Given that superior integrated graphics was one of the key selling points of AMD’s low-power Llano desktop chips, it might seem like a strange move to offer two new Athlon-branded variants that have been stripped of their GPUs. However, while one hand slaps your face, the other hand gives you more cash to spend on a proper graphics card for your ultra-cheap rig — because both the Athlon II X4 641 and it’s lower-power buddy, the 638, are priced at just $81. Go out and buy yourself something nice.

Source: Engadget

AMD’s latest roadmap focuses primarily on the desktop processor market. AMD is looking to speed up the launch of its desktop processors to catch up with Intel. It plans to continue with the current line up until the end of March this year. From March onwards AMD will press ahead with the launch of some new Bulldozer models for the rest of Quarter 2 up until the end of June. From July onwards AMD is planning to introduce “Bulldozer/Zambezi version two” which will be known as Piledriver/Vishera and is still based of 28nm architecture. It will be a refinement of Bulldozer and will probably bring 15% more performance over the current generation and will come with a FX x3xx branding with the first X representing the number of cores and the last two representing the strength of the clock speeds.

A bit more is revealed on the Trinity APUs but most of this we already knew from the previous AMD roadmap that was released last week:

The fastest “Trinity” APUs will get a new brand identifier, the A10-5000 series. These APUs will pack next-generation “Piledriver” modular cores and Radeon HD 7600D series graphics. Around this time, AMD will also launch the Brazos 2.0 low-power APU for netbooks, nettops, and embedded computing devices. Brazos 2.0 will get the E2-1000 series branding. The big change is reserved for the third quarter of 2012, when AMD launches the successor of its less-than-lucky AMD FX “Bulldozer” processor family.

Codenamed “Vishera”, AMD’s new FX-x300 family (where x = 8 in case of eight-core, 6 in case of six-core, and 4, in case of quad-core), will likely be built on the same AM3+ platform, but based on the “Piledriver” core architecture, which brings in about 15% IPC increase over Bulldozer. The roadmap slide talks about FX-8350 being the top-end part, followed by FX-8320, FX-6300, and FX-4320. Around that time, AMD will replace its A6 and A4 “Llano” parts with new A6 and A4 “Trinity” ones. The A6-5400 APU features Radeon HD 7540D graphics, while the A4-5300 features Radeon HD 7480D.

Source: DonanimHaber, TPU

AMD’s HD 7770 is due out in the near future, probably within the next week and its going to be targeting the sub $200 market with a new boost of performance using the 28nm architecture. “The latest specifications exposé reveals AMD’s new design strategy: Instead of increasing components such as stream processors and ROPs, which would increase transistor counts, and unnecessarily increase power draw, AMD is counting on a lesser number of better-configured Graphics CoreNext stream processors. While the previous-generation HD 5770/6770 “Juniper” GPU featured VLIW5 stream processors, the new “Cape Verde” GPU, which will go into making up Radeon HD 7770 and 7750, will feature GCN stream processors. Apart from architectural performance improvements, AMD is counting on increased clock speeds to do the trick. The specifications are listed below.”

Cape Verde Physical

• Built on TSMC 28 nm process, ~1.5 billion transistors
• 10 Graphics CoreNext Compute Units (CUs)
• 640 stream processors
• 40 TMUs, 16 ROPs
• 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface

Radeon HD 7770

• All CUs enabled, 640 stream processors
• 1 GB GDDR5 memory
• 40 TMUs, 16 ROPs
• 1000 MHz core clock-speed
• 1125 MHz (actual), 4500 MHz (effective) memory clock-speed
• 72 GB/s memory bandwidth
• 1280 GFLOP/s single-precision floating-point performance
• Typical board power: 80W

Radeon HD 7750

• 8 CUs enabled, 512 stream processors
• 1 GB GDDR5 memory
• 32 TMUs, 16 ROPs
• 800 MHz core clock-speed
• 1125 MHz (actual), 4500 MHz (effective) memory clock-speed
• 72 GB/s memory bandwidth
• 819 GFLOP/s single-precision floating-point performance
• Typical board power: 55W

Source: 3DCenter.org, TPU

BioWare has blasted out five fresh Mass Effect 3 videos, showing off the game’s story choices and in-game customisation, enemies, action sections and its co-op multiplayer offering.

