PlayStation Plus February Games Preview
PlayStation 4
Transistor
The first PS4 game is Transistor, which is a RPG from Supergiant Games, developer of the very popular Bastion game. This game was launched on the PS4 on May 20th, 2014. The name Transistor comes from the name of the main character’s weapon, which is a greatsword that the main character Red comes into possession of at the beginning of the game. This is a well-regarded RPG, and has scored an 83 Metascore, and 8.0 User Score on Metacritic. Transistor normally sells for $19.99 on the PlayStation Store.
“From the creators of Bastion, Transistor is a sci-fi themed action RPG that invites you to wield an extraordinary weapon of unknown origin as you fight through a stunning futuristic city.”
Apotheon
Next up for the Playstation 4 is a new game to the store. Apotheon is from independent game developer Alientrap Games. Set in an ancient Greek mythology, this 2D platform action-rpg has a fantastic looking style. Players are humanity’s last champion, and use the sword, spear, and shield to fight their way through levels. As this is a new game, there are no scores yet on Metacritic, so be sure to check it out when it is available.
“The Gods of Olympus have abandoned humanity, leaving you to perish without their benevolence. Take up arms against the Gods, climb Mount Olympus, and take their divine powers for yourself to ensure mankind’s survival!”
PlayStation 3
Yakuza 4
PlayStation 3 owners will get access to Yakuza 4, which was developed by Sega and released first in Japan and then later in North America in March 2011. It is an action-adventure game where players can continue the Yakuza series, which is set in Tokyo. Yakuza 4 has a 78 Metascore, and 8.0 User Score on Metacritic, and normally sells for $19.99 on the PlayStation Store.
“Yakuza 4 lets you explore the city of Tokyo in an unprecedented level of detail, experience every taboo in the underground world through the eyes of 4 revered men. Can you survive the dangers and temptations of the Japanese underworld?”
Thief
The second game for PS3 owners is Thief, developed by Eidos Montreal and published by Square Enix. Thief was launched in February 2014, and has players controlling master thief Garrett on various missions. This is a stealth based game, where secrecy is rewarded and violence is the last resort. As a big fan of the Thief series on the PC from years back, this was an exciting release which unfortunately did not live up to the hype. Thief has a 70 Metascore, and only a 5.8 User Score on Metacritic. The game normally sells for $39.99 on the store.
“You are Garrett, the Master Thief. Step into the silent shoes of Garrett, a dark and solitary thief with an unrivaled set of skills. The most challenging heists, the most inaccessible loot, the best kept secrets: nothing is out of your reach.”
PlayStation Vita
Rogue Legacy
PS Vita owners will get access to Rogue Legacy, from independent developer Cellar Door Games. Originally released in June 2013, it first game to the PlayStation platform in July 2014. This game features randomly generated dungeons to explore, and has a fairly unique gameplay mechanic where if a character dies, control will switch to a randomly generated heir, and the heirs have unique strengths to bring to the table. Rogue Legacy has an 85 Metascore, and 8.2 User Score on Metacritic, and normally sells for $16.99 on the store. It will also be available on the PS4 and PS3.
“A procedurally generated castle means every run is different. This is a Rogue-lite. Your character dies, but with each passing your lineage grows and becomes stronger. Tons of unique traits make every playthrough special, and with 10 different classes to master, there’s plenty of reason to come back for more (punishment)!”
Kick & Fennick
The second game for the PS Vita is another one that will be released to PS Plus members the same day it goes onto the store. Kick & Fennick is from Jaywalkers Interactive, and is an easygoing platformer featuring a boy named Kick and a robot named Fennick. Kick has in his possession a gun which can be used to shoot down enemies as well as to launch Kick around the level, using the recoil. This is another game with a great artistic style, and it will be available on February 3rd.
“Soon after waking up in a desolate but colorful world, Kick meets a small flying robot named Fennick. When Fennick saves Kick from a menacing guard robot, they find out Fennick’s battery is broken. Together, they embark on an adventure to the Core Tower to find Fennick a new energy core.”
That is the lineup for February. It looks pretty good this month, with a nice mix of genres and game styles. The PlayStation 4 games look quite interesting this month, which is great to see since normally the limited game selection means that the older platforms can have more variety. Now that the console is over a year old, there is a good stable of games available.
Source: PlayStation Blog
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Microsoft Releases Finished Versions Of Office For Android
Today the Office for Android applications are graduating from their preview status to become complete supported applications that Microsoft feels are ready for widespread use. According to the company, the three applications received a combined 250,000 downloads during the preview period, and were installed on over 3000 different Android device variants. Microsoft's system requirements for the final versions of Office on Android are a device with 1GB of RAM or more, an ARM based SoC, and Android 4.4.x KitKat. Devices between 7" and 10.1" will be able to use the apps for free, while devices larger than 10.1" will require an Office 365 subscription to have access to creation and editing features. Microsoft indicates that the applications are functioning on Android 5.0 Lollipop, but that it is not currently supported. Users of Intel x86 tablets will have to wait for a support update that will be arriving later in the year.
