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Night Hunter

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Posts posted by Night Hunter

  1. http://gamingbolt.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Crackdown.jpg

    Crackdown 3 was by far the best game at Microsoft’s stunning Gamescom press conference. Featuring destructible environments, Reagent Games plans to deliver a new and unique experience for Xbox One owners. Crackdown 3 is essentially the first game on the Xbox One that will utilize Microsoft’s cloud services to improve performance and add enhanced effects such as destruction.
     
    In an interview published by Xbox’s official channel, Dave Jones from Reagent Games details how they are using the power of the cloud to push the game to an all new level. He also talks a bit about how destruction will affect gameplay and how it will be a different experience everytime the player plays the game.
     
    Crackdown 3 will launch exclusively on Xbox One in 2016. 
     
  2. http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/tethys-arcs-head-640x353.jpg

    A new image released by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows an incredible new surface feature discovered on Saturn’s icy moon of Tethys: enormous, red arcs that span most of the moon’s northern hemisphere. They’re strikingly obvious, even from space, and scientists involved with the Cassini probe which took the pictures have no clear idea of what they are, or what causes them. There are ideas, of course, but for now the red streaks of Tethys are one of our solar system’s most galling mysteries.
     
    Cassini first took detailed pictures of the arcs in April, surveying the moon now that its northern half has moved into its summer phase and is thus bright enough for real investigation. It took a variety of pictures at different wavelengths, then combined them in the false-color image embedded below. The arcs really are red, and they really do stand out from the color of the surface around them, but the harsh red-grey distinction has been intensified to make the arcs easier to see.
     
    NASA will use Cassini to take more detailed readings of the Tethys surface in November, which should grant more insight into the nature of these enormous features. Until then, scientists can only speculate — and speculate they have!
    http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/tethys-arcs-2-640x456.jpg
    Red like this is somewhat unusual in the Saturn system. It’s indicative of a number of possible chemicals — none of them known to be abundant in the area. It’s possible that they are the result of contamination of ice, but the question remains: contaminated with what, exactly? And is that contamination streaked across the surface like this? Geographically young surfaces, like Jupiter’s Europa sometimes display this sort of red coloration, but the streaked pattern is still mysterious.
     
    One possible explanation is outgassing, in which a moon (or asteroid, or comet) squirts enormous volumes of gas out of a heated, pressurized interior. Tethys is going into its summer, as mentioned, and it could be that these arcs will be gone in short order — a form of surface contamination that marks the passing of Tethynian (?) seasons. It’s been theorized that these streaks were noticed when illumination of the surface made them visible, but perhaps they weren’t visible before because they simply didn’t exist without that extra solar heat to create them.
     
    http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/tethys-3.jpg
    Tethys, zoomed out, and without the color correction. Credit: NASA/JPL
     
    There are other ideas, however. The resolution of these pictures still leaves a lot to the imagination, as every pixel in the above image stands in for an area about 2,300 feet (700 meters) across. It’s possible that the red material is coming from below the surface, via fractures that are too small to be detected at that level of detail.
     
    Interestingly, the same color-enhancement process that makes the red streaks more visible has also tinted the left section of the image a yellowy color. That’s because the radiation from Saturn’s magnetosphere is constantly slamming into this particular hemisphere of the moon, modifying it chemically. This wouldn’t be visible to the naked eye, but with color filtering in place we see that Tethys has actually be planet-burned by its proximity to a gas giant.

     

    Source http://www.extremetech.com/

  3. http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03396/rane-m_3396379b.jpg

     

    Two cranes being used in the restoration of a bridge in a central Dutch city have fallen onto a row of buildings and local media report up to 20 people have been injured.
    Ton Koot, a spokesman for the local fire brigade in Alphen aan den Rijn, told national broadcaster NOS that heavy machinery was being moved to the scene on Monday in case people were trapped under rubble and needed to be rescued. Mr Koot said he did not know how seriously injured the victims were.
    http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03396/crane-1_3396380b.jpg
    Amateur video shown on NOS showed the cranes on a pontoon carrying a large section of the bridge when they began to shift and topple over onto a row of houses.
    Further details were not immediately available.
     
     

     

  4. Angry Birds 2 is off to a hot start. Developer Rovio has announced that the bird-flinging sequel has passed 10 million downloads since its release for mobile phones and tablets on July 29.
     
    The entire Angry Birds franchise has tallied more than 1 billion downloads since it originally debuted in 2009.
     
