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Tomb Raider reboot movie is inspired by new Tomb Raider games
The latest Tomb Raider games have been received incredibly well with gamers, with Rise of the Tomb Raider doing better on the PC than consoles - but did you know there's a new Tomb Raider movie on the way? Yeah, and it's a reboot from the Angelina Jolie movies from years ago.
Norwegian director Roar Uthaug is directing the new Tomb Raider movie reboot, with Transformer 5 writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet handling the script. Uthaug confirmed that the reboot of Tomb Raider will be an origin story, similar to the reboot of the game in 2013. He was asked if the new series of games would be an influence on the movie reboot, to which Uthaug praised Crystal Dynamics' ability to make Lara Croft a relatable character.
Uthaug said that the developer's take on Lara Croft will influence his movie, and that he will be taking a similar approach in his movie. Uthaug said: "I think making Lara Croft feel like a real human being, that's definitely something we want to bring to the big screen as well. I think we'll want to make people relate to Lara as a character. I'm hoping to bring some of my Norwegian sensibilities to the franchise".
Continue reading: Tomb Raider reboot movie is inspired by new Tomb Raider games (full post)
Ubisoft outlines its DLC roadmap for The Division
Ubisoft has outlined its plan for DLC for The Division, with two free upgrades to hit gamers quite early. The first will be a team-based endgame mode (Incursions) which will drop in April, while in May we'll receive the Conflict update which will include the Columbus Circle event and a new Dark Zone feature.
Then the paid DLC will arrive in June, where we'll get battles in NYC underground tunnels, a new Survival expansion in the summer, and then a Last Stand scenario in the winter. At the same time, Ubisoft will bust out new missions daily and weekly, as well as periodic Dark Zone events. The developer notes that you can buy either the Season Pass, or one of the deluxe versions of the game (Gold or Collector's Edition), so that you'll receive as much The Division content as possible.
The Division launches on March 8 (wwhhhaaattt, so soon now) on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
Continue reading: Ubisoft outlines its DLC roadmap for The Division (full post)
The first OS X ransomware is here, holds your Mac hostage
For what feels like forever, Windows users have been at the butt of attacks from Mac users when it comes to "but Windows is open, and gets hit by viruses, malware, and ransomware all the time". Well, that might be something of the past now.
Palo Alto Networks is claiming it's discovered the first known OS X-based ransomware, known as "KeRanger". How do you get it? You download software infected with the nasty code, with BitTorrent client Transmission, where it will encrypt your files after 72 hours, after which it'll demand that you hand over digital currency ransom to get your files back. Nice.
The latest version of Transmission, alongside Apple revoking a security certificate from another developer that KeRanger used to get past OS X's built-in defenses, should keep you safe. But, this should act as a warning: OS X isn't as safe as most people think it is, and this could be the tip of the iceberg in the months, and years to come.
Continue reading: The first OS X ransomware is here, holds your Mac hostage (full post)
Hitman will support DirectX 12 when it launches on March 11
The new Hitman launches on March 11, with the developer teasing that it will support DirectX 12 at launch - which is awesome. The news arrived from the PC Gamer Weekender event that took place over the weekend.
With Hitman having support for DX12, we can expect to see better performance, mostly thanks to the improved multithreaded support, and increased performance for CPU-bound instructions. PC Gamer's slide image said that DX12 will provide Hitman with:
Continue reading: Hitman will support DirectX 12 when it launches on March 11 (full post)
Take Bond home in our 'Spectre' Blu-ray giveaway
To celebrate this week's release of 'Spectre' on Blu-ray HD and DVD, we have ten Blu-ray prize packs to give away thanks to our friends at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
A cryptic message from the past sends James Bond on a rogue mission to Mexico City and eventually Rome, where he meets Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci), the beautiful and forbidden widow of an infamous criminal. Bond infiltrates a secret meeting and uncovers the existence of the sinister organisation known as Spectre. Meanwhile back in London, Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), the new head of the Centre for National Security, questions Bond's actions and challenges the relevance of MI6, led by M (Ralph Fiennes). Bond covertly enlists Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Q (Ben Whishaw) to help him seek out Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), the daughter of his old nemesis Mr White (Jesper Christensen), who may hold the clue to untangling the web of Spectre. As Bond ventures towards the heart of Spectre, he learns of a chilling connection between himself and the enemy he seeks.
To go into the running to win a prize, correctly answer the following question:
Continue reading: Take Bond home in our 'Spectre' Blu-ray giveaway (full post)
State of the Internet says DDoS attacks are up 149% compared to Q3
The State of the Internet report has been released for the fourth quarter of 2015 and it highlights some of the more malicious trends coming from across the Internet. The short of it is, the volume of attacks against websites has increased through nearly every avenue than compared to the third quarter.
