Valve Removes Paid Workshop Mods for Skyrim
Last Thursday, Valve introduced paid mods to the Steam Workshop for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. A hobby that had previously been free for every PC gamer suddenly had a price tag attached to some parts, and the Internet voiced its concerns and hatred of the idea. It seems that Valve and Bethesda have heard the cries, and as such paid mods are now gone from Skyrim's Workshop. Anyone who bought a mod (or more) will receive a refund for the full purchase price.
We're going to remove the payment feature from the Skyrim workshop. For anyone who spent money on a mod, we'll be refunding you the complete amount. We talked to the team at Bethesda and they agree.Valve's Alden Kroll said the company didn't seem to understand the community it was stepping in to and more than likely underestimated. There's paid content for Valve's own games, but a community where mods were free for years probably wasn't the best place to start. Kroll did say Valve believes there's still a "useful feature" for it eventually, which doesn't exactly bode well, especially if it returns for something like Fallout 4.
We've done this because it's clear we didn't understand exactly what we were doing. We've been shipping many features over the years aimed at allowing community creators to receive a share of the rewards, and in the past, they've been received well. It's obvious now that this case is different.
We understand our own game's communities pretty well, but stepping into an established, years old modding community in Skyrim was probably not the right place to start iterating. We think this made us miss the mark pretty badly, even though we believe there's a useful feature somewhere here.At any rate, paid mods were a short lived experiment for Skyrim, and hopefully one that stays that way for all non-Valve games on Steam.
Source: Steam
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AMD Zen CPU Core Block Diagram Finds Its Way Online
We have had some news lately about AMD's Zen CPU line, with today bringing one that is especially interesting. First things first, this information is from an unverified slide, but if true sounds extremely promising. It seems a block diagram of the Zen CPU has found its way online, which compares Zen to AMD's final Bulldozer part, the Excavator. The upcoming AMD Carrizo APUs will be the last of the Bulldozer line and should launch later this year. A big difference between the Zen and Excavator lines is that Zen only has one integer cluster instead of two, which puts it more in line with older Phenom and Athlon K chips in terms of internal layout. This should greatly help out in floating point performance, since instead of two cores sharing one floating point unit, each core has its own.
Both floating point and integer performance should see a boost this way, with single threaded performance likely surpassing the Bulldozer line. The floating point for Zen has two FMAC 256-bit units that could work together for 512-bit AVX floating point instructions. Less complex process instructions should be handled twice as fast as Bulldozer, too. A 50% wider integer pipeline compared to Excavator is also present, which again will help with single threaded performance.
Again, all of this is based on an unverified slide, but it certainly sounds like the Zen CPUs will be something to keep an eye on when they launch next year.
Source: WCCFtech
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First Intel Skylake Motherboards Spotted; Expected to Launch September 2015
Last week some leaked details appeared for the Intel Skylake processors, and today we have some information on the motherboards. Chinese company Colorful recently held an event to show off some of the Intel Z170 chipset motherboards it's working on, which use the new LGA 1151 socket for the Skylake processors. None of the motherboards have a finalized color or name scheme, but all show off the new features Intel is implementing in the chipset. Three different motherboards are seen, with support for up to 64GB of DDR4 2133MHz RAM. All three feature VRM cooling by way of thermal armor, and one even has that armor down near the PCIe slots. Three PCIe 3.0 x16 slots are seen on all the motherboards, as are three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots and even an M.2 port. There are also USB 3.0 ports, USB 2.0 ports, onboard audio powered by Gamer Voice, Dual Gigabit LAN, a Killer E2201 chip, and Intel I211-AT to help with connectivity.
All of these features and more will be seen on Intel Z170 motherboards likely to be shown off during Computex. That's still a little over a month away, but we should at least get an idea of what Intel has in store for the future. The Intel Z170 motherboards and Skylake processors are expected to arrive this September.
Source: WCCFtech
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AMD Radeon R9 395X2 Not Expected at Computex Reveal
The AMD R9 300 Series isn't even officially announced yet, but there have been plenty of rumors about it. One new rumor concerns the Fiji VR Dual GPU card, which apparently isn't in the plans for a Computex reveal. The Fiji XT and other single GPU cards will be shown off during the convention, but the Fiji VR, the R9 395X2, will be revealed at a later date. The 395X2 is slated to be an impressive card, with 8GB Stacked HBM memory per GPU, 640GB/s memory bandwidth per GPU, and a 1.25GHz memory frequency. Each GPU has a core with 4096 shaders and a 1.05GHz clock speed, which should go a long way towards gaming and VR performance.
AMD wants this card to deliver the best VR experience possible, just one that may not be for everyone. The 395X2 is reported to cost a staggering $1499, but again, just a rumor for now. We'll see exactly what AMD is planning at Computex in June, most likely, with the R9 395X2 Fiji VR card debuting afterwards.