    Angry Birds 2 is a free-to-play game, so big download numbers are to be expected. Rovio did not share any information regarding how many of those 10 million players have spent real-world money on it.
     
     
    Angry Birds 2 is off to a hot start. Developer Rovio has announced that the bird-flinging sequel has passed 10 million downloads since its release for mobile phones and tablets on July 29.
     
    The entire Angry Birds franchise has tallied more than 1 billion downloads since it originally debuted in 2009.
     
    Angry Birds 2 is a free-to-play game, so big download numbers are to be expected. Rovio did not share any information regarding how many of those 10 million players have spent real-world money on it.
     

     

  5. There's a new trailer for Superhot. Sorry, I mean SUPERHOT. Sorry, I mean SUPER. HOT. SUPER. HOT. SUPER. H—and, once again, it's another super exciting video showing off more time-dilated manshooting, gunshooting and abstract violence. It's like F.E.A.R. meets Frozen Synapse! Sort of!
    There's a new trailer because the (seemingly unnamed) development team have just released a beta version to people that backed the game on Kickstarter for $40 or over. Here they are talking about that in a Kickstarter update:
    "Ladies and gentlemen, we’re hyped to announce that the beta has just been sent out to everyone eligible! Thank you one more time for your awesome support and trust, for spreading the word of SUPERHOT and for all the love we got from you! This is a great day for us, and I hope it will be a great day for you too, once you find the SUPERHOT beta steam-key in your email inbox and activate it in the steam app!
    "Take your time and enjoy it! And once you're done, let us know if you liked it! Either by sending us an email, tweeting or on the secret backer forum. Also, feel free to post screenshots / videos of the beta if you'd like to, we're cool with that.
    "Note that the beta is limited, we only send it to the people who pledged the $40 tier and above. We’re a bit shy to release an unfinished game, but were doing it exclusively for you! There is no way to “buy into” the beta."
    There's a playable prototype available on the site if you didn't pledge that much (or at all), but it's a bit basic compared to the footage above, and doesn't look nearly as nice. Superhot doesn't yet have a release date, but it's coming, and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
     
  6.  

    Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 10, launched on Wednesday and is currently rolling out in phases. It now appears the first phase was a big one, as Microsoft says on its official blog that Windows 10 has now been installed on 14 million devices. Many more upgrades are still to come.

     

    "We still have many more upgrades to go before we catch up to each of you that reserved your upgrade," Microsoft marketing boss Yusuf Mehdi said.

     

    "Rest assured we are working 24×7 to continue the upgrade process and are prioritizing the quality of your upgrade experience over anything else," he added. "We are grateful for your excitement and enthusiasm and we appreciate your patience over the days and weeks ahead as we carefully roll out Windows 10 in phases to all of you that have reserved."

    http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_large/1179/11799911/2914256-win101.jpg


    People who reserved a Windows 10 upgrade will be notified through the system tray (see image) when their upgrade is ready. If you didn't reserve an upgrade already, you can do that here.

     

    Mehdi said demand for Windows 10 has been off the charts.

     

    "We're humbled and grateful to see the response to Windows 10," he said. "We have seen unprecedented demand for Windows 10, with reviews and customer feedback overwhelmingly positive around the globe. We are doing everything we can to upgrade the world to Windows 10 as quickly as possible over the coming days and weeks ahead."

     

    Overall, Microsoft hopes Windows 10 can reach 1 billion devices by 2018. As part of a special offer, Windows 7 and 8 users can upgrade to Windows 10 for free for the first year after launch.

     

    "Windows 10 delivers a refined, vastly improved vision for the future of computing with an operating system that's equally at home on tablets and traditional PCs," he said.

     


  7. http://36646d87786feafc0611-0338bbbce19fc98919c6293def4c5554.r0.cf1.rackcdn.com/images/Uzvcp1XdSZTI.878x0.Z-Z96KYq.jpg

     
    Whole months worth of my teenagehood were lost to the original Rise of the Triad, and the 2013 reboot wasn't too shabby either. So it's exciting that something Rise of the Triad related is being teased. I'd speculate that it's a sequel, but that's just a guess.
    The tease comes via the official Rise of the Triad Twitter account, which tweeted the above image, a link to a YouTube video, as well as the text "soon" and "please stand by... your bazookas". The video is embedded below, and features the above image soundtracked by what I'm guessing is music from the forthcoming game. 
    It's a good time for a new Rise of the Triad: fast-paced, twitch-oriented shooters are definitely making a comeback, especially with a new Doom looming on the horizon. The more of these games the better, if you ask me. Running and gunning for life.
     