DDoS's in particular have seen quite the massive increase since last quarter, with a 148.85% increase in overall occurrences. The bright side is that duration seems to have been shortened, probably due to the pay-per-play nature of the services that seem to be the most used. But that didn't stop those sites from being targeted multiple times, up to 24 times in some cases. The good news is that the actual number of packets sent was lower. How very nice of these attackers.
Size of attacks seemed to be below 30Mbps, with only four that exceeded that amount and two that peaked even higher. The biggest were at around 309Gpps with 202Mpps (packets per second).That's actually a small decline in the number of big attacks, but 44.44%. But the interesting part is that the majority of attacks, some 54.45% of all the DDoS activity was focused on the gaming sector. People are getting more and more mad during and after online matches, preventing people, servers and games themselves from working right. Not to mention the massive attack on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.
Continue reading: State of the Internet says DDoS attacks are up 149% compared to Q3 (full post)
AMD's ultra-thin gaming notebooks should be powered by Thunderbolt 3
AMD has already teased that it will "spice things up" at the Game Developers Conference next week, but what has me excited is the promise of next-gen, ultra-thin gaming notebooks.
During an AMA on Reddit, AMD's Robert Hallock said: "Ultra-thin notebooks are awesome to carry, but nobody in their right mind would confuse one for a gaming notebook. But there's still a HUGE appetite for thin notebooks that can game. I also bet there's a bunch of gamers out there who, as they get into their 30s and 40s, wouldn't mind condensing their entire computing life down into one device that does it all... External GPUs are the answer. External GPUs with standardised connectors, cables, drivers, plug'n'play, OS support, etc".
The ultra-thin gaming notebooks should be powered by Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, which boasts up to 40Gbps of bandwidth. We've recently seen Razer tease its Core GPU enclosure, which offers its Blade Stealth gaming notebook an external GPU enclosure, super-powering your portable gaming experience. We should see AMD unveil something awesome at GDC 2016 next week in San Francisco.
Continue reading: AMD's ultra-thin gaming notebooks should be powered by Thunderbolt 3 (full post)
CD Projekt Red confirms 'most of The Witcher sales are for the PC'
The Witcher series of games have been widely successful on both the PC and various consoles over the years, but during a recent interview with CD Projekt Red (the developer behind The Witcher series), we've found out that the PC is the lead platform when it comes to sales.
CD Projekt Red's Marcin Iwinski explained during the interview: "Consoles began for real with PS2 from Sony, and then with X360. PS wasn't available for everyone. It was an expensive toy with expensive games. I was already distributing games at that time and I remember what was the expenditure for video games. PS was available for more affluent people and PS2 was available for the masses and started to develop this market. However, the PC still holds strong. Most of The Witcher sales are for the PC, though consoles started selling very well".
Continue reading: CD Projekt Red confirms 'most of The Witcher sales are for the PC' (full post)
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition will soon have multi-GPU support
The Coalition and Microsoft have found themselves in a pretty insane position right now, launching Gears of War: Ultimate Edition onto the Windows Store. Windows Store-based games do not feature multi-GPU support, so with it being a DX12-powered game - those high-end GPUs in SLI or Crossfire are wasted on GoW: Ultimate Edition... for now.
According to Rod Fergusson, Studio Head of The Coalition, the developer is working on multi-GPU support. Fergusson fielded some questions on Twitter, where he said: "Microsoft working on multi-GPU and if you unlock framerate it runs at monitor framerate so may need to bump it up".
As for the general performance and stability of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on the PC, PezRader from The Coalition has said: "We do not have any news to share at this time for the PC version. I know some are worried but please don't fret. We are wanting to make sure polish and performance are prioritized on the PC version so that you all have a great experience".
Continue reading: Gears of War: Ultimate Edition will soon have multi-GPU support (full post)
Capcom to start punishing rage quitters on a weekly basis
Capcom is as tired of rage-quitters as you are, and they're going to implement some keen punishment for those that take advantage of the ability to quit mid-match in Street Fighter V.
The problem is that the system is far too lenient for those that wish to simply quit as opposed to suffer a loss. But Capcom will start resetting League Points, and thus their rank, for those players that tend to quit more than others after each week is up. And they have a lot of data points to work with to help make a permanent, automated solution to this. That permanent solution still hasn't been implemented, though.
To get to this point they've asked players from around the world to submit video, and other, proof to help them determine the when rage-quitters are at their worst, and cross-reference that with internal data so they can compile their solution. They want those occasional quitters to know that it's okay to be mad once in awhile, that they're targeting the absolute worst offenders of the lot. "The players who fit the criteria of what we would call a "Rage Quitter" typically have an 80-90% disconnect rate and their accounts sit far outside of the norm as compared to the majority of other players."
Continue reading: Capcom to start punishing rage quitters on a weekly basis (full post)