Source: WCCFtech
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Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Fully Revealed
It has been just weeks since the first details of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 were made available to the public. Now, the game has been fully revealed, with details surrounding the upcoming title now readily available. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is set to feature a campaign that can be enjoyed with up to four player online, new multiplayer maps that are built from the ground up, fully customizable characters, the ability to move with jet packs, and a ranking system that offers three different progression paths. The game will also offer roughly the same movement system as Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, with players being able to control their weapon at all times while using thrust jumps, slides, and mantling.
The reveal trailer below, along with the attached images, offers a glimpse into the world of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. The game is currently scheduled to launch on November 6, 2015 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
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Thermaltake Announces Several New Radiators
Thermaltake has announced the Pacific RL and R Series radiators as the latest water cooling solutions in its lineup. The RL Series radiators are greater than 50mm thick while the R Series are less than 50mm thick. The Pacific Series radiators are designed for "the most demanding and hardcore enthusiasts" and are optimized for maximum heat dissipation. The radiators are created from aerospace grade materials using a high temperature brazing process with the inclusion of zinc as an anti-corrosion agent.
Source: Press Release
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Kingston Launches HyperX Savage SSD
Kingston has released the latest addition to the HyperX line of products, the HyperX Savage solid state drive. The Savage is powered by a Phison S10 quad-core, eight channel controller and replaces the HyperX 3K SSD. The drive boasts read and write speeds up to 560MB/s and 530MB/s, respectively, with up to 100,000 read and 89,000 write Input/Output Operations per Second. The Savage is available in capacities of 120GB, 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB in a standalone package or in a kit. HyperX business manager Lawrence Yang described the Savage stating, "We are proud to introduce the HyperX Savage as our latest and fastest SATA-based SSD. The HyperX 3K drive has been a core part of our SSD offerings since 2012, and now with Savage, we are unleashing even higher performance and capacities to satisfy the most demanding consumers, enthusiasts and gamers."
Source: Press Release
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DiRT Rally Announced and Released to Steam Early Access
This must be a nice surprise for DiRT fans as Codemasters have announced and released DiRT Rally to Steam Early Access. Being an Early Access title, it will not come with everything the final version will have, but it does feature 17 cars, 36 stages across various locations, tuning, upgrades, damage, and repairs. Any new content released during the Early Access period will be freely added to the title, so you do not have to worry about purchasing new cars and such, at least until then. The game also features Rally Seasons for competitive events, and Rally Async, so you can compete with people without being online together.
One thing I am wondering though is if this is the DiRT 4 mentioned in both AMD and NVIDIA drivers, or is that yet another title?
Source: Neoseeker
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AMD's Greenland GPU Should Come in 2016 with HBM2 and 14 nm
It has been well over a year since AMD released the R9 290X GPU, its currently most powerful single-GPU offering, so naturally there is a lot of interest in what its successor will be, but there may be reason to look a little further ahead. As covered by WCCFtech, there are reports that AMD will introduce the Artic Islands GPU architecture in 2016, and that it will be made with HBM2 and with a 14 nm process.
The first generation HBM is supposed to be used in the upcoming generation of AMD GPUs, and while it may limit initial supplies, many expect it to dramatically increase performance. The second generation will push performance even further with double the speed per pin. Even with the superior memory though, the speculation is that Artic Islands will actually have a focus on improved power efficiency. With a likely transition to a 14 nm fabrication process at Globalfoundries for the GPU, we may just see that better efficiency.
Source: WCCFtech
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AMD Godavari Refresh Platform Spotted
While the Kaveri lineup by AMD has continued to impress gamers with its built-in Radeon graphics engine based on the GCN 1.1 architecture, a platform refresh is just on the horizon. Computerbase.de has announced that it has spotted the Kaveri-Refresh platform, which is officially known as Godavari, boasting the newer JC stepping. The upcoming platform, which is expected to use the FM2+ form-factor, will feature the same design as Kaveri, such as "Steamroller" x86 cores, a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, heterogeneous system architecture capabilities, and the aforementioned Radeon graphics engine.
While the Godavari lineup was originally expected to feature a new 8000 series nomenclature, it looks like AMD will be sticking with the 7000 series naming scheme for unknown reasons. Below is a table that features the leaked SKU specifications of the Godavari platform before it was known that AMD was sticking with the current 7000 series nomenclature.
