Developers felt the pressure while creating Star Wars Battlefront

Michael Hatamoto | Gaming | Jul 31, 2015 12:52 PM CDT

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."

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Bungie drops ban hammer on hundreds of Destiny cheaters

Michael Hatamoto | Gaming | Jul 31, 2015 12:39 PM CDT

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."

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WikiLeaks says the United States spied on Japan, a close Asian ally

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Jul 31, 2015 12:28 PM CDT

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."

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Destiny: The Taken King's game zone is a cyclopean Hive ship

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jul 31, 2015 10:39 AM CDT

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."

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Hackers hijacking your webcam and finding ways to profit from it

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Jul 31, 2015 7:30 AM CDT

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.

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TechPowerUp pushes updated GPU-Z v0.8.5

Chris Smith | Software & Apps | Jul 31, 2015 5:31 AM CDT

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.

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EA confirms new Battlefield game for 2016

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 31, 2015 2:33 AM CDT

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?

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Windows 10 makes you pay $10 to remove ads from Solitaire

Anthony Garreffa | Software & Apps | Jul 31, 2015 1:35 AM CDT

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.

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Mozilla unhappy about Microsoft's Edge web browser default

Michael Hatamoto | Software & Apps | Jul 31, 2015 12:59 AM CDT

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."

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EA: Star Wars Battlefront enjoying "extremely strong pre-orders"

Michael Hatamoto | Gaming | Jul 30, 2015 11:26 PM CDT

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."

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