Latest News - Page 2653

Everyone expects Fallout 4 to be big--the previous games have boasted sessions that total up more than 100 hours of content thanks to expansive open-world environments and dynamic quest-lines. But no one expected that Fallout 4 has more than 400 hours of play time.

"I've played the game for probably 400 hours, and I'm still finding stuff that I haven't seen," Bethesda Softworks developer Jeff Gardiner told OXM.

We have to remember that devs play games differently than consumers. Developers have assigned tasks and are always looking to recreate bugs or test various elements of the game. And in light of the game's absolutely massive crafting system that lets you literally destroy and erect your own custom buildings, it's possible that a considerable portion of Gardiner's playtime was spent making his own post-apocalyptic town and fighting against incoming raiders.

During a conference call with investors and more, Steve Luczo, CEO of Seagate, told all those listening that "There is no one that is using SSDs for storage," further clarifying "I mean, maybe at the margin for replacing boot drives... I mean, maybe one or three per cent of the hierarchy is SSDs for storage. Most of your flash product is actually not hanging off the storage bus, it is fast memory."

Ignorant or not, that is for you to decide - but a trend towards larger capacity and lower pricing SSDs has had many consumers look at a possible move to NAND-only technology. Take the Fixstars 6TB SSD for example, what price point would this need to sit at for you to personally consider it as your sole storage option?

There's no denying that SSDs as they stand aren't viable as storage devices for all consumers, with hard drives still dominating the consumer market. But looking at some statistics on Kitguru, the hard disk market was sitting pretty at 160-170 million units per quarter in 2010, whereas it has recently clocked in at a much lower 110-111 million units in the second quarter of 2015.

Patients with heart problems can now have a custom microchip installed, able to give them advance notice of potential heart problems. Once inserted into the pulmonary artery, the CardioMEMS system is able to track heart function - and upload data to healthcare supervisors.

"You have more faith and trust. People are looking at, watching me and I feel safer," said Reg Youngman, one of the first people to have the microchip installed, in a statement published by Euronews. "Because in the past I never knew quite when something was going to hit me badly and when it did, it was usually, it had gone too far and hit me really badly."

The CardioMEMS HF System is the first implantable device supporting remote functionality, so health care professionals are able to remotely monitor the condition of their patients. Heart failure is one of the more common reasons people over the age 65 end up in the hospital, so closer evaluation of patients could help save lives.

The Chinese government and suspected hacker groups with ties to Beijing are enjoying their attacks against the United States economy, according to a secret map compiled by the National Security Agency (NSA). Each red dot signifies a major corporate, private or government cyberattack victim from suspected Chinese sources:

When it comes to cybersecurity, the United States clearly hasn't taken the threat seriously enough, and it's glaringly obvious to organized hackers and foreign governments. Although the folks in Washington absolutely love to spy on others, they haven't done a very good job trying to prevent these attacks.

If the map is accurate, the NSA has a pretty good idea on which companies, government networks, and critical infrastructure the Chinese hackers are interested in compromising.

Recently I headed down to the Surprise Attack PR agency in Victoria, Australia to check out exactly what Plantronics are looking at releasing in the near future. From stellar beginnings including "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" being broadcasted through the help of a Plantronics product, this audio company is looking to help step up the gaming scene with its new RIG 500 series of fully modular headsets.

Mainly pictured in this article is the RIG 500e. Coming in as the top of the range model with the most options, expect it to he hitting retail shelves soon for a MSRP of $149 ($199 AU in Australia). The 500e is endorsed by the ESL and is known as the eSports edition. Coming jam-packed with features, included in the package is a fully modular design, a closed-earcup with soft leatherette padding, an open-earcup with cloth padding and an in-line extension unit which includes a 24-bit Dolby 7.1 surround-sound USB sound card.

All headsets across the range include fully modular design, a microphone that mutes when flipped up and the ability to mix and match your accessories later in life. The standard RIG 500 headset will set you back $59 ($99 AU in Australia), with the middle option 500HD costing $99 ($129 in Australia), but if you're wanting to add the extra ear cups, 7.1 support or change your headband to something awesome in the future when your finances permit - you will be able to log on to the Plantronics website and pick and chose parts as you see fit.

Social media can be an extremely powerful marketing tool used for promotion, and that is evident by the number of celebrities, athletes, and other public figures using Twitter, Facebook, and other networks.

TweakTown recently chatted with Paul Daley, a popular - yet polarizing - English mixed martial arts (MMA) and kickboxing specialist. The fighter, sporting a 37-13-2 MMA record and 20-3 kickboxing record, most recently defeated Dennis Olson during Bellator 140 earlier this month. Daley is quite active on Facebook, sharing news updates about training, upcoming fights, and news that combat sports fans have shaed with him.