Godavari |
CPU Cores |
CPU Clock Base/Boost |
L2 Cache |
GPU/Cores |
GPU Clock |
TDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AMD A10-8850K |
4 |
3.7/4.1GHz |
4MB |
R7/512 |
856MHz |
95W |
AMD A10-Pro 8850B |
4 |
3.7/4.1GHz |
4MB |
R7/512 |
800MHz |
95W |
AMD A8-8650 |
4 |
3.2/3.8GHz |
4MB |
R7/384 |
760MHz |
65W |
AMD A8-8650K |
4 |
3.2/3.5GHz |
4MB |
R7/384 |
760MHz |
95W |
AMD A10-8750 |
4 |
3.0/3.5GHz |
4MB |
R7/512 |
TBD |
65W |
AMD A6-8550K |
2 |
3.1/3.5GHz |
2MB |
R5/256 |
TBD |
65W |
AMD A10 PRO-8750B |
4 |
3.0/3.5GHz |
4MB |
R7/512 |
TBD |
65W |
AMD A8 PRO-8650B |
4 |
2.9/3.2GHz |
4MB |
R7/384 |
760MHz |
65W |
AMD A6 PRO-8550B |
2 |
3.1/3.5GHz |
2MB |
R5/256 |
TBD |
65W |
AMD A4 PRO-8350B |
2 |
3.0/3.5GHz |
2MB |
R5/256 |
757MHz |
65W |
AMD Athlon X4 870K |
4 |
3.5/3.7GHz |
2MB |
N/A |
N/A |
95W |
AMD Athlon X4 850 |
4 |
2.9/3.2GHz |
2MB |
N/A |
N/A |
65W |
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Rocksteady and Warner Bros Release New Batman: Arkham Knight Trailer
The Game Director of Batman: Arkham Knight and co-founder of Rocksteady Games, Sefton Hill, has been teasing gamers for some time about an upcoming trailer for the highly anticipated title. That trailer has finally arrived, and shows off a new feature known as "Dual Play," which allows gamers to seamlessly switch between The Dark Knight, Robin, Nightwing, and Catwoman. While it is unknown whether this feature will make its way through the entire campaign or if it will be part of a challenge, it definitely looks amazing, since it allows gamers to truly utilize the different strengths that each character exhibits. The new trailer for Batman: Arkham Knight, titled "All Who Follow You," also showcases the wealth of enemies that face Batman, confirming just how dangerous the city of Gotham is.
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Special Cloud Security System Built Into Chips
Securing our data can be very important, especially if that data is something sensitive like credit or medical information. This can be tricky to accomplish though, as many systems are moving to the Cloud, where a user's data may be on the same server as an attacker. Two years ago researchers at MIT designed a way to thwart some of these attacks, and now they have successfully built it into chips, which would make actually deploying it much simpler.
Many people may think that so long as data cannot be read, it is protected, but actually attackers can learn a great deal without ever seeing the data. Instead they can look to what a system does with it, such as how it calls the memory. To secure against such attacks, the MIT researchers developed a technique that calls multiple memory addresses at a time, obfuscating what the desired address was from the attacker. This was accomplished by treating all of the addresses as nodes in a tree, with one node immediately above, and several nodes below. When calling one address, the entire path of nodes from it to the top of the tree is called, and so the entire path is written to as well.
By building this method into hardware, it can be run much more efficiently, but to achieve this, the researchers had to develop some interesting tricks. For example, writing to a path on the tree is difficult to do on hardware, because it would normally require sorting. By adding an extra memory circuit though, the information can be stored there and then written to the main memory once its location has been determined. This writing is also done on only ever fifth read, to further improve efficiency.
Source: MIT
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Three New Screenshots Appear for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
More Witcher goodness has arrived today, courtesy of Miles Tost, thegame's lead level designer. Tost took to Twitter to release three new screenshots of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which show a bathhouse, Geralt riding a horse through town, and a monster fight. The bathhouse is rather full of people, and our monster slayer is in only a towel as he makes his way through. Most of the patrons are similarly clothed, although there are a few who aren't. The horseback ride through town shows some nicely constructed houses, fences, and some training items. Judging by the quest text, Geralt is on his way to meet with Yennefer, with the town either being close by or just one of the many places we can check out on the way. As for that monster battle, well, Geralt is taking on a griffin. According to Tost, griffins exist in the world and we can even encounter some, which Geralt has found. It looks to be an intense battle, with some new tactics to utilize since griffins have wings.
Less than a month remains before The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt arrives on May 19. You may want to book some time to get lost in its world, and more later on if you pick up the Expansion Pass.
Source: Twitter [1] & [2]
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Silent Hills Looks to Be Over Before It Truly Began
Things are a little off for Konami of late, as Hideo Kojima's name has been removed from any digitally available work he had a hand in. Then it was announced that he is just a contractor finishing up Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and once the year ends, so does his employment. Now it seems the horror reboot Silent Hills is no more, as not only is P.T., the playable teaser for the title, removed from the PlayStation Store, but the full game itself looks to be canceled. Both Guillermo del Toro and Norman Reedus took to Twitter to voice their displeasure about the apparent canning of the project. Del Toro was collaborating with Kojima on Silent Hills, with Reedus set to star as the game's protagonist. In fact, when P.T. is played to completion you actually get to see Reedus in the game, although odds are that was the only part of his actually completed.
Until we hear something definitive from Konami about Silent Hills, consider the game in dire straits. If it is truly lost, which it certainly seems to be, Konami will have a lot to prove to gamers that it actually cares about games.
Source: Twitter [1] & [2], and Neoseeker
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