Author Archives: Richard Cahill

Adobe warns of new Flash Player security threat

Adobe Flash Player updated Over on Adobe’s support page the company has warned of yet another security flaw in their popular Flash Player software.

This new threat can potentially compromise a user’s machine by causing memory corruption and allowing a malicious website to install malware on the affected PC.

Flash versions vulnerable are 10.3.181.23 and earlier for Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris.

Check to see which version you have installed with Mozilla’s handy plugin check. If you’re not up to date head on over to the Flash Player download page.

50% off Dead Rising 2 & Resident Evil 5 all weekend

Valve's Weekend Deal

Valve’s Weekend Deal sees 50% off both Dead Rising 2 and Resident Evil 5, from CAPCOM. Offer is good until Monday at 10AM Pacific Time.

You can also find Civilization IV with 75% knocked off the price-tag, today only.

Carmack planning RAGE sequel

Carmack wants to make RAGE sequel In a short interview with PC Gamer id co-founder John Carmack enthusiastically hinted at a followup to RAGE.

RAGE is not due out until September 13th but it seems Carmack is already banking on its success. While discussing the various aspects of the post-apocalyptic shooter, Carmack spilled the beans about his plans for a sequel:

While we have corridor shooter maps in Rage, there’s much more to it. It has all of the driving and the exploration and the towns that come in..it doesn’t detract from the shooting at all. It can still be an incredibly fast, guns blazing action shooter, but when you’re taking a break from that you can kit yourself out with extra stuff. All of the towns, driving and exploration have turned out to be very beneficial to the game. I’m very excited for where we’ll go with this in Rage 2.

RAGE is going to incorporate id’s brand new gaming engine id Tech 5, which was first demonstrated at WWDC 2007. id Tech 5 will also be powering the 4th iteration of Doom, which is yet to get a release date.

Mass Effect 3 coming March 2012

BioWare and EA have announced the release date for the third instalment of Mass Effect. The game will make its appearance on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on March 6th 2012.

Originally slated for a Christmas release this year, the game was delayed back in May much to the dismay of fans expecting an Xmas to remember.

Check out the embedded E3 trailer above.

Pre-order your retail copy of Mass Effect 3 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Battlefield 3 gets a release date

The latest news from this year’s E3 is that Battlefield 3 will be hitting store shelves on October 25th of this year. Battlefield 3 coming October 25th

The 3rd instalment in the Battlefield series will be using a new gaming engine, Frostbite 2.0; which will have full support for DirectX 11 and 64-bit processors.

The game was 3 years in development and promises to be a true PC experience, with development set on taking advantage of modern 64-bit CPUs. It will also ship to PS3 and Xbox 360 simultaneously.

Dice is promising to “squeeze every bit” out of the ageing consoles to bring “a stunning looking game on the console”. But make no mistake about it, the PC version is going to be the Mothership as far as Dice and EA are concerned.

You can pre-order a retail copy for PC, Xbox and PS3 from Amazon.

3DS update may cause bug in game

The first 3DS system update which is available today may cause a freezing bug in Ridge Racer 3D requiring a system restart, Nintendo Japan announced. The freeze occurs on the ‘Race select’ or ‘Machine select’ screens. A seperate firmware update will be released sometime in mid-June to correct the problem.

The update sees the grand opening of the 3DS estore. To mark this occasion Nintendo are giving away a free game for a limited time. Until July 7th users can download the 3D version of the classic NES game Excitebike. The update also adds an internet browser.

In other news, the 3DS’s little brother yesterday saw a nice price drop, bringing the DS Lite down to a tempting $99 retail.

Crysis 2 patch 1.8 goes live, still no DX11 support

Many PC fans were a bit bummed with the lack of graphics options and customization with the release of Crysis 2 back in March.

The graphics options in the game made it appear like a balls to bone console port. Crytek now want to give PC users the ability to customize graphics options beyond the presets, with the inclusion of ‘advanced graphics options’. There are also quite a few bug fixes and other features included in patch 1.8.

