A 23-year-old League of Legends gamer has died in a Taipei gaming centre, where his body sat in front of his glowing monitor for 9 hours before anyone noticed that something had happened. Police have reported that Chen Rong-Yu was found sitting rigidly in front of his PC, hands stretched out towards the keyboard and mouse.
It is believed that the gamer had a pre-existing heart condition, but with the mix of low temperatures in the cafe, lack of movement and extreme fatigue, all contributing to the heart attack.
Gamers were taking part in a 400-percent bonus IP event in League of Legends. Chen was involved, and had even been taking regular naps at his desk during the event, which meant that the 30 or so players around him in the cafe did not notice a thing. A cafe employee found him, attempted to wake up, found his body cold, and called the police.
BioWare's MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic has enjoyed some decent launch numbers, and now its time to find out just how many subscribers the reportedly $200 million MMO has.
Since launching in December last year, SW:TOR has sold over 2 million copies, and now has a very nice 1.7 million subscribers. Compared to World of Warcraft's launch, this is nearly twice as strong for launch numbers. But, we all know WoW has really taken off since then, it's latest expansion, Cataclysm sold more than 3.3 million copies in just 24 hours.
EA CEO John Riccitiello has said:
Star Wars: The Old Republic is developing a committed community of players with more than 1.7 million active subscribers and growing.
Continue reading 'Star Wars: The Old Republic has sold 2 million copies, has 1.7 million subscribers' (full post) We reported about the Half-Life 2 protest that was going on over the weekend, so that Valve would hopefully take notice, step up and release some information on Half-Life 3. How did this go?
Well, Half-Life 2's numbers went from the 3000-mark, to over 13,000 during the protest. This pushed Half-Life 2 into the top 20, and just short of the top 10. At its peak, it sat at number 11. Very nice for a protest.
Of course, 30,000+ members were touted to take part in this protest. The organiser has said:
I am personally impressed with what we've achieved today. We're nowhere near done - in fact, we are currently in the process of planning new activities; this was only our first attempt, and, in my eyes, was a success for everyone.
Anonymous have had an eventful 2012 thus far, with news today that they've intercepted and recorded a conference call that took place between the FBI and the British police cybercrime division of Scotland Yard on January 17.
Anonymous have now released an audio recording of the nearly 15 minutes of conversation online. During the call, the two parties discussed something quite important, a hacker plot called "Project Mayhem". What is Project Mayhem you ask? Well, it's only a strategy for bringing down Anonymous, you can now understand why this is of importance for Anonymous.
The two parties specifically talk about back arrests of members known as "Kayla" and "Tee-flow", as well as getting Ryan Cleary's indecent images which were found by the USAF who examined his hard drive and 15-year-old "Tehwongz" who has claimed to of hacked 32,000 Steam user names, logins and credit card details.
Continue reading 'Anonymous eavesdrops FBI conference call, releases audio recording online' (full post) GFACE launched back in 2007, and until now it has been in "MAXIMUM STEALTH" mode. GFACE has been formed as a separate company headed by Crytek chief, Cevat Yerli. GFACE is designed to offer gamers a social networking site where they can communicate, collaborate, and play. GFACE's motto? 'Play. Together. Live.'
GFACE doesn't really bring anything new to the table, and it has some seriously hard competition in the form of Facebook, Google+, Steam, etc. Members do have the ability to view ongoing games live within their browser, all while they chat in both voice and text modes.
GFACE will be a freemium business model, where the core functionality of the new social networking service to remain free.
Yerli has explained in a statement:
GFACE enables its users to discover and experience entertainment together in real time. "Play. Together. Live" encompasses our mission to re-imagine the way we play, the way we interact with each other - live in an entirely new way. We want everybody to play everywhere for free
Continue reading 'Crytek's Cevat Yerli launches GFACE social networking beta' (full post) Steve Appleton, Chairman and CEO of Micron Technology, Inc. died over the weekend in a small plane crash in Boise. He was just 51 years old. Appleton was due to retire in August, which makes the news of his death even sadder.