First up, a look at how Shepard shapes the story of Mass Effect 3 through good and evil (Paragon and Renegade) dialogue options – and how the consequences of these play out.

Next, a glance at the game’s multiplayer and the races you can play. Choose a sniper-loving Turian like good old shipmate Garrus, or paint yourself blue to join Liara T’Soni’s biotic bunch, the Asari.

The third video details new moves and combat mechanics abilities in Mass Effect 3, like dodging and tackling enemies with held shields.

Mass Effect 3′s deeper suit and weapon customisation is shown off in trailer number four – which also features that Kingdoms of Amalur: Recking bonus armour.

Last, a gallery of baddies found in Mass Effect 3 – Husk, Geth and maybe one or two we’ve not seen before.

Spoilers abound, obviously.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Looking damn awesome.

Source: Eurogamer

Double Fine Productions has raised over $1.2 million for a new project from 33,809 backers in a little over a day.

The studio founded by Monkey Island, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango creator Tim Schafer is using Kickstarter, a funding platform where creators can pitch ideas to the public, who in turn donate money to get the project off the ground.

Double Fine Adventure has now broken Kickstarter records for most funds raised in 24 hours and the highest number of backers.

Double Fine initially aimed to raise $400,000 for the project, with the development process set to be captured by 2 Player Productions and edited into a documentary for those who donate to watch.

“Over a six-to-eight month period, a small team under Tim Schafer’s supervision will develop Double Fine’s next game, a classic point-and-click adventure,” reads the project page. “Where it goes from there will unfold in real time for all the backers to see.”

“We did it! 100% funded in just over eight hours. You people are amazing! But it’s not over yet. The number keeps going up and now the question is just how much news do we want to make with this? We’re getting a lot of attention already and it seems like this little project could have an impact beyond itself.

“All money raised will go to make the game and documentary better. Additional money means it can appear on more platforms, be translated into more languages, have more music and voice, and an original soundtrack for the documentary, and more!”

Source: CVG

Two of the most successful PC developers of all time have gone to war over the use of the term DOTA (Defence of the Ancients).

In case you’re none the wiser, DOTA was a very popular fan mod for Blizzard’s Warcraft 3. In 2010 Valve hired one of the mod’s creators and announced it was working on DOTA 2. Blizzard expectedly wasn’t very please about this, especially as soon after it announced its own sequel, Blizzard DOTA.

To make things worse for the WarCraft developer, Valve moved to try and trademark the word “DOTA”, despite the fact it has no historical connection to the name – or even the game’s genre.

Standing before the US Patent and Trademark Office’s Trial and Appeal Board, Blizzard argued that giving Valve the DOTA name would not only damage it, “but also the legions of Blizzard fans”.

As for Valve, this is what Blizzard had to say about the Half-Life dev:

“In contrast to Blizzard, Applicant Valve Corporation (“Valve”) has never used the mark DOTA in connection with any product or service that currently is available to the public.

“By attempting to register the mark DOTA, Valve seeks to appropriate the more than seven years of goodwill that Blizzard has developed in the mark DOTA and in its Warcraft III computer game and take for itself a name that has come to signify the product of years of time and energy expended by Blizzard and by fans of Warcraft III. Valve has no right to the registration it seeks.

“If such registration is issued, it not only will damage Blizzard, but also the legions of Blizzard fans that have worked for years with Blizzard and its products, including by causing consumers to falsely believe that Valve’s products are affiliated, sponsored or endorsed by Blizzard and are related or connected to Warcraft III.”

Blizzard claims that, because the original DOTA required WarCraft III to play, it’s got a better case for a trademark than Valve.

Source: CVG

Ubisoft has sent over a new trailer for Ghost Recon Online, the upcoming free-to-play PC take on the Tom Clancy series.

The new trailer focuses on the game’s three soldier classes, assault, specialist and recon. Each is proficient with different weaponry and has a unique set of abilities and team upgrades that boost the versatility of their squad.

Ubisoft has also confirmed plans to launch a closed beta on March 5. You can sign up via the game’s official website.

Announced last May and developed by Ubisoft Singapore, the publisher says the tactical, third person shooter “offers all the best qualities of the Ghost Recon franchise in a downloadable, dynamic, PC-based online game”.