• Added advanced graphics options
• Added F1 to vote during vote kicks
• Prematch mode for ranked servers added allowing people to fight on the map until sufficient players have joined for the ranked play to start
• Upped the default score limits in some game modes:
• – Crash Site has a limit of 175 (was 150)
• – Team Instant Action has a limit of 75 (was 50)
• – Instant Action has a limit of 30 (was 25)

One very notable absentee is support for DirtectX 11. This will unfortunately have to wait for a future patch I’m afraid; consarnit. For a full list of changes, head on over to MyCrysis.

Nintendo DS Lite price falls to $99 next week

DS Lite price-drop to $99 Nintendo America has made the announcement that their popular handheld console is dropping in price.

From June 5th onward you can pick up a DS Lite for just $99. The company also announced the repackaging in red of their Mario games lineup in order that they stand out more on shelves; games include New Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart DS, Super Mario 64 DS, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! and Mario PartyDS.

Currently the DS Lite is listed for $129 on Amazon, but come next week you’ll be able to snag one for $99.

From the press release:

The portable Nintendo DS™ Lite system is getting a new suggested retail price. Effective June 5, the system will be available at a suggested retail price of just $99.99 in the United States. The Nintendo DS family has become the best-selling video game system in history. More than 48.9 million systems in the Nintendo DS family have sold in the United States alone. Also in June, six Mario™ games for Nintendo DS will receive new red packaging, making it easier than ever for consumers to identify these hit titles in stores.

Adobe patches Flash Player, again

Adobe Flash Player updated In what seems to be almost as regular as the sun rising, Adobe yesterday announced yet another flaw in their Flash Player software.

This latest threat appears almost identical to last month’s flaw which was being taken advantage of by way of a Flash (.swf) file embedded in a Microsoft Word (.doc) file spread through email.

AFFECTED SOFTWARE VERSIONS

Adobe Flash Player 10.2.159.1 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems
Adobe Flash Player 10.2.154.28 and earlier versions for Chrome users
Adobe Flash Player 10.2.157.51 and earlier versions for Android

Adobe recommends users of any of the above Flash versions to update immediately. Whether you’re on Chrome, IE, Opera or Firefox the version you want installed is 10,3,181,14. Head on over to Adobe’s About Flash Player page to make sure you’re up to date.

As always don’t forget about Mozilla’s handy plugin check page, that examines which plugins you have installed and lets you know of any available upgrades.

PCMark 7 available now

PCMark 7 out now PCMark 7 is available now, having been initially slated for a May 3rd release.

The popular PC benchmarking suite from Futuremark is designed for Windows 7. Basically if you want to put your entire PC through a broad gamut of performance tests this program will give you an indication of how well your hardware is performing. You can even check and compare your score online with people who have similar or identical PC hardware.

Futuremark are offering 3 variants of PCMark 7; including a free edition which allows unlimited runs of the main test. You can download the free-edition or order the advanced or professional versions directly from the PCMark website.

PCMARK 7 BASIC EDITION – Free

Free PC test offering unlimited runs of the main PCMark test suite
Browse, search and compare results online
Store one result online

PCMARK 7 ADVANCED EDITION – $39.95 – ORDER NOW

Includes all 7 PC tests with more than 25 individual workloads
Browse, search and compare results online
Unlimited online results storage
Hide results from public view
Offline result management
Advert-free online service

PCMARK 7 PROFESSIONAL EDITION – $995.00 – ORDER NOW

Licensed for commercial PC system testing
Includes all 7 PC tests with more than 25 individual workloads
Command line automation
Browse, search and compare results online
Unlimited online results storage
Hide results from public view
Offline result management
Advert-free online service
Priority support

StarCraft II patch goes live (1.3.3)

Over on Battle.net comes details of the latest StarCraft II patch (1.3.3).

Patch 1.3.3 is a mixture of adjustments to race balance and bug fixes.

See below:

General

The default hotkey to toggle in-game music on/off has been reverted to its hotkey prior to Patch 1.3.0. The hotkey to display APM in the observer stat panel has been changed as a result.

