Significant changes coming to Destiny soon, Damage Referee and more

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Feb 5, 2016 12:05 PM CST

Destiny is going to be updated to 2.1.1 next week, and Bungie is making some changes that are small, yet significant to the gameplay mechanics.

They're bringing in a new Special Ammo economy to help balance the use of those more powerful weapons, hoping to increase the use of the primary weapons instead. You'll have to wait for an ammo drop from green special crates to fill up.

Matchmaking is getting an overhaul with "Freelance" matchmaking where you don't have to be in a party to have fun. This'll be available to all solo players in 6v6 and 3v3 modes. Sometimes your friends just don't want to play with you, that and the number of players might be dwindling some.

Continue reading: Significant changes coming to Destiny soon, Damage Referee and more (full post)

Boost your Xbox One's storage with ADATA's new 2TB hard drives

Derek Strickland | Storage | Feb 5, 2016 11:25 AM CST

Let's face it: current-gen console gaming isn't hard drive friendly. Since a single 50GB game takes up 10% of an Xbox One's stock 500GB hard drive, gamers often have to delete and swap out titles in their library to keep up. But ADATA aims to avoid the frustration with its new line of spacious Xbox hard drives.

ADATA's new HD650X and HD710M external hard drives are specifically designed to give Xbox consoles a much-needed boost in storage capacity. Both models sport USB 3.0 connectivity for speedy transfers and come in 2TB flavors for optimum storage, offering up to four times the capacity of stock HDD's. The drives support easy plug and play setup, and are compatible with Xbox Ones, Xbox 360s and Windows 10 PCs.

The HD650X external HDD sports a lively lime-green style that matches the Xbox theme, and ships with a 3 year warranty despite it being quite durable against HDD-destroying elements like water, dust and electric shock.

Continue reading: Boost your Xbox One's storage with ADATA's new 2TB hard drives (full post)

New biometrics uses a 'Brainprint' for identification, 97% accurate

Jeff Williams | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Feb 5, 2016 10:55 AM CST

Biometrics are something we've been using to uniquely identify other humans since the 13th Century, but the current methods are flawed and can be spoofed with enough creativity and time. So now researchers have found another novel way to uniquely identify people: With "Brainprints".

A brainprint is the unique way in which your neurons fire when reading, or doing anything. It's a distinct and consistent way to identify people. New research by the Basque Center for Cognition and Binghamton University into the brainprint has been able to show just how unique our thought patterns actually are. They were able to identify people with 97% accuracy just based on them thinking about a particular word that flashed on a monitor in front of them for a half of a second.

That's good news for the coming robot revolution, because until brain thought patterns can be faked, we'll at least be able to know whose who, and not human. But in more practical terms it could be another piece to the puzzle of authentication. As a means to make a password it's horrible, but in a multi-factor authentication scheme, it could be used to identify that you're actually who you say you are and present at the time of entering your pin or password.

Continue reading: New biometrics uses a 'Brainprint' for identification, 97% accurate (full post)

The Division is 'very different' than Destiny, says Ubisoft

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Feb 5, 2016 10:31 AM CST

The Division's beta test gave us a nice taste of what to expect from the final game, but many gamers felt like they've experienced it all before. In fact, The Division has been compared to a certain futuristic MMO-slash-RPG shooter mashup that's now crumbling under its own ambitious weight. According to Ubisoft, our fears are premature, as The Division is "very different" than Destiny.

The Division is 'very different' than Destiny, says Ubisoft

While playing The Division, it was hard not to see how it parallels Destiny. Both have that same mix of shooter, RPG skillsets and progression, open-world MMO-style scope with drop-in drop-out co-op, PVP modes, and that distinctly grindy loot style. And both games have this sense of disconnect with NPC's, characters and environments. Apparently I'm not alone; most Destiny players feel the same way.

Julian Gerighty, The Division's associate creative director, says that the two games are quite different. "It's hard for me to talk about Destiny, obviously, but thinking about the qualities of The Division: contemporary; virus-ridden real-world city; open-world game. There are a lot of differences that make it stand out, so I think it's a modern game in the way that it's a very co-operative focussed experience. Progression is extremely important. So I would say that they are both very modern and different games."

Continue reading: The Division is 'very different' than Destiny, says Ubisoft (full post)

Bayonetta dev talks about why they can't have only original IP

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Feb 5, 2016 10:03 AM CST

Having one's own ideas and completely original IP seems like a positive direction to take for any developer, but it seems that it might not necessarily be the most practical route for everyone. Platinum Games, of Bayonetta fame, explained why that's a very difficult route to take.

Speaking to Famitsu, Tatsuya Minami, the chief executive for Platinum Games said that "We used to have the idea that we wanted to be a studio that only made 100 percent original games," He then continued, "However, it turns out that only doing that is considerably difficult, and so now we take on various work."

There are a tremendous amount of risks involved in developing your own and paving your own path. And they don't always pay off it seems. Popularity of your own idea is never guaranteed and you never know what the reception will actually be. You and your team could be incredibly excited about a particular game, but then it might flop before your eyes.