It also describes it as “the most social, connected and customisable Ghost Recon experience yet”.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Source: CVG

According to 3D Center Nvidia are planning a radically different architecture on Kepler. The design will retain the same basic hierarchy present on the Fermi cards (400/500 series) but will employ a different implementation of the CUDA layout. The first cards expected are going to be based off the GK104 architecture which has its specifications listed below, this will include the anticipated GTX 680. Interestingly both the HD 7970 and GTX 680 will possess 32 ROPs and 128 TMUs while in terms of Graphics cores Nvidia’s card has 1536 CUDA cores and the HD 7970 has 2048 stream processors. The GTX 680 is also only expected to pack 2GBs of GDDR5 instead of the 3 on the HD 7970, whilst the HD 7970 also contains a larger memory bus at 384bits instead of 256. Whether any of this will make a difference we are yet to see since Nvidia are claiming a performance win but the specifications seem to show it will be close.

SIMD Hierarchy

• 4 Graphics Processing Clusters (GPC)
• 4 Streaming Multiprocessors (SM) per GPC = 16 SM
• 96 Stream Processors (SP) per SM = 1536 CUDA cores

TMU / Geometry Domain

• 8 Texture Units (TMU) per SM = 128 TMUs
• 32 Raster OPeration Units (ROPs)

Memory

• 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface
• 2048 MB (2 GB) memory amount standard

Clocks/Other

• 950 MHz core/CUDA core (no hot-clocks)
• 1250 MHz actual (5.00 GHz effective) memory, 160 GB/s memory bandwidth
• 2.9 TFLOP/s single-precision floating point compute power
• 486 GFLOP/s double-precision floating point compute power
• Estimated die-area 340mm²

Source: 3DCenter.org

Yet more praise for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim this week in what is becoming an avalanch of news stories surrounding Bethesdas massively successful game. At the 15th annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Skyrim took home five awards, including Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction.

It beat out a some tough competition in the top category, including Batman: Arkham City, Portal 2, Uncharted 3, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. With the exception of Skyward Sword, the above titles all won other awards at the ceremony, with Uncharted picking up a trio of gongs for various visual categories, not exactly weak competition then.

Not all of the award recipients were revealed at the event. The organizing Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences announced that Asteroids and Centipede designer Ed Logg would be receiving the annual Pioneer Award, while Epic Games co-founder Tim Sweeney would be inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame.

The IAA show is a highlight of the D.I.C.E. Summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain), a yearly conference dedicated to exploring approaches to the creative process and artistic expression as they uniquely apply to the development of interactive entertainment.

A full list of nominees follows below. Winners have been italicized.

Game of the Year
Batman: Arkham City–Rocksteady Studios
Portal 2–Valve
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim–Bethesda Game Studios
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword–Nintendo
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception–Naughty Dog

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
L.A. Noire–Team Bondi
Little Big Planet 2–Media Molecule
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception–Naughty Dog
InFamous 2–Sucker Punch
Portal 2–Valve

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design
Battlefield 3–DICE
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3–Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games
L.A. Noire–Team Bondi
Need for Speed: The Run–EA Black Box
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception–Naughty Dog

Outstanding Achievement in Story
Bastion–Supergiant Games
L.A. Noire–Team Bondi
Portal 2–Valve
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim–Bethesda Game Studios
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception–Naughty Dog

Outstanding Character Performance
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Adam Jensen)–Eidos Montreal
L.A. Noire (Cole Phelps)–Team Bondi
Portal 2 (Wheatley)–Valve
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (Nathan Drake)–Naughty Dog
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (Victor Sullivan)–Naughty Dog

Downloadable Game of the Year
Bastion–Supergiant Games
Drawn: Trail of Shadows–Big Fish Games
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet–Fuel Cell
Ms. Splosion Man–Twisted Pixel Games
Orcs Must Die!–Robot Entertainment

Casual Game of the Year
Fruit Ninja Kinect–Halfbrick Studios
Tiny Wings–Andreas Illiger
Jetpack Joyride–Halfbrick Studios
Monsters Ate My Condo–Adult Swim/PikPok
Where’s My Water?–Creature Feep

Social Networking Game of the Year
Army Attack–Digital Chocolate
CastleVille–Zynga
Gardens of Time–Playdom
The Sims Social–Playfish
Triple Town–Spry Fox