     
  8. http://3ebd2a0c0ea48a333aea-1f531def8e8befb67be56667ce3edd11.r77.cf1.rackcdn.com/b9c5613dce1fb7979b6890c8f2058c1f4df40676.jpg__940x420_q85_crop-smart_subject_location-514,129_upscale.jpg

     

    Rise of the Tomb Raider will hit PlayStation 4 a full year after it arrives on Xbox One. Square Enix announced today that the next chapter in Lara Croft's rebooted story will release on PS4 in holiday 2016, after hitting PC in early 2016.
     
    The Xbox One and Xbox 360 versions are currently set to release on November 10, 2015 - up until now, it's been somewhat unclear how or when it will appear on other platforms. The sequel follows Lara Croft in another grim survival situation, this time in the Siberian wilderness, with plenty of mercenaries and at least one bear to fight off as she, y'know, raids tombs.
     
  9. http://3ebd2a0c0ea48a333aea-1f531def8e8befb67be56667ce3edd11.r77.cf1.rackcdn.com/187baaef18689bde3735ffeaf23fa9b2a000fce8.jpg__940x420_q85_crop-smart_upscale.jpg

     

    The Call of Duty Zombies mode is such an integral part of the series these days that it's hard to imagine a Treyarch CoD game without it. That wasn't always the case however, as Treyarch lead Mark Lamia told Wil Wheaton in a new episode of the PlayStation-sponsored Conversations With Creators web show.

    "I probably shouldn't even be here as a studio head because I let this thing happen at a time when development was strained and the team was in a difficult place trying to release a historically authentic cinematic World War II game," Lamia said. "And then you hear, 'Have you heard? They threw a zombie in there! It's a Nazi zombie! Everyone likes to kill Nazi zombies, it's a fun new game co-op mode!' And I'm like, 'This hasn't been greenlit, what's going on?'"

    The zombies mode was thrown together during a crunch period, where the team was working overtime to meet development goals, so scripters and programmers made do with what they had. The zombies' movement, for example, was taken from motion capture of actors giving the performance of injured soldiers wandering the battlefield after an air raid. Word spread around the office about the project and individuals began to volunteer their time to make the mode a complete asset. "It was total grassroots," Lamia said.
     
    The problem came from the disparity between having a silly-but-fun zombie-killing mode in a game that was being advertised as a gritty, authentic portrayal of WWII. "We made this deal with Activision … that it wouldn't get marketed. We wouldn't market this," Lamia told Wheaton as he recreated his meetings with Activision executives. "[i said] 'It's okay. Let us release it as an Easter Egg. After everyone's already experienced the artfully-crafted, beautiful Call of Duty that we've been working on for years, let them experience that game. After the credits roll, this'll surprise at the end.'"
     
    Lamia noted how strange it seems now to not promote the zombies mode, a sentiment reflected quite well by the fact that CoD Zombies has grown into such a major phenomenon that Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will feature Jeff Goldblum as a mustachioed magician. 
     

     

  10. http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/XboxOne-640x353.jpg

    While Windows 10 isn’t officially available until the end of July, early adopters have been running the Insider Preview for months now. And as of a few days ago, those of us running the latest build can take advantage of the Xbox One game streaming functionality in the Windows 10 Xbox app.
     
    In a post on the Xbox Wire, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb walks us through the process of enabling this shiny new feature. If you want to give it a go for yourself, start by heading to the Settings menu on the Xbox One. Under Preferences, you should be able to toggle on a setting titled Allow game streaming to other devices.
    http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Xbox-App-640x353.png
     
    Next, make sure you’re running the latest Windows 10 build and the newest version of the Xbox application. Launch the app, navigate to Connect, and select Add a device. Provided you’re on the same network, you should be able to select your Xbox One from this menu. Plug in a controller, go to the Home tab, and then select your console under the Game Streaming section.
    http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Remote-Play-640x363.jpeg
     
    Of course, Microsoft isn’t the first out of the gate for local game streaming. Sony allows you to stream PS4 games to the Vita and PlayStation TV over Remote Play, Valve offers in-home streaming in the Steam client, and even Nintendo offers off-TV play for many titles on the Wii U. It’s nice to see Microsoft finally taking advantage of the massive Windows market, but why did it take so long? I called out the Xbox One’s lack of game streaming over a year ago, and Microsoft is just now rolling out that functionality.
     
