DICE seem to be going all out for Battlefield 3 and while we don't know the exact specifics of what the Frostbite 2.0 engine is capable of, little things are slowly making the big picture of BF3 sound very seductive. Such as the maps in Battlefield 3 are said to be the largest DICE have ever made with DICE's Patrick Bach revealing in an interview with a Norweigan game magazine "Gamer" saying:

The game is still early in development, but I can tell you that Battlefield 3 will have the largest maps we have ever made

He also went on to point out that Battlefield 3 will support 64 players on PC and it will be possible to have jets, helicopters, tanks and infantry combat all on a single map.

The latest happenings from around the web - April 14th, 2011

Motherboard

- MSI P67A-GD65 LGA 1155 ATX Motherboard @ PC Perspective

- MSI E350IA-E45 Motherboard @ ixbtlabs

- Intel DP67BG Motherboard @ Ocaholic

Video/Monitor

- EVGA GeForce GTX 590 Classified Quad-SLI Performance @ HiTechLegion

- Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Xtreme 1GB @ Techgage

- Sapphire HD 6950 FleX 2GB Graphics Card @ Techwarelabs

Audio/Media

- ROCCAT Kulo Stereo Headset @ Vortez

- Diamond Xtreme External 7.1 USB Sound Card @ Overclockers Club

Our Download of the Day today is CPU-Z 1.57.1.

CPU-Z is a freeware utility that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system. CPU-Z does not need to be installed, just unzip the files in a directory and run the .exe. In order to remove the program, just delete the files. The program does not copy any file in any Windows directory, nor write to the registry.

CPU

• Name and number.

• Core stepping and process.

• Package.

• Core voltage.

• Internal and external clocks, clock multiplier.

• Supported instructions sets.

• All cache levels (location, size, speed, technology).

Mainboard

• Vendor, model and revision.

• BIOS model and date.

• Chipset (northbridge and southbridge) and sensor.

• Graphic interface.

Memory

• Frequency and timings.

• Module(s) specification using SPD (Serial Presence Detect) : vendor, serial number, timings table.

System

• Windows and DirectX version.

Our Deal of the Day today is the Crutchfield - $150 off! Panamax MFP-400 2-Outlet Flat-Panel Power Conditioner for $49.99 with FREE Shipping!.

Offer: Panamax's MFP-400 line conditioner/surge suppressor for flat panel TVs is just $49.99, a full $150 off their regular $199.99 price. It protects from both spikes and brownouts, with two fully isolated outlets, and has a lifetime $5,000,000 connected equipment warranty, and a lifetime warranty on the unit itself. You get 4 pages worth of Crutchfield CableLabels and Crutchfield lifetime tech support too.

PANAMAX MFP-400 LINE CONDITIONER DEAL

Microsoft have had runaway success with their Kinect for Xbox and within days of launch third-party drivers were developed which enabled the technology to work on Windows. This even surprised Microsoft and in a strange, yet great move, they've released the SDK. With the SDK release comes some very cool things like compatibility with Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope.

The above video shows the program having hand gestures to zoom out of our solar system, swing the cameras view around and it seems quite natural. The demonstration is awesome and makes me want to use Kinect on PC with WorldWide Telescope. The program is cool enough as it is, but hand gestures? Nice one, Microsoft.

If you haven't heard the news today, an upstate New York entrepreneur and convicted felon Paul Ceglia is suing Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg for over 50% of the company. Paul, proud owner of the two shiniest, brassiest balls on the planet might actually have a case though. Evidently Zuckerberg accepted $1000 for exchange of half of a company he refers to as "the Face Book" in various email exchanges with Ceglia, who is being represented by reputable international law firm DLA Piper. He is not, as they say, @#$%ing around.

Seven years later, after already having been convicted of fraud for his woodchipper fuel company (I know, right?), Ceglia stumbled upon these emails and contracts while researching his defense for his fraud case. If you want to take a look, the evidence is pretty solid, and DLA wouldn't stake their reputations on evidence that was shoddy.

Facebook, wonder of wonders, is claiming that Ceglia fabricated all of the emails and contracts. Honestly, I'm really curious as to how this one will play out.

After spending the last week on the out of stock list the OCZ Technology Vertex 3 120GB has once again popped back up on Newegg. Newegg is listing the 120GB model at 299.99, a 50 Dollar price premium over the MSRP but that's just the way it goes when looking for the fastest SSD currently available on the market.

Hit the Source Link at the bottom to go directly to Newegg and be sure to read our Vertex 3 240GB Preview.

Sharp's unique press conference "Spectacularge" announced its new 70-inch LC-70LE732U is now the largest LCD HDTV on the market. The screen is powered by Quattron four color pixels, full LED backlighting, Netflix, CinemaNow, Vudu Apps and DLNA access just to name a few - but it does not include 3D.

This will be solved with new models of 70-inch LCDs from Sharp that are reported to ship this summer. Price wise it's actually not too bad with an MSRP of $3799.

Yes, I know BlizzCon is in October, but if you actually want to go you need to mark your calendars for May, specifically the 21 and 26 of the month, 'cuz that's when you can buy tickets. There are a couple of catches though, so read closely:

Tickets will be available in two different shifts; Saturday, May 21 at 7 p.m. Paris time and on Thursday, May 26 at 4 a.m. Paris time through the official BlizzCon website. Oh yeah, and if you want to attend an exclusive charity dinner to benefit the Orange County Children's hospital, you can buy those starting May 28th.

If you don't feel like shelling out the (actually not bad) $175 USD for the ticket (which will probably sell out in minutes, so mark your calendars and synchronize your watches), a virtual ticket will be available for $40. Virtual ticket holders will be able to stream excellent HD content and coverage of the conference's sure-to-be animated goings-on, so if you're working that day or...idk...have something better to do(?), you can still participate in that fashion.

The conference is being held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim California, which will officially change their hockey mascot from a Duck to a Zorg throughout the event.

Though social network Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg may have inadvertently sold half of his company to some rando from upstate New York, another rando is saying it won't matter because Facebook has the capability to become the world's largest bank by 2015.

This guy, Ken Rutkowski, evidently both founder of Metal International and chief dude at the Founder institute in Los Angeles, believes that in a few short years Facebook will have amassed enough financial credibility so as to calculate the credibility of consumers. Rutkowski told TechWorld:

If you play games on Facebook, which, by the way 40 to 50 per cent of the time spent on Facebook is playing games, and those games - like Farmville and Mafia Wars - are paid for and you have to buy credits for that and they are called Facebook Credits.

Rutkowski's logic is as follows: he claims that 40%-50% of people play games on Facebook, and that playing those games requires in-game purchases (they're not actually required, but it's easier to play them if you buy virtual goods), and....well, it gets kind of fuzzy after that. He goes on to claim that China and the rest of Asia already use Facebook as a massive revenue source...