Bethesda: Fallout 4 will top Skyrim as the 'biggest release ever'

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Aug 21, 2015 9:36 AM CDT

Bethesda has grown considerably over the years, evolving from a dev studio to a titan reigning over a consortium of studios and IP's. The company wants to start firing on all cylinders for the future, but first it plans to dethrone Skyrim and crown Fallout 4 as its most popular game release.

In a recent interview with MCV, Bethsoft exec Pete Hines discusses the company's most important game for the next year or so: "I think Fallout 4 can top Skyrim [to become] our biggest release ever. But we will see. It is part of my job to build the megaphone that we hold up to the game, and the game decides how loud it goes. Just how big it is going to be is hard to say. Skyrim was a massively big deal."

Although Fallout 4 will be the nexus of Bethsoft's attention for quite some time, it still has a number of other projects like Doom 4 and Dishonored 2 in the works. Hines went on to say that the studio wants to find a consistent stride that involves "releasing up to three to four games a year", but Bethsoft isn't about to release first-party juggernauts like Elder Scrolls and Fallout together in the same period. This push towards more production isn't going to jeopardize the studio's carefully cultivated image of quality over quantity and Hines affirms that we don't have to worry about Bethesda becoming another Activision or Ubisoft.

Continue reading: Bethesda: Fallout 4 will top Skyrim as the 'biggest release ever' (full post)

Gaming trailers just got real, check this immersive Until Dawn video

Chris Smith | Gaming | Aug 21, 2015 9:33 AM CDT

Although not in-game footage specifically, this trailer is "inspired by the emotional experience of Until Dawn" and features one young woman's bid to free herself from the clutches of serial-killing madmen.

Gaming trailers just got real, check this immersive Until Dawn video

This R18+ PlayStation 4 exclusive title is 'Road Not Taken - Until Dawn' and is based on a classic poem by Robert Frost. The video itself is produced by the PlayStation Australian team and depicts some of the sequences of gameplay you can come to expect in Until Dawn, deciding the fate of your character depending on action you take.

The main character, Sam, is played here by Hayden Panetierre, and this short film showcases ways that you might go about escaping or confronting your masked killer, trying all options available through a process of trial and error.

Continue reading: Gaming trailers just got real, check this immersive Until Dawn video (full post)

Check out 12 minutes of 'Welcome to the Avenger' gameplay from XCOM 2

Michael Hatamoto | Gaming | Aug 21, 2015 6:35 AM CDT

2K Games and Firaxis Games have released a new 12-minute gameplay video of XCOM 2, with action taking place 20 years after XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Humans lost the war with the aliens, and viewers can take a look at the custom mobile HQ, customization systems, and upgrade paths for weapons, armors, and other characteristics.

Check out 12 minutes of 'Welcome to the Avenger' gameplay from XCOM 2

Working under the alien regime following a major war, a human resistance is tasked with trying to overthrow the alien race's power.

XCOM 2 is scheduled for release in November, and will be available for PCs, Mac OS, and Linux. A console launch for the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 is still possible, but 2K and Firaxis Games haven't announced anything.

Continue reading: Check out 12 minutes of 'Welcome to the Avenger' gameplay from XCOM 2 (full post)

Here's the best 'TV guide' for eSports - FolloweSports.com

Chris Smith | Gaming | Aug 21, 2015 6:32 AM CDT

Once a week my parents would buy the newspaper in order to get a TV guide for the next 7 days. I'd groan as a flip the pages and realize that there is actually nothing worth watching for a whole week, so I'd run off to tinker with computers a little more. This old technology has been largely replaced by online guides which are live updating and cover hundreds more channels - so why not have something like this for eSports events?

Well, the guys at FolloweSports.com thought exactly the same thing, so they went out and something to fix this issue. It's free to use and covered all major eSports titles - loading up the webpage quickly I can see all tournaments that are currently or soon to be happening, complete with prize pools, bracket information, event naming, game titles and more.

Without signing in, all game times are tailored towards my personal time zone and each game has a direct link to the stream when live. There's a bunch of filters and searches you can conduct to find something specifically if you wish.

Continue reading: Here's the best 'TV guide' for eSports - FolloweSports.com (full post)

More Ashley Madison information revealed and its doubled the amount

Chris Smith | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Aug 21, 2015 5:34 AM CDT

With news already coming out that the Ashley Madison hack has seen over 700 Australian Government employee email addresses named, sitting alongside members of the White House and US congress and even dirtying the name of Sao Paulo due to the sheer number of accounts within, there is now even more to add to the plate.

This latest update comes in the form of yet another information dump, being twice the size of the last one. Released onto the dark web, this information leak is largely targeted at Noel Biderman, the CEO of Ashley Madison's parent company, Avid Life. Alongside including many of his business emails, this leak is coupled with a statement which reads "Hey Noel, you can admit it's real now."

Measuring around 20GB, this leak is said to be focused mainly on internal operations and information - quite possibly to ensure people take this leak seriously and removing the possibility of Ashley Madison calling it off as a hoax.

Continue reading: More Ashley Madison information revealed and its doubled the amount (full post)

Ashley Madison hack unearths White House and US Congress staff

Chris Smith | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Aug 21, 2015 4:27 AM CDT

The Aussies are in trouble, with the latest Ashley Madison hacking scandal unveiling over 700 Australian Government email address' linked to the affairs website, but it looks like they aren't the only ones. Looking further into the data, The Big Story published an article outlining that members of the White House and US Congress were also involved in the mix.