Continue reading: Bayonetta dev talks about why they can't have only original IP (full post)

Homefront: The Revolution's beta has 'jerky' frame rate problems

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Feb 5, 2016 9:33 AM CST

Things aren't looking good for Deep Silver's new Homefront sequel. Initial tests of the upcoming closed beta reveal that the game has tons of problems on the Xbox One, and needs a lot of work before it's ready to hit store shelves.

Homefront: The Revolution's beta has 'jerky' frame rate problems

According to analyses from Eurogamer's Digital Foundry, Homefront: The Revolution's beta suffers from a myriad of dysfunctions, including FPS drops, jittery and jerky animations, and frequent glitches. Digital Foundry further notes that the wonky animations and enemy glitches can be attributed to the CryEngine's poor networking optimization.

The graphical hiccups and disruptive frame rates ultimately break the immersive fluidity that's vital to first-person shooters. Homefront: The Revolution beta apparently runs with an entirely unlocked frame-rate on Xbox One, which is a bad idea given the console's limitations. On top of the unlocked framerates, the game also has an adaptive v-sync that creates ugly tear lines on the screen.

Continue reading: Homefront: The Revolution's beta has 'jerky' frame rate problems (full post)

Trackmania Turbo looks insane, definitely not your normal racing game

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Feb 5, 2016 8:25 AM CST

Trackmania has never been your typical racing game anyway, with the ability to put together some of the most insane tracks, limited only by your imagination. And the newest insane addition, Trackmania Turbo, now has a March 24th release date.

The dynamic racing game was originally intended to be released in late 2015, but that release date was pushed into 2016 back in October so that the developer, Nadeo, could further refine the mechanics of the game based on feedback from fans. The expectations are rather high for a series that's won a Guinness World Record for being the most popular online racing sim with the largest content base of any racing game.

When it releases it'll be available on the Xbox One, PC and the PlayStation 4. It'll support the Oculus Rift and eventually have support for PlayStation VR as well.

Continue reading: Trackmania Turbo looks insane, definitely not your normal racing game (full post)

Style meets ultra-performance with Apacer's new LED-lit DDR4 RAM kits

Derek Strickland | RAM | Feb 5, 2016 8:07 AM CST

With its new LED-lit DDR4 RAM kits, Apacer aims to inject a bit of stylish flair to enthusiast builds while maintaining ultra-fast performance.

Apacer's new Blade Fire system memory configurations sport "heartbeat" LED's that pulse scarlet light up to 44 times a minute. The Blade Fire DDR4 kits are available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB single-stick capacities and max out in 32GB configurations (16GBx2) with clock frequencies ranging from 2400MHz at 1.2V to 3200MHz at 1.35V, with tight 16-16-18-38 timings.

The striking-looking DDR4 modules are fully compatible with Intel's Z170 platform and feature XMP 2.0 support for easy overclocking, and maintain heat spreaders fashioned from high-quality aluminum with a matte black finish to ensure optimum heat dissipation.

Continue reading: Style meets ultra-performance with Apacer's new LED-lit DDR4 RAM kits (full post)

The Division beta only let you have a taste of 22% of the full map

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Feb 5, 2016 6:39 AM CST

There are concerns that The Division might not be as big as some think it is, with Ubisoft only teasing us with the beta. The developer reportedly opened 22% of the full map from the final version of the game.

The news comes from Reddit users who did some great work, overlaying the map from the beta (purple = 22%), while the blue part of the map is from the version of The Division. They put the map onto a grid, with 8165 squares - with the beta taking up 1167 squares. The full game however, has 5315 squared, meaning the beta represented just 22% of the full game.

So we know that the full version of The Division is going to be quite big, but what about the Dark Zone - where that glorious PvP action happens, with better loot and rewards? The Dark Zone is reportedly 18% of the entire map, which is just shy of the size we experienced during the beta. Not too bad at all.

Continue reading: The Division beta only let you have a taste of 22% of the full map (full post)

The 411 on 420: Facebook is deleting medical marijuana pages

Anthony Garreffa | Internet & Websites | Feb 5, 2016 4:20 AM CST

Facebook is reportedly deleting the pages of medical marijuana dispensaries, according to NJ.com, with three New Jersey-based ones being removed, as well as others across the United States.

Why is Facebook deleting these pages? Well, they're violating the social network's terms of service, with Facebook leaving a note behind when it removed the pages: "We remove any promotion or encouragement of drug use. Your page is currently not visible on Facebook. It looks like content on your page does not follow the Facebook Community Terms and Standards".

New Jersey law "law strictly regulates what information can and cannot be displayed on a dispensary's website, which has led many of the organizations to use Facebook as a supplemental information source", reports Engadget. Strain names can't be listed on a New Jersey-based dispensary site for example, with Facebook's move on removing the pages leaving patients pissed off, and rightly so.

Continue reading: The 411 on 420: Facebook is deleting medical marijuana pages (full post)

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