Burnout developer announces Dangerous Golf, has a 'nod to NBA Jam'

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jan 26, 2016 11:32 PM CST

Announcing their game completely out of nowhere, Three Fields Entertainment has unveiled Dangerous Golf. The developer is a British studio made up of former Criterion developers, with Criterion being the developer behind the infamous Burnout series.

Dangerous Golf, as TFE explains: "Dangerous Golf is an irreverent, silly, fun approach to golf games that challenges players to break the rules and wreak havoc on more than 100 holes in four unexpected locations. It's as serious a golf game as Burnout was a serious simulation to driving games. We wanted to mix the attitude of Burnout with the destruction of Black whilst setting the golf ball on fire - a nod to NBA Jam. This type of gameplay is part of our DNA, and something we think our fans will truly enjoy".

The game features the latest technology, where it's powered by Unreal Engine 4 and uses NVIDIA's PhsyX, APEX and FleX technologies. TFE added: "Our team worked closely with both Epic's Unreal Engine 4 team and NVIDIA to not only push the boundaries of their PhysX, Apex Destruction and Flex technologies, but also to deliver a truly physics based game experience. As such, players will enjoy causing amazing destruction by smashing thousands of physically simulated rigid body valuables, shatter priceless heirlooms into small pieces and paint the environments with physically simulated liquids".

Continue reading: Burnout developer announces Dangerous Golf, has a 'nod to NBA Jam' (full post)

Firefox 44 launches with push notifications after you close it

Jeff Williams | Software & Apps | Jan 26, 2016 6:52 PM CST

The latest Firefox build, now up to 44, can give you push notifications even after you close the browser. They've also removed support for the RC4 encryption cipher and added some very powerful, and easy to use, developer tools.

The push notification feature lets you receive all notifications from any website that you give permission to, and if it's not loaded in a tab you'll still get the notification through Firefox itself. Mozilla says it's a useful feature for getting dynamic updates about weather and even your social network feed.

They've also stopped support for the aging RC4 cipher that's used for HTTPS connections. It was originally designed in 1987 and is incredibly weak by today's standards. It doesn't take long to crack a this cipher with today's compute power. So if a website uses that as their method of connection, then you'll get a warning page and you won't be able to connect. Modern SSL certificates don't make use of that anyway, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue. And those developer tools? Very slick.

Continue reading: Firefox 44 launches with push notifications after you close it (full post)

NVIDIA to launch HBM2-powered GeForce GTX Titan X successor in April

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jan 26, 2016 6:47 PM CST

If you have been reading our GPU-related content, you should know that we are set for the biggest year in GPU history this year, from both sides: AMD and NVIDIA.

Well, at NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference in April, we should see NVIDIA unveil the biggest GPU they've ever made - the successor to the GeForce GTX Titan X. The next-gen card could be called the GTX Titan X2, which would pull some of the wind out of AMD's sails with the dual-GPU Radeon R9 Fury X2, and we should see it featuring HBM2 - scaling up to 16-32GB with 1TB/sec of memory bandwidth. Insanity.

Back in September, we exclusively said that NVIDIA would release both a HBM2 and GDDR5X range of cards - something that will kick off with the HBM2-based Titan X successor. Towards June, we should see NVIDIA unveil a new GP104-based GeForce GTX 980 successor, based on GDDR5X - which offers 448GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

Continue reading: NVIDIA to launch HBM2-powered GeForce GTX Titan X successor in April (full post)

Cooler Master's Case Mod World Series 2016 has $30,000 in cash/prizes

Anthony Garreffa | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Jan 26, 2016 6:24 PM CST

Cooler Master has just launched its Case Mod World Series 2016 event, which the company calls a "competitive modding event designed to connect modders everywhere".

In total, there are $30,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs, thanks to sponsors ASUS, Avexir, Dremel, NVIDIA and OCZ. Global Community Manager for Cooler Master, Michelle Wu, explains: "Modding has exploded in recent years and is taking root in every corner of the globe. The Case Mod World Series is about fuelling that growth. It's about igniting the modding spirit - the maker spirit - on the web and right in your community. This year, we will be running local events to involve modders everywhere. Together, with the generous support of our sponsors, we hope to enable the modding community the world over".

There will be six judges, Ermanno Bonandini from Italy, Ronnie Hara from Brazil via Japan, Richard Keirsgieter from The Netherlands, Antony Leather from The UK, Richard Surroz and Brian Farrell from USA alongside the sponsors. From their respective fields of expertise, they will be judging the modded cases based on their scores in four weighted areas. Complexity, design, originality, and overall look. You can read more on the Cooler Master Case Mod World Series 2016 here.

Continue reading: Cooler Master's Case Mod World Series 2016 has $30,000 in cash/prizes (full post)

Star Wars Battlefront Season Pass detailed, a lot more maps coming

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Jan 26, 2016 5:54 PM CST

EA has released all of the details about the forthcoming DLC for Star Wars Battlefront as part of their Season Pass. And there's even some free content on the way as well.

The Season Pass, controversial as it is, seems to bring the infusion of content that the game should have had when it was released. There's going to be four new expansions coming out starting in March of this year. Each one will slowly introduce us to more maps, 16 in total, weapons and vehicles to choose from. They're also bringing new game modes for us to play with that should help to keep things interesting.