    We can add this new feature to the long list of improvements that Redmond has made in an attempt to right the ship after the initial debacle. The strict DRM, the focus on television, and the reliance on the Kinect were all missteps, but there were also countless small issues that needed to be corrected after the troubled reign of Don Mattrick.
     
    With the major price drops, the backwards compatibility announcement, and now the game streaming roll-out, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer has done a superb job revitalizing the Xbox One. But is it too late to undo the damage done to the Xbox name? The PS4 quickly took hold as the dominant platform this generation, and Microsoft has been playing catch-up ever since.
     
    Personally, game streaming is a must-have feature, so this update is a major selling point for me. I currently keep my PS4 in my home office, and frequently stream to the PlayStation TV in my bedroom. Now, the only thing keeping me from pulling the trigger on an Xbox One is a lack of notable exclusive games. But with Quantum Break and ReCore on the horizon, hopefully that will change in 2016.

     

    Source http://www.extremetech.com/

  11. http://3ebd2a0c0ea48a333aea-1f531def8e8befb67be56667ce3edd11.r77.cf1.rackcdn.com/2dea09fbed5fb147b5f8a7ecafe8df500bb63d06.jpg__940x420_q85_crop-smart_upscale.jpg

     

    So despite Sony being all about the Force at E3 and all gameplay being shown off on PS4, Star Wars Battlefront seems to be coming to Xbox One via EA Access first. We reported back in April when Xbox's Aaron Greenberg tweeted that Xbox One players would have Star Wars Battlefront early and now Phil Spencer has apparently confirmed this is the case. 

     

    This is somewhat surprising given PlayStation's obvious presence at Star Wars E3 showing. (Image via Bravointel's Twitter) 

    http://3ebd2a0c0ea48a333aea-1f531def8e8befb67be56667ce3edd11.r77.cf1.rackcdn.com/0aee99c3a587c8901b30402f00c3c417fb4a8c29.png__620x383_q85_crop_upscale.jpg

    There's also Sony branding clearly labelled at the start of every trailer and it was reported by BravoIntel back in June that PS4 was the 'lead platform' for Star Wars Battlefront. We've asked for an official comment from EA on this matter. 

     

     

     

    There's no news yet as to how much will be playable via EA's paid Early Access subscription but given that Battlefield Hardline had ten hours of exclusive gameplay pre release, there's the potential for some serious bragging rights over PS4 owners.

     

    Source http://www.gamesradar.com/

     

  12. From the creator of this epic Destiny LEGO gun comes another video game weapon made using real LEGO bricks--and it's also quite impressive.
     
    YouTube's ZaziNombies' latest creation is a LEGO version of Team Fortress 2's community-made Tomislav gun. It was built using an estimated 2,500 LEGO bricks, is about three feet long, and weighs close to ten pounds. Take a look at the video to learn even more about the gun and how it was made.

     

    Source http://www.gamespot.com/

  13. Samsung was the most popular smartphone maker in the second quarter, but overall, the handset space looks to be a bit weaker than anticipated.

    http://cnet3.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2014/04/15/f85f3316-0a1f-49ea-b66b-81c22fa1112a/resize/370xauto/7731e411657d8784edd9ccdf75a6ec26/samsung-galaxy-s5-apple-iphone-5s.jpg

    Smartphone shipments will grow 8.2 percent year over year in 2015, but that's down from an expected growth rate of 11.6 percent, research firm TrendForce reported on Monday. The firm said it revised the market's expected growth down due to a "negative economic outlook" worldwide and its belief that there will be less demand than anticipated for smartphones. Worse yet, that growth rate is far below what the smartphone space registered in 2014.

     

    "Compared with the high 26.5 percent growth of 2014, this year's smartphone shipment growth is entering a plateau period," Avril Wu, TrendForce's smartphone analyst, said in a statement on Monday. "Therefore, vendors are likely to face serious challenges when shipping their products in the near future."

     

    While not as aggressive, the slowdown reflects a similar issue being faced in the tablet market, where demand has fallen considerably. The concern for mobile vendors, at least for the time being, is that the mobile device market is starting to plateau as over a billion devices hit store shelves and customers worldwide are no longer voraciously buying up new devices.

     

    In March, research firm IDC said it expects the tablet market in 2015 to grow by just 2.1 percent to 234.5 million units, down from its prior estimate of 5.2 percent. The firm noted that so-called "2-in-1" devices, which can be converted from a tablet into a notebook and back, will account for most of that growth. IDC, like other research firms that have predicted a significant slowdown in tablets, said the issues started in the fourth quarter of 2014, which saw "much lower [demand] than we expected."