Balance

PROTOSS
- Archon
  - Now a massive unit.
  - Range increased from 2 to 3.
- Cybernetics Core
  - Research Warp Gate time increased from 140 to 160.
- Gateway
  - Sentry train time decreased from 42 to 37.
  - Warp Gate unit train times remain unchanged.
- Pylon power radius has been decreased from 7.5 to 6.5.
TERRAN
- Bunker
  - Salvage resource return reduced from 100% to 75%.
- Ghost
  - Cost changed from 150/150 to 200/100.
- Thor
- Thor now has 200 max energy, and starts with 50 energy.
- 250mm Strike Cannons now cost 150 energy to use (cooldown removed).
ZERG
- Infestor
  - Speed decreased from 2.5 to 2.25.
- Spore Crawler
  - Root time decreased from 12 to 6.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where Ghosts could not quickly EMP the same location.
Fixed an issue that allowed players to stack air units when issuing a queued stop command before the units reached the end of their patrol point.
Fixed an issue where unplugging your USB headset while another player was talking to you could cause a crash.
Fixed an issue where the APM statistic could be artificially increased.
Fixed an issue where 3D unit portraits were not animating smoothly at slow game speeds.
Fixed an issue where, when viewing a replay, no text message was displayed when a player left a game.
The Taiwanese hotkey to display/hide the game UI while in Observer mode now works correctly.

Crysis 2 ‘Retaliation’ trailer hits the web

A new trailer has been released showing off the upcoming DLC for Crysis 2, Retaliation.

Retaliation is coming to PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on May 17th, just one week from now. The DLC will feature 4 new maps; Park Avenue, Transit, Shipyard, and Compound.

Dice: Battlefield 3 will be a stunning looking game on the console

In a recent interview with x360aNews, Dice’s Patrick Bach talks about the upcoming Battlefield 3; primarily the gameplay but also on a few key features that separate the PC version from the consoles.

The third instalment in the legendary Battlefield series is promising to push the PC envelope, taking advantage of 64-bit processors to fully realise their new gaming engine, Frostbite 2.0.

But Dice doesn’t want console gamers to feel like they’re getting left in the ditch. Despite the fact that Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware is over 6-years old, Dice is promising to “squeeze every bit” out of the ageing games machines to bring “a stunning looking game on the console”. But make no mistake about it, the PC version is going to be the Mothership as far as Dice and EA are concerned.

Battlefield 3 is slated for a release sometime in the 4th quarter of this year. You can pre-order for PC, Xbox and PS3 from Amazon.

id’s RAGE to ship with full level editor

RAGE to ship with level editor As the release date for RAGE is getting closer and closer, id has announced that their upcoming post-apocalyptic shooter will have full support for modding and level design right out of the box.

id has always had a soft-spot for the modding community; the wealth of mods created for Doom 3 is testimony to that.

According to id Software’s Creative Director Tim Willits, all you need to do if you’re interested in designing a level, or modifying a standard one is “Pull down the console, type ‘id studio’, then press enter. Then, bam, there’s all the tools we use.” Pretty sweet.

Rage is coming to PC, Xbox and PS3 on September 13th. Amazon is already taking pre-orders.

RAGE trailer ‘The Shrouded’ hits YouTube

Over on the Bethesda Softworks blog they have treated us to a new 5 minute video of id’s upcoming post-apocalyptic shooter RAGE; featuring some close indoor combat with a variety of weapons, including mini-turrets, remote-controlled car bombs and something resembling a crossbow.

We’re back today with a new five-minute clip of RAGE gameplay. This time around, we take you into the Shrouded clan’s bunker with a mission to destroy the bomb caches.

We’ve got plenty more on RAGE to share. Next time around, we’ll take a closer look at The Well.

Rage is coming to PC, Xbox and PS3 on September 13th. Amazon is already taking pre-orders.

Escalation hits Xbox Live Marketplace

Escalation

Call of Duty: Black Ops DLC Escalation is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace. PC and PS3 users will have to wait it out, there is still no official release date for either medium.