Aside from the paid Season Pass content, EA and DICE plan on releasing some free goodies to those that don't want to pay for the DLC. They'll have a new Survival mission set on Hoth and a new Hoth multiplayer map that'll support larger game modes as well, such as Walker Assault and Supremacy. The full details of everything coming out is below, after the break.

Continue reading: Star Wars Battlefront Season Pass detailed, a lot more maps coming (full post)

Strong 'X-Files' ratings prompts talk of more in future

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Jan 26, 2016 5:28 PM CST

The much anticipated 'X-Files' revival has aired the first two of its limited six episode run to very solid ratings despite mostly mixed reviews, with 9.6 million viewers in the United States.

Being off the air for nearly 15 years hasn't seemed to hurt appetite for new episodes, which has prompted Fox network CEO to confirm that the network is "Absolutely" keen to look to more episodes in the future. "The biggest impediment to going forward with 'The X-Files' was scheduling. Gillian is committed to other projects right now, David's schedule is always busy, but even the other night at the premiere we were all laughing and joking that we'd love to do this again, so we are on board if schedules can be worked out."

Coupled with sales of the recently released 'X-Files' Blu-ray boxset which have also been very good and even talk of a third feature film, the future for 'The X-Files' looks very bright indeed.

Continue reading: Strong 'X-Files' ratings prompts talk of more in future (full post)

Disney to make 'Star Wars' & 'Marvel' films until end of time

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Jan 26, 2016 4:49 PM CST

There's absolutely no doubt that the Marvel and Star Wars franchises are incredibly valuable to the Walt Disney company , with four films films in the top 10 highest grossing films of all time - with 'The Force Awakens' sitting pretty at number 3 with just shy of $2 billion dollars. But how long will they last? Can it simply gone on forever? Disney's CEO Bob Iger seems to think so.

Speaking to the BBC, Iger committed to releasing more 'Star Wars films' after the current batch are released. "There are five Star Wars films - four more with Episode Seven 'The Force Awakens' that are in varying stages of development and production. There will be more after that, I don't know how many, I don't know how often."

And on the subject of Marvel, Iger rejected the claim that fatigue has set in, saying "I don't think they're getting weary... you're dealing with thousands and thousands of characters - that will go on forever. But I think we keep raising the bar in terms of telling stories that bring them back, that excite them, that make it feel new and that is what we do for a living."

Continue reading: Disney to make 'Star Wars' & 'Marvel' films until end of time (full post)

Apple says iOS 8 and up designed to be unhackable by even Apple itself

Sean Ridgeley | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Jan 26, 2016 4:03 PM CST

In a freshly unsealed court case from October 2015, a judge asked Apple why it ignored requests to unlock the iPhone of a methamphetamine dealer. Turns out it didn't, the device (an iPhone 5s with iOS 7), was simply set to erase all data if someone attempted to unlock it 10 times in a row unsuccessfully (an unlocking device will try every possible code in quick succession). Presumably, this was by Apple design.

"In most cases now and in the future, the government's requested order would be substantially burdensome, as it would be impossible to perform," Apple stated, going on to say iOS 8 and above are designed to be unhackable by even Apple itself.

Apple lawyer Marc Zwillinger took it further at the hearing, noting, "Right now Apple is aware that customer data is under siege from a variety of different directions. Never has the privacy and security of customer data been as important as it is now. A hypothetical consumer could think if Apple is not in the business of accessing my data and if Apple has built a system to prevent itself from accessing my data, why is it continuing to comply with orders that don't have a clear lawful basis in doing so?"

Continue reading: Apple says iOS 8 and up designed to be unhackable by even Apple itself (full post)

Real wireless charging coming soon, charge devices from a distance

Wireless Power Transfer, of Tesla fame, is about to become a reality. His vision of actually transmitting power to charge devices is almost here.

Tesla's original design

Wireless charging is currently limited to simply not having to plug something physically into your phone. You still need to make contact with something, like a pad, to charge that battery. But soon, we'll have true wireless charging, where that precious power is beamed through the air to your device. From a distance.

Continue reading: Real wireless charging coming soon, charge devices from a distance (full post)

Cool mod turns the classic Jedi Academy into a fighting game

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Jan 26, 2016 2:01 PM CST

Thankfully LucasArts and Raven Software released the source code for Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy letting modders have the power to do some pretty amazing things with an already great base game. And already people have been re-exploring the game with some interesting results.

One of the most interesting mods to come from the generosity of Raven Software is Jedi Fighter, a mod that transforms the game into something that plays homage to some of the more classic fighting games, like Street Fighter II. It's a battle of good versus evil, with five different locations from a TIE hanger bay to Hoth and more. They've added in 10 characters from the expanded universe, ones that might be familiar. And of course it has the obligatory dynamic camera so you can have a cinematic view of the action.

It's the Star Wars fighting game we've been waiting for, the one we never knew we really wanted. It's fast paced and looks quite nice actually. In order to play the mod, you'll have to download the OpenJK engine to get it to work.

Continue reading: Cool mod turns the classic Jedi Academy into a fighting game (full post)