"Social media has taught me that it's good to be yourself," Daley told TweakTown. "People have an idea of how a fighter's life is, [but if] they really want to know and follow."

DICE had its hands full while developing Star Wars Battlefront, understanding it's going to be nearly impossible to please all long-time fans of the iconic movie franchise.

"Our job has been to create a shooter that springs out of the IP of Star Wars and not the IP of DICE," said Patrick Bach, GM of DICE, in an interview with GamesIndustry International. "It's not supposed to be a DICE game, per se, it's supposed to have the DICE qualities but it's a Star Wars game first and foremost. That's the bigger challenge, first of all to figure out - what is the difference between this and that?"

"We chose to create this because we want to create this experience, and this is the emotion we want to evoke so this is what we're focusing on. And that pitch is really hard because Star Wars is so many things. If you try to do everything then everyone will be a little bit disappointed. Instead we are staying true to what we think is the right thing for this game."

Bungie dropped the banhammer down on hundreds of people cheating in Destiny, with the Security Response Team booting people off of Crucible PvP.

Specifically, the latest round of banned players were responsible for "manipulating network traffic," and Bungie would prefer players not even know what that means - saying "we love you. Never change."

"We're committed to protecting Destiny against cheaters," Bungie noted. "Enjoy your game. Just play it fair. That's all we ask. Short of your own commitment to honor, we'll take action ourselves. It's not a think we enjoy doing - and certainly something we'll never quantify or describe in agonizing detail. The damned shall remain anonymous - their nefarious actions a mystery."

WikiLeaks has published "Target Tokyo," listing 35 "Top Secret NSA targets" located in Japan, including intercepts from US-Japan relations, trade negotiations and sensitive climate change strategy.

The United States spied on companies such as Mitsubishi and Matsui, Japanese government officials, ministries and senior advisers to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration. Other targets included the Japanese Cabinet Office switchboard, Japanese Central Bank officials, governors, and other high-ranking officials.

"In these documents we see the Japanese government worrying in private about how much or how little to tell the United States, in order to prevent undermining of its climate change proposal or its diplomatic relationship," said Julian Assange, Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks. "And yet we now know that the United States heard everything and read everything, and was passing around the deliberations of Japanese leadership to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK."

In Bungie's most recent Weekly Update the developers take us on a tour of the Hive Dreadnaught--that vast starship made of graves, shadows and woe that serves as the major game zone for Destiny's new The Taken King expansion.

The studio takes us into the Dreanaught, a massive Hive interstellar cruiser that resembles a sort of lunatic conjunction of John Berkey and H.R. Giger; it's all wicked spikes and cruel black steel forged with a queer Borg-like symmetry...and it's very hard to look away.

The Dreadnaught will not only be a pivotal focal point for The Taken King's campaign story, the cyclopean flagship will be one of the game's new zones and feature Public Events, Patrol Missions, and Bounties. "The Dreadnaught is a major centerpiece of The Taken War, a progression that extends well beyond the traditional storyline, and will provide new ground to explore and Patrol. In that regard, like The Taken King itself, it represents a big leap forward."

Cybercriminals known as "ratters," responsible for hijacking webcams and other electronic devices to spy on unsuspecting users, are finding new ways to launch attacks. Specifically, the groups use remote access tools (RATs) to steal images and photos from webcams, and have lately started charging others for this stolen data.

"Ratters are disturbingly comfortable with spreading misery and fear," said Adam Benson, deputy executive director for the Digital Citizens Alliance. "It's like a game for them. We saw them chat about it on Hack Forums and then share videos showing off how they scare young people, spy on people in private moments, and steal pictures from victims' accounts."

It's not uncommon to find RATs available for download on Internet forums and through file-sharing services. One such forum offered access to compromised devices for $1 for guys and $5 for women - showing there a modest financial incentive.

Featuring support for Widows 10 and CUDA detection for this new operating system, the new TechPowerUp GPU-Z software update further features GPU voltage monitoring for AMD "Fiji" cards, memory controller load monitor support for AMD "Sea Islands," "Pirate Islands," and "Volcanic Islands" video cards and better detection for AMD Radeon R9 300 series cards.

Support has also been added for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970m, 980M cards and GeForce 940M, 930M editions. Intel Atom x7-Z8700 and Celeron N3150 processors are now detected alongside AMD desktop card support which includes AMD R9 370, R9 370X, R9 380, R9 390, R9 390X and R9 Fury.

Last but not least is added support for the AMD Radeon A8-7100.

We knew that a new Battlefield game was in development, and after the shockingly bad Battlefield Hardline, EA is hoping to hit a new home run with "another Battlefield title" being released next year.

The news came from EA's recent investors call, where EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said there was a new Battlefield game in development. Jorgensen said: "What we've said is that our intention over the next couple of years is to have a first-person shooter as one of the core titles. This year, obviously, it's Star Wars Battlefront. Next year, it's another Battlefield title".