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GIGABYTE GB-BXi7H-5500 Broadwell BRIX Review
Over the last couple of years, the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) has emerged as one of the bright spots in the troubled PC market. Intel's NUC and GIGABYTE's BRIX are the most popular lineups in this category. Intel's 14nm Broadwell family was introduced into the market with the fanless Core M-based systems. The excellent performance of units based on Core-M has evoked interest in the performance of the upcoming NUC and BRIX units based on Broadwell-U. Intel is taking its time bringing the NUCs to market after officially announcing them at CES 2015. However, GIGABYTE sent over their premium Broadwell BRIX s SKU, the GB-BXi7H-5500, earlier this week. Read on to see what Broadwell-U brings to the UCFF PC market.
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Intel Announces Broadwell vPro Processors: Wireless Docking and More
HP Elite x2 1101
If you’re not familiar with vPro, this is primarily an out-of-band management technology that Intel builds into several of their products such as SSDs, NICs, WiFi cards, chipsets, and CPUs. Intel brands their out-of-band management as Intel Active Management Technology (AMT). While many business professionals experience IT management such as software updates and group policy enforcement, these are all at the OS level. Intel AMT provides IT tools at the hardware level, which means remote PCs can be accessed even when the OS is down or the power is off.
For example, if a device is lost containing sensitive data, AMT could be used to access location services of the device, restrict access, or even erase data. Another neat feature of AMT is using an integrated VNC server, allowing remote monitoring of the Intel integrated graphics feed and even keyboard/mouse control. Going even further, Intel AMT can even redirect the boot process of a PC to an IT provided remote image.
New features in Intel Setup and Configuration Software and AMT 10.0 (exclusive to Broadwell) include management of Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series, a location based services editor, Windows InstantGo support, blanking the screen during remote control sessions, and some other low level changes such as patching the OpenSSL heartbeat bug.
Over time, vPro has broadened to include more than just Intel AMT. Importantly, vPro also includes Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT), which works with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to secure a device against low level attacks and provide unique secure device identifiers to management systems. With Broadwell vPro processors, Intel is again expanding vPro to encompass more technology with Intel Wireless Docking and Intel Pro Wireless Display. It is important to note that these features are available to manufactures using a vPro package from Intel, but each device may not implement them.
Intel Wireless Docking could be the most exciting new feature. Using four channels of 802.11ad at 60 GHz radio frequency, Intel claims a total bandwidth of 7 Gbps. All data passed between the dock and device is protected with 128-bit AES hardware encryption, and two monitors plus USB 3.0 are supported. Intel has not yet provided information yet about supported resolutions, however they do provide an impressive video demonstrating a video file streaming from a USB stick to a laptop from the wireless dock, then back to the wireless dock for display.
This docking implementation is particularly interesting as it is implemented at the chipset level instead of the OS level. Intel’s low level control of peripherals allows them to enable no-brainer functionality such as closing the laptop lid and not entering sleep mode after establishing the dock connection. This saves battery as the laptop display is off, but to date this same functionality has required temporarily changing Windows settings. Additionally, Intel Wireless Docking will connect and disconnect from the wireless dock even if the device is open, closed, or in sleep mode. Anyone who has played the order-of-operations dance with a dock before will surely appreciate this.
One important note about Intel Wireless Docking is that while it uses 802.11ad 60 GHz networking (WiGig), the actual protocol layer Intel runs is different than devices such as the Dell D5000 that also uses 802.11ad; the two are not compatible. Intel stated devices such as the Dell D5000 are typically using 802.11ad as a simple USB bridge using the WiGig Bus Extension (WBE) layer, whereas Intel Wireless Docking is a tight integration with the Broadwell SoC providing new experiences such as those listed above, on-screen-display, and remote firmware management. Intel uses the WiGig Display Extension (WDE) and WiGig Serial Extension (WSE) layers. Intel states they are working with the other Wi-Fi Alliance members through various plug fest and other activities to promote interoperability.
Intel Pro Wireless Display (Pro WiDi) might sound familiar, and this is a variation of the Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) technology with the key naming difference being the insertion of Pro. What does that Pro add other than three letters? Several features aimed at business use cases. Wi-Fi direct connections made by WiDi Pro can now use enterprise security, a display confirmation handshake appears on both screens to prevent accidental sharing to the wrong display, managed display hand off to multiple devices in the same meeting room via GUI operations, and remote IT management of security certificates on Pro WiDi devices.
Finally, Intel Identity Protection Technology (IPT) now supports multi-factor authentication. This provides IT with more options to specify which authentication factors can be used for enterprise applications, such as a paired Bluetooth device.
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Samsung Stutters; Profits Fall 36%, Loses Global Smartphone Sales Lead to Apple
Android's top OEM is still a force to be weakened with, but looks lost in terms of the market
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Ancient Aliens? 11.2 Billion Year Old Solar System Discovered
NASA says ancient solar system could have been habitable, may hold the keys to questions about origins of life in our galaxy
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