The DLC features 5 new maps: Zoo, Hotel, Convoy, Stockpile and Call of the Dead. Escalation weighs in at a hefty 986MB and can be yours for all of 1200 Microsoft Points.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar lends her voice to the DLC, along with Robert Englund, Michael Rooker and Danny Trejo; with Gellar and Englund appearing in the zombie map Call of the Dead.

id brings RAGE to unsuspecting Texans

id brings RAGE to unsuspecting Texans. If you’re in and around Dallas, Texas on May 7th you might want to make a note in your diary. id Software will be holding a demo of their upcoming post-apocalyptic shooter RAGE at the FX Game Exchange in Plano, with “food, drinks, giveaways, and much much more.”

The company announced the news on their Facebook page:

Come check out a live demo of id Software’s latest game, RAGE!
Join FX Plano on Free Video Game Day, May 7th, 2011 for food, drinks, giveaways, and much much more.
We open @ 10AM and the RAGE demo will start at noon, it’s going to be a BLAST!
Hope to see y’all there!

Rage is coming to PC, Xbox and PS3 on September 13th. Amazon is already taking pre-orders.

Chrome 11 goes stable, adds speech input through HTML

Chrome adds speech input in version 11. The stable build of Google’s increasingly popular Chrome browser is now at version 11.0.696.57. The update contains quite a number of security fixes and a few new features; including speech input through HTML.

Speech input through HTML lets you use Google Translate in conjunction with Chrome to translate what you say through your microphone into another language. You will need to speak slowly and as clearly as possible in order to get a proper recognition of your voice, but it seems to work well.

Google shelled out $16,500 to users who found bugs in the beta; a detailed list of which can he found here.

EA raises over 1 million for Japan

EA raises over 1 million for Japan. EA announced that through a series of initiatives and help from various internal studios and gamers it has raised over 1 million dollars to support relief efforts in Japan, after last month’s devastating earthquake. The proceeds will be distributed by the Red Cross, Mercy Corps, and AmeriCare charities.

From the press release:

Electronic Arts Inc., (NASDAQ:ERTS) is pleased to announce that it has raised over $1 Million dollarsfor Japan earthquake and tsunami aid. In the wake of the disaster, EA immediately mobilized internal studios, employees and gamers to join forces and raise relief funds for the people impacted by the disasters. EA implemented giving programs through its titles, fan communities and social gaming platforms, all proceeds of which will be distributed via the Red Cross, Mercy Corps and AmeriCares.

EA are not the only games company to chip in with Japanese aid; Valve, along with the Team Fortress 2 community raised nearly half a million by way of selling hats in the popular online shooter. Meanwhile BioWare’s founders have their own charity auction set up to raise funds; flogging off signed BioWare paraphernalia.

Rockstar updates Max Payne 3 site with high-def screens

Rockstar updates Max Payne 3 site with high-def screens. Rockstar Games updated the official Max Payne 3 website with new high-definition screenshots of the upcoming shooter. Some of these images have already been glimpsed via Edge Magazine’s cover story.

What do we know about the third instalment of Max Payne? It will be released on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. We know that the start of the game takes place 8 years after the events of Max Payne 2; but you will play through 3 different ages of the iconic character, from a young Max to a balding middle-aged Payne. Apart from that Rockstar is keeping the lid tightly closed on this one, at least for the time being.

Unfortunately there is still no official release date for the much anticipated sequel. Check out the updated screenshots here.

Portal 2 patched already

It’s only been 2 days since the Steam release but an update to the PC and Mac version of Portal 2 has been released, and is now available on Steam.

The update fixes a couple of glitches and crashes in the game; it also activates UI to enable joystick in-game, and will be applied automatically when you restart the Steam client.

Portal 2

Fixed unrecoverable black screen in elevator save
Fixed infinite loop on Mac OSX server
Fixed Mac OSX font rendering and glyph corruption
Fixed GC memory leak
Various localization content improvements
Support for English subtitles in Turkish builds
Minor string/interface glitches
Fixes for multiple crashes
Improved detection and handling for various errors and/or crashes
Activated UI to enable joystick in-game