But which one will it be? Could we see Battlefield: Bad Company 3, or do you want Battlefield 5 more?

With Windows 10 hitting PCs all across the world, some are shocked to see that there are video ads in Solitaire. These video ads can be removed for $10 per year, yes - subscribing to remove your Solitaire ads.

The Microsoft Solitaire Collection comes pre-installed on Windows 10 with five different variations, daily challenges and multiple themes. As for the video ads, they show up randomly in between games and are a full-screen takeover video ad that takes up around 30 seconds. You can pay $9.99 per year for premium Solitaire, or pay $1.49 per month.

But don't worry, sinking money into Solitaire will gain you not just the removal of ads, but it will provide more coins for the daily challenges, and a boost in two modes of play. Windows 8.1 had ads in Solitaire, but it wasn't pre-installed with the OS, which is a big difference.

Many people across the world are happy to upgrade to Microsoft Windows 10, but the realization that everyone's browser default has been to changed to Edge just wasn't nice.

It looks like Mozilla, maker of the Firefox Web browser, also took exception to the unwelcome decision:

"These changes aren't unsettling to us because we're the organization that makes Firefox," said Chris Bear, CEO of Mozilla, in the letter. "They are unsettling because there are millions of users who love Windows and who are having their choices ignored, and because of the increased complexity put into everyone's way if and when they choose to make a choice different than what Microsoft prefers."

If you believe Electronic Arts, it sounds like the game studio is seeing "extremely strong pre-orders" for its upcoming Star Wars Battlefront video game.

Speaking during an earnings call, EA COO Peter Moore didn't offer specific pre-order sales numbers. In addition, many gamers are purchasing - and then downloading - digital games, so pre-orders may not mean as much. "More and more, as we see digital start [to] take a hold with our consumers, that pre-orders become less of a key indicator."

EA hopes for a busy time during Gamescom next week in Germany, which is expected to have an even larger crowd this year. It's the perfect time to show off Star Wars Battlefront: "We expect to see a tremendous response from that."

The immense success of 'Game of Thrones' has seen the HBO series expand beyond the scope of George R.R. Martin's book series and with filming having begun on its sixth season, fans have speculated on just how long the series will run for. Now, HBO has publicly weighed in and given fans the promise of that little bit more.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly at the at the Television Critics Association's press, HBO programming president Michael Lombardo has confirmed that the series will have at least eight seasons and perhaps more. "Seven seasons and out has never been the conversation. The question is: How much beyond seven are we going to do? Obviously we're shooting six now, hopefully discussing seven. David and Dan feel like there's two more years after six. I would always love for them to change their minds, but that's what we're looking at right now."

'Game of Thrones' Season Six is expected to premiere in April 2016.

Rumors of its development were reported on a few weeks ago, but now Ubisoft has officially announced Zombi for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. The reveal trailer is embedded below.

Hélène Henry, a Producer on Zombi, explains: "We knew from the beginning that maintaining the tension and feel of the original was one of the main challenges, as the way ZombiU was presented on Wii U cannot be reproduced. We maintain a minimal HUD as much as possible," Henry says. "It disappears when not required, giving the game a very lonely feeling. If you have surround sound, the awesome sound mix from the original still stands and greatly helps immersion. As much as possible, we've tried to keep those key elements".

The Xbox One, PS4 and PC do get a treat when it comes to the field of view (FOV), which has been increased on Zombi. Henry added: "Also, there has been a slight increase in the field of view and players can increase and decrease it a little if they want to, but not so much that it takes away that claustrophobic feeling. Some work was also undertaken on the control mapping and response to improve the look and feel of the first-person movement". To finish off, Henry said: "We kept the central idea that you're always vulnerable," Henry says. "Rummaging in the backpack still doesn't pause the game. We've added a dedicated button to access the backpack, which lets players see their full inventory and assign shortcut keys".

Teenagers on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more than two hours per day are more likely to report higher psychological distress, poor mental health, or suicidal thoughts, according Ottawa Public Health.

Considering the study took a look at all social networking websites, it's a rather frightening revelation - especially with more younger folks logging social media time using their smartphones. They are never really far away from Facebook or Twitter.

Researchers analyzed data from students in seventh grade up to grade 12, with 25 percent reporting at least two hours of daily social networking time. They took a closer look at correlations between the amount of time logged on social media to self-reports of mental health and psychological well-being.

Are you playing Rocket League? If not, apparently you're missing out on a rather fun gaming experience that 5 million people are enjoying. It's an impressive sales figure considering the game was only released on July 7.

Since the primary game mode in Rocket League is online multiplayer, you get to essentially engage in an online soccer match - except you use cars instead of players.

Rocket League is now available for PC and Sony PlayStation 4 gamers - and is $19.99. However, PlayStation Plus members can get the game for free until this weekend.