Including those holding high positions in multiple Government offices (including law enforcement), the hacked and published list includes some powerful titles which The Big Story explained as; "at least two assistant U.S. attorneys; an information technology administrator in the Executive Office of the President; a division chief, an investigator and a trial attorney in the Justice Department; a government hacker at the Homeland Security Department and another DHS employee who indicated he worked on a U.S. counter terrorism response team."

Although you may view it as morally unjust, there will be no legal action taken against these Government employees, sources say. This inaction is due to there being no elected officials involved, nor have these people committed a felony. Further to this information, the names have not been publically posted or confirmed by the US Government.

Continue reading: Ashley Madison hack unearths White House and US Congress staff (full post)

Intel says that DDR4 will overtake DDR3 sometime next year

Derek Strickland | RAM | Aug 21, 2015 2:13 AM CDT

IDF 2015 - Intel has laid out predictions for a marked rise in DDR4 RAM adoption following the widespread availability of Skylake-powered servers, notebooks and desktops.

Right now mainstream support for DDR4 RAM is rare, and it's mostly found in Intel's Xeon-powered servers and in enthusiast grade PC's powered by X99 chipsets. But according to analyst firm IHS, whose findings Intel touted on stage, DDR4 will already start to overlap production of DDR3 as early as next year.

IHS further lays out a timetable for desktops and servers that shows the projected transition period from DDR3 to DDR4. Servers have been using DDR4 since late 2014 thanks to the Xeon E5 v3 processor, and the platform will continue to account for a bulk of memory usage throughout this year and well into 2016. By the end of this year alone IHS predicts that DDR4 will account for 60% of all server memory shipments, and jump to 90% in the same time next year.

Continue reading: Intel says that DDR4 will overtake DDR3 sometime next year (full post)

The new Alienware 18 gaming laptop packs two GeForce GTX 980M GPUs

Anthony Garreffa | Laptops | Aug 21, 2015 1:52 AM CDT

Alienware has just announced its latest and greatest gaming notebook, the Alienware 18, with what I would call the single most best, cringe-worthy announcement video of all time. Check it out below.

The new Alienware 18 gaming laptop packs two GeForce GTX 980M GPUs

The new Alienware 18 gaming laptop kicks off with a minimum of a Core i7-4710MQ at 2.5GHz, but you can opt for the Core i7-4910MQ or Core i7-4940MX if you want some added CPU performance. There's four DIMM slots inside, with a stock 16GB of RAM upgradeable to 32GB. The stock model includes a 500GB HDD, while the 1TB model costs an insane 1TB more. Very strangely, there's no SSD here which is super disappointing and somewhat of a showstopper for me.

GPU wise you can have up to two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M or GTX 980Ms in SLI, which will more than handle the 18.4-inch 1920x1080 display and any game you throw at it. Connectivity wise, we have a Killer Ethernet port, Broadcom 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 4 x USB 3.0 ports, a miniDisplayPort, HDMI (in and out) and more. Dell has also packed in 20 LED lighting colors across 10 separate zones for the ultimate customization.

Continue reading: The new Alienware 18 gaming laptop packs two GeForce GTX 980M GPUs (full post)

'He-Man' feature film reboot coming down from Eternia

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Aug 21, 2015 12:58 AM CDT

The cult 1980's animation 'He Man and the Masters of the Universe' looks set to be re-imagined for the big screen, as Sony Pictures orders a new script from comic book writer turned screenwriter Christopher Yost.

Previously bought to the screen in the ham-statistic 1987 turkey, which starred Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella. While the picture bombed - failing to recoup it's production budget - Sony are no doubt hoping that the world will look on the Prince of Eternia just a little bit kinder. With development on the film still in early stages, the film isn't expected to be launched until 2018 at the earliest.

Continue reading: 'He-Man' feature film reboot coming down from Eternia (full post)

AMD's next-gen GPUs will feature between 8-16GB of super-fast HBM2

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Aug 20, 2015 10:41 PM CDT

We've been hearing about AMD's next generation GPUs for a while now, but it looks like they're beginning to take more form. It's being reported that AMD's upcoming 'Greenland' GPU will be an entirely new microarchitecture, with development on Greenland starting some two years ago.

But more interestingly, rumor has it that it's not just going to be yet another Graphics Core Next architecture (GCN), but it'll feature a new ISA (instruction set architecture) that will be so different to GCN, that it will be very exciting. On the surface, it'll be like previous generation Radeon products, with so much more happening underneath.

Greenland will reportedly usher in twice the power efficiency of GCN, where we can expect these GPUs to be made on the 16nm FinFET or 14nm process, with a serious jump on the number of stream processors when compared to the Fiji architecture. Fiji is the GPU behind the Radeon R9 Fury and R9 Fury X cards, powered by High Bandwidth Memory, or HBM. More importantly, it's being reported that Greenland will pack HBM2, with enthusiast level and professional cards packing up to 32GB of HBM2. The consumer orientated Greenland-powered Radeon cards will come in two flavors: 8GB and 16GB, both of the next-gen HBM2 technology.

Continue reading: AMD's next-gen GPUs will feature between 8-16GB of super-fast HBM2 (full post)