within the select venues, along with an interactive building directory, is available for many of the indoor locations now found within Yahoo Maps.
The new indoor feature is only available to Yahoo users on a computer platform.
Source: Yahoo Search
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Forza Motorsport 5 to be Bundled with Xbox One
Larry Hryb, who is the Director of Programming for Xbox Live, has revealed that for a limited time Forza Motorsport 5 will be bundled with the Xbox One. The exclusive combination of the Xbox One and the latest Forza Motorsport racing title will begin next week, with select retailers selling the limited time bundle for $499.99. Hyrb, who is more commonly known by his Xbox Live gamertag "Major Nelson," did note that the copy of Forza Motorsport 5 included with the Microsoft video game console will be digital. The newly announced limited time bundle will only be available for customers located within the United States.
Source: Major Nelson
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