Steve was "an avid pilot who flew in airshows and was also an offroad car racer." Steve first joinced Micron in 1983, working the night shift, he rose to the CEO role in 1994 and has been there ever since.
Steve leaves behind his wife, Dalynn, his children, family and friends. On top of this, the technology community. It's a sad day for Micron, and Steve's family. TweakTown's thoughts and prayers are with his family.
THQ are going through some rough times, and those tough times are now pushing back to sequel to Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light. The game has been pushed back to an early-2013 release.
Developer, 4A games has said in a statement:
[The release] may be a little later than you were expecting, but trust us - the wait will be worth it! You'll be hearing a lot more about Metro: Last Light closer to E3, so please be patient. We can't wait to show you what we've been up to.
Are you mad? It would've been nice to have a Metro game this year, but waiting until next year might anger some fans. On top of this, if there's a next-gen console release next year, like it has been rumored, then this game might look dated by the time the game comes out. This is going to be something most game developers/companies are going to have to remember.
For our final piece from the Taipei Game Show we leave you with our video of the lovely Taiwanese booth babes from the show.
We managed to squeeze a bit of gaming in, but are you even going to pay attention to it?
Enjoy! There are a bunch of pictures in the gallery if you go to the full version of this story.
Continue reading 'Taipei Game Show 2012 Booth Babes (and some gaming) Video' (full post) We hunted high and low for hardware at the Taipei Game Show earlier today when we were there, but being a game show, it was obviously dominated with a strong gaming focus. Along side the Razer Blade eyes-on video we just posted, one of the other really hot bits of hardware was the Thermaltake Level 10 GT case mod by Brian Carter.
Brian named it the "COD" and it follows a really kick-ass Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 theme with a motorized and spinning gun at the front of the case, a rocket launcher at the top and on the side panel you'll find the medic kit for your war wounds as well as an ammo pack to keep on killing.
Back in the day we would just had some neon lights to our cases and call it a day when it came to case modding, nowadays they are doing crazy good stuff like this. I love it!
And it's not the sort you shave with. Even MS Word wants to change my "typo" to Razor instead of Razer. Razer will soon be bringing the Blade onto the market, promoted as the world's first true gaming laptop.
We managed to get some eyes-on time with the Razer Blade earlier today at the Taipei Game Show. Some young Taiwanese gamers were crowded around the laptop, waiting to get their turn on this so-called first true gaming notebook.
Razer had StarCraft II installed on it, probably one of if not the most popular games in Asia. We didn't provide any commentary in the video above, but you do get a good look at the system if you're interested in buying one when they come onto the market soon, for a hefty price.
The latest happenings in the technology world, February 3rd, 2012.
GPUs:
AMD Radeon HD 7950 CrossFire & TriFire - Neoseeker
XFX R7970 Double Dissipation - ocaholic
Peripherals & Misc:
Cyborg GLIDE 7 Gaming Surface - eTeknix
ROCCAT Alumic Mouse Pad - techPowerUp!
Corsair Vengeance M60 Mouse - Overclock3D
Continue reading 'Friday Morning Roundup' (full post) Our Mobile App of the Day is GHOST TRICK: Phantom Detective for iOS
Experience this much beloved, touching story for yourself. Try this brand-new kind of "Interactive Mystery" for free right now!
*Devices and iOS supported: iPhone 3GS or later, iPod touch, iPad with iOS 4.3 or later
*iPhone 3G / iPod touch 2G are not supported
*Languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish
◆ This Story Starts with Your Death
In an obscure corner of the city, a single bullet takes your life, but that's not all it takes. When you awaken as a spirit, you realize you have no recollection of who you are. Thus begins your search for the answers to these questions: "Who am I?", "Who killed me?", and "Why was I killed?"
One night is all you have to answer these questions before your soul vanishes at dawn's first light, and your only lead is the female detective who witnessed your death...