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year
Dark Souls–From Software
Deus Ex: Human Revolution–Eidos Montreal
Star Wars: The Old Republic–BioWare Austin
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim–Bethesda Game Studios
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings–CD Projekt

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming
Bastion–Supergiant Games
L.A. Noire–Team Bondi
Portal 2–Valve
Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure–Toys for Bob
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim–Bethesda Game Studios

Sports Game of the Year
FIFA 12–EA Canada
Madden NFL 12–Tiburon
MLB 11: The Show–SCE San Diego
NBA 2K12–Visual Concepts
NBA Jam: On Fire Edition–Firemint

Racing Game of the Year
Forza Motorsport 4–Turn 10 Studios
Mario Kart 7–Nintendo
Real Racing 2 HD–Firemint

Fighting Game of the Year
Fight Night Champion–EA Canada
King of Fighters XIII–SNK Playmore
Mortal Kombat–NetherRealm Studios
Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition–Capcom
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3–Capcom

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
Iron Brigade–Double Fine
Orcs Must Die!–Robot Entertainment
Total War: Shogun 2–The Creative Assembly
Toy Soldiers: Cold War–Signal Studios
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Retribution–Relic Entertainment

Family Game of the Year
Dance Central 2–Harmonix
Just Dance 3–Ubisoft Paris
Kinect Disneyland Adventure–Frontier Developments
Little Big Planet 2–Media Molecule
Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure–Toys for Bob

Mobile Game of the Year
Contre Jour–Chillingo
Dead Space–EA Mobile
Infinity Blade II–Chair Entertainment
Tentacles–Press Play
The Dark Meadow–Phosphor Games Studio

Handheld Game of the Year
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective–Capcom
Kirby Mass Attack–Hal Laboratory
Mario Kart 7–Nintendo
Professor Layton and the Last Specter–Level 5
Super Mario 3D Land–Nintendo

Adventure Game of the Year
Batman: Arkham City–Rocksteady Studios
L.A. Noire–Team Bondi
Portal 2–Valve
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword–Nintendo
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception–Naughty Dog

Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play
Battlefield 3–DICE
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3–Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games
Gears of War 3–Epic Games
Little Big Planet 2–Media Molecule
Star Wars: The Old Republic–BioWare Austin

Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity
Battlefield 3–DICE
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3–Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games
Dragon Age II–BioWare Edmonton
Portal 2–Valve
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception–Naughty Dog

Action Game of the Year
Battlefield 3–DICE
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3–Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games
Dead Space 2–Visceral Games
Gears of War 3–Epic Games
Saints Row: The Third–Volition

Outstanding Achievement in Animation
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations–Ubisoft Montreal
Batman: Arkham City–Rocksteady Studios
L.A. Noire–Team Bondi
Rayman Origins–UbiArt Montpellier
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception–Naughty Dog

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
Batman: Arkham City–Rocksteady Studios
Battlefield 3–DICE
Portal 2–Valve
Rayman Origins–UbiArt Montpellier
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception–Naughty Dog

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering
Batman: Arkham City–Rocksteady Studios
Crysis 2–Crytek GmbH
L.A. Noire–Team Bondi
Rage–id Software
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception–Naughty Dog

Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering
Batman: Arkham City–Rocksteady Studios
Portal 2–Valve
Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure–Toys for Bob
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim–Bethesda Game Studios
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword–Nintendo

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
Batman: Arkham City–Rocksteady Studios
L.A. Noire–Team Bondi
Portal 2–Valve
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim–Bethesda Game Studios
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception–Naughty Dog

Source: Gamespot

VTX3D, today introduces the well-known X series of VTX3D, HD7970/HD7950 X Edition. The X series is designed to deliver extraordinary performance with factory overclocked setting and unique cooling design.

VTX3D HD7970/HD7950 X Edition incorporates the latest PCI-E Gen 3 to get the maximum performance from your GPU. Both fitted with 3 GB of GDDR5 memory connected via a new high speed 384 bit memory interface. VTX3D HD7970/HD7950 X Edition is clocked at 1050 MHz and 880 MHz respectively, also together with 1425 MHz and 1250 MHz for each memory, fulfilling those who thirst for extreme performance. The HD7970/HD7950 X Edition also features ultra cooling design. With two 92 mm ultra big fan and SSU-shape heat pipe design, this efficient cooling solution maximizes the speed of heat dissipation, but minimizes the noisy level, creating most pleasing environment for gaming.