     

    The disappointing smartphone shipments estimate accompanied TrendForce's look at the smartphone market in the second quarter of 2015. The firm found that Samsung led the space with 26.8 percent of the market, topping Apple's 16.4 percent share. China-based handset makers Huawei and Xiaomi followed in third and fourth place with 7.6 percent and 5.9 percent market share, respectively.

     

    TrendForce was particularly impressed by Apple's showing, saying that its market share was "a remarkably strong shipment result in the off-peak season." The firm noted that iPhone sales tend to drop in anticipation of the launch of newer models -- Apple is expected to reveal the next generation of iPhones in September. So far this year, that hasn't happened. In total, TrendForce said it expects Apple's total shipments in 2015 to be up 15 percent year over year.

     

    However, TrendForce isn't so sure how Samsung will fare by the end of the year. While Samsung was the top vendor in the second quarter, the research firm's estimates show China-based vendors, including Huawei, stealing the "low- to mid-range product market." In total, the firm expects Samsung to have lower-than-expected shipments this year, totaling 45 million units.

     

    "Samsung's ability to reverse its fortune may hinge on the success of its Galaxy Note 5," TrendForce said, referencing the expected launch of a new phablet from the company. "If this device is able to attract consumers with upgraded specs and new features, then Samsung will avoid the high possibility of negative shipment growth for this year."

     

    In China, however, things are looking awfully bright for Huawei. TrendForce said that the company, which builds handsets as well as telecommunications technology, will be the first to reach 100 million units shipped this year, and will see its year-over-year shipments grow nearly 40 percent in 2015.

     


  14. http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/1751D/production/_84371559_ashley_madison.jpg

     

    Customer data has been stolen from Ashley Madison, a dating website for married people who wish to cheat on their spouse.
    The hackers said they had obtained information including "all the customers' secret sexual fantasies and matching credit card transactions".
    The site's operator confirmed there had been an "intrusion" but not its extent.
    One security expert said a small percentage of the site's user account data had been published online.
    The hackers, who called themselves the Impact Team, said they had managed to steal the real names and addresses of the site's users, including those who had previously paid to "delete" their accounts.
    People could hide their profiles for free, but the website charged them $19 (£12) for a "full delete".
    The hackers said the service was a "complete lie" because some personal information was kept.
    Security researcher Brian Krebs said the hackers had published a small percentage of user account data and planned to post more until the website closed.
    'Criminal intrusion'
    Ashley Madison says it operates in more than 50 countries and has 37 million users, more than a million of whom live in the UK.
    It promotes its service with the tagline, "Life is short, have an affair."
    The website is owned by Canada-based Avid Life Media.
    Avid Life Media said in a statement: "We apologise for this unprovoked and criminal intrusion into our customers' information.
    "We have been able to secure our sites, and close the unauthorised access points.
    "Any and all parties responsible for this act of cyber-terrorism will be held responsible."
    In May, casual dating website Adult Friend Finder was also hacked. Thousands of its customer records were leaked online.
     
  15. Activision this week released a surprise bundle consisting of Prototype and Prototype 2 on Xbox One (and then PS4). Despite the company's claims that these versions offer improved frame rates, evidence suggests otherwise, at least on Xbox One.

     

    Digital Foundry has examined the Xbox One versions of both games and found them generally lacking. Prototype is said to run at 30 frames per second, with occasional dips to the mid-20s. And while it runs at 1080p, it's not as if the game's visuals have been completely overhauled, making it unclear why it doesn't run at 60 FPS. The site calls it "passable in its remastered guise, if a somewhat barebones conversion."


    Prototype 2, on the other hand, fares more poorly. DF says it's "among the worst performing games on Xbox One to date," with stutter during cutscenes and a framerate in the 20-25 FPS range while moving around the city. Comparing it with the Xbox 360 version, the frame rate in the Xbox One release is lower in multiple areas. The Xbox One version also has a good deal of screen tearing, something not present on PS3 while still running at a better frame rate.


     


    At best, it looks as if the Xbox One version is fighting to offer an experience on par with that of the last-gen versions, just at a higher resolution--things like texture quality and draw distance haven't been improved.

     

    It's possible the PS4 version handles things better, but that remains to be seen.

     

    In light of this, it's perhaps not a surprise that the Prototype Biohazard Bundle, as it's called, was released so quietly. It's not as if you're getting much of a discount, either--it costs $50 on both Xbox and PS4, though Activision said that it plans to offer each game on its own starting on August 11.

     



     

     

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