◆ "Possess" and "Manipulate" Your Way to the Truth!
As the main character, you can possess and manipulate objects, such as a guitar or an umbrella, using your "Powers of the Dead". A variety of actions will be available to you depending on what you possess. Strive to possess the truth itself!
Continue reading 'Mobile App of the Day: GHOST TRICK: Phantom Detective for iOS' (full post) Lenovo is having a sale, dropping the price of their 7" IdeaPad A1 Android Tablet from $399 down to just $199, a $200 savings. This 7" 1024 x 600 LED-backlit capacitive multitouch tablet features a 1Ghz Texas Instruments OMAP 3622 processor (single-core Cortex A8), 512MB DDR2 SDRAM, 16GB drive, 3MP rear camera, 0.3MP front camera, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, MicroSD slot (up to 32GB storage), Mini USB port, GPS, 1-Cell Lithium Polymer battery (7+ hour battery life), and Android 2.3 OS.
Use coupon code: WEEKLYDEAL0202 for the discount. Expires 2/8/12.
LENOVO IDEAPAD A1 ANDROID TABLET DEAL
Our Download of the Day is Firefox 11.0 Beta 1.
The Web is all about innovation, and Firefox sets the pace with dozens of new features to deliver a faster, more secure and customizable Web browsing experience for all.
User Experience. The enhancements to Firefox provide the best possible browsing experience on the Web. The new Firefox smart location bar, affectionately known as the "Awesome Bar," learns as people use it, adapting to user preferences and offering better fitting matches over time.
Performance. Firefox is built on top of the powerful new Gecko platform, resulting in a safer, easier to use and more personal product.
Security. Firefox raises the bar for security. The new malware and phishing protection helps protect from viruses, worms, trojans and spyware to keep people safe on the Web.
Customization. Everyone uses the Web differently, and Firefox lets users customize their browser with more than 5,000 add-ons.
Grab Firefox 11.0 Beta 1, here.
AMD's client roadmap has revealed Hondo, a 4.5W APU with 1-2 low voltage Bobcat cores as well as an on-die DX11 GPU built on a 40nm process. Windows 8 will be the OS to receive some of AMD's Hondo lovin'. AMD is wanting to get serious of entering the sub-2W market, with mobile being a very important path for AMD.
AMD has talked about being "ambidextrous" when it comes to architectures, implying that AMD's future products will include chips with ARM-based CPU cores for markets where it makes sense. AMD have also said they will take advantage of all sorts of ecosystems, including Windows 8 and Android.
The AMD 2013 Client Roadmap unveils some interesting things indeed, with 2013 mobile chips "Kaveri", "Kabini", and "Tamesh" being three new APUs to be introduced. Kaveri will sport 2-4 "Steamroller" CPU cores, as well as a GCN-based GPU with HSA Application support. Kabini will feature 2-4 "Jaguar" cores backed up by a GCN-based GPU, and finally, Tamesh sports 2 "Jaguar" CPU cores, and a GCN-based GPU.
Desktop wise from AMD, we should expect the second-generation FX CPUs codenamed "Vishera" which will include 4-8 "Piledriver" CPU cores, "Kaveri" APU which will sport 2-4 "Steamroller" CPU cores, GCN-based GPU, HSA Application support and finally, "Kabini" which is identical to its mobile counterpart, sporting 2-4 "Jaguar" cores, and a GCN-based GPU.
Alan Wake on PC has finally gotten a firm release date, just two weeks from now. February 16th is the day you should buy some batteries for your flashlight, and it has a decent price of just $30. Remedy have been putting a nice amount of polish on Alan Wake for PC, where it includes not just improved graphics, but multiple monitor support, and 3D.
Remedy's CTO, Markus Mäki has said:
We've done our best to do justice to the PC version and do things the way they should be done for PC. The PC version looks absolutely beautiful. We're bringing the game to life in a whole new way.