VTX3D HD7970/HD7950 X Edition offer gamers with advanced DirectX 11, including faster Tessellation and DirectCompute, bringing intense gaming performance and unrivalled image quality with ultra-realistic imagery. With AMD PowerPlay technology support, ensuring maximum GPU efficiency by dynamically scaling clocks speeds and power consumption in response to GPU loads. Enhancements for AMD Eyefinity technology include multi-display stereoscopic 3D support and 16k x 16k group resolution, gamers can get the most intense gaming performance than before.

Fireaxis’ upcoming remake of X-COM (XCOM: Enemy Unknown). Originally released in 1993, which is often considered to be one of the best games ever made has been confirmed to include an “iron man” difficulty setting, and possibly even mod support.

Details emerge from a lengthy and detailed interview with Firaxis’ Jake Solomon posted at Rock Paper Shotgun, which reveals that XCOM will feature a challenging difficulty mode to be called “iron man”, where you are not allowed to juggle with multiple save files:

“It’s important. A lot of players, we like to play Iron Man and so it’s something we want to actually systemically enable where if you say I want to play this game in Iron Man then you’ve only got one save slot and all auto saves and all your saves go to that slot – and the only thing you can do is save and exit. Of course, you get to some point where if you lose too much, I’ll give you the option, I’ll say ‘do you want to turn off Iron Man’, you know, ‘Are you done? Do you want to turn off Iron Man and continue to play normally?’”

Solomon also gave a detailed explanation about why the studio has decided to drop “time units” from the remake:

“This was not some sort of thing where we said ‘Oh, time units are too tough, this’ll make it easier to play’ because everybody intellectually understands time units once you explain it to them, it’s easy to intellectually understand. The problem was that it just didn’t map to the experience well. With all these new abilities and things, it just created this barrier between ‘I know what I want to do and I know how I’m going to do it’ and instead it became this sort of thing where you were like ‘I’m not quite sure what I can do, and so I’m just going to let it sort of play out’. So in this case when we had time units, they ended up making the game more shallow, because all these different abilities and combos, all these interesting things, were never getting used because people couldn’t think about them that way.”

As far as mods were concerned he went on to say:

“something that we’re definitely looking very closely at, it’s something that we’d want to do for players”.

Source: GameSpy

Taiwanese based company Aerocool have just announced the launch in Europe of its Strike-X one and Strike-X one advanced midtower PC cases. “Both models feature a steel structure, are painted black both inside and out, and have support for ATX and micro ATX motherboards, four 5.25-inch drive bays (with tool-free mounting systems), six 3.5-inch internal bays, a PSU dust filter, and pre-drilled holes for watercooling tubes and cables.” Much like with the Cooler Master branding strategy the base version features only USB 2.0 and a single 120mm fan whilst the advanced version features USB 3.0 and two 120mm fans for additional cooling.

The premium to upgrade to the advanced model is just €5 as the base model costs €34.99 and the advanced model costs €39.99. The cases are available immediately so if you fancy having an X-Factor look-a-like case sitting on your desk then keep an eye on the UKs biggest etailers such as Scan, Ebuyer and Aria.

Source: TPU

Microsoft have announced that next week they will be introducing ten patches for a variety of programs. The patches are as follows:

1. Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 4 on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP
2. Update for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008
3. Update Rollup 1.1 for Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Server 2011
4. Update Rollup for Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials
5. Update Rollup for Windows Home Server 2011
6. Update Rollup for Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials
7.  Two Updates for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
8. Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool – February 2012 /Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool – February 2012 – Internet Explorer Version
9. Update for Windows Mail Junk E-mail Filter

Toki Tori developer Two Tribes intends to have Toki Tori 2 launch as one of the first downloadable games for Wii U.

The original – a colourful 2D platform adventure – was one of the first games out for Wii’s online store, WiiWare, and the developer hopes to replicate this with the sequel – which could feature a level editor.In a revealing blog post, TT says its decision was encouraged by Nintendo’s newfound focus on improving its online strategy.

“Nintendo recently released information on their online strategy, which sounds much more robust than before. The 3DS eShop has been a big step in the right direction compared to the Wii and DSi online shops, and it would be strange if they did not at least match it’s functionality on Wii U. Since Toki Tori 2 is designed to be a downloadable title, these things