What can you expect in the PC version? Check out this list:
- Experience Alan Wake's Pacific Northwest in higher resolutions and higher fidelity than ever before
- Refined and fully configurable mouse and keyboard support (or if you prefer to play with the Microsoft gamepad connected to your PC, you can do that too!)
- A wide selection of customizable graphics settings and support for 4:3, 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios
- Multithreaded engine that takes advantage of quad core CPUs
- Additional options our fans have sought after, such as field of view adjustment as well as "hide HUD".
- Works with AMD Eyefinity 3D 3-screen mode
- Works with NVIDIA NVISION2 Stereoscopic 3D
Users of Google Chrome to Phone will be happy to hear that Google have finally updated the application, with the first in nearly a year arriving today including bug fixes and a few improvements.
What Chrome to Phone does is work with the copy of Chrome you have installed on your desktop or laptop, and lets you transfer things such as URLs from Chrome on your PC to your phone's browser, so you can look at it away from the desktop, such as when you're on the toilet, or the couch.
Chrome to Phone 2.3.0 also includes a fresh UI, support for landscape, and fixes a bug that would usually crash the application when transferring text to it from your computer, one that reportedly was especially prevalent on Honeycomb-based tablets, has now been resolved.
Grab Chrome to Phone from the Android Market.
Apple don't have a TV on the market, where their biggest competitor in the smartphone market, Samsung, sure do have that market with their fist around it, tightly. The latest coming from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, has said that the Cupertino-based company has been checking out the TV component supply chain, in preparations of entering the TV market.
Munster wrote in a note to clients today:
In January we spoke with a major TV component supplier who has been contacted by Apple regarding various capabilities of their television display components. We see this as continued evidence that Apple is exploring production of a television. This latest data point follows January 2011 meetings in Asia that led us to believe Apple was investing in manufacturing facilities for LCD displays ranging from 3.5" mobile displays to 50" television displays.
Now I'm beginning to wonder. A consumer walks into a store that sells a bunch of different branded TVs, as well as Apple products. Said customer sees a 50-inch Apple TV for, I'm guessing here, $3999 and sees a 55-inch Samsung OLED TV, which makes the Apple screen look like a 640x480 CRT, and is $3499. Which would the customer buy?
The scary answer? Most like Apple, because of that darn attractive picture of fruit on the front. Go, Apple, go.
Well, well. MegaUpload may have taken an arrow to the knee, but now we're seeing the cracks get wider, and the numbers are widening. Ex.ua, the Ukrainian equivalent of MegaUpload has been forced offline in the Ukraine. You've probably never heard of it, but Ex.ua is absolutely huge. Ex.ua accounts for between 16- and 36-percent of Internet traffic in the country at any one time.
Ex.au's offices were raided by the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, where they seized over 200 servers where they found, get this, over 6 petabytes (6,000 terabytes) of illegal content. There were supposedly 16 people working at the office, and are now looking to face prosecution.
Why did the raids take place? Adobe, Microsoft, and Graphisoft had made complaints in relation to copyright infringement. After which, an investigation was launched and had lasted six months before action had taken place.
Ukrainian ISPs should expect traffic to go down, and make less profits.
Ukrainian resident? Please drop me a line to let me know what's going on in your side of the world.
In a conference call with EA's Vice President of Investor Relations, it was said to analysts:
You're going to hear some announcements from us on Battlefield actually as early as next week in an event we've got in New York. We've got plans for all of our major franchises to turn them into more of as we're seeing with FIFA and with Battlefield more as games for service that have constant flow of downloadable content.
The rumor of an 'all-American DLC' has come from some YouTube comments where they've stated:
I have a source telling me that there will be an all American DLC, based on New York City, Miami, New Jersey, and I think it was San Francisco.
Now, with Frostbite 2, this would be an amazing thing. It would look truly gorgeous, and give us a change to the current maps we have in Battlefield 3/Back to Karkand. Inner-city NYC fights would be amazing, with destructible environments and what not. Give me "enhanced destruction" that we saw in B2K, but amplified, and I'll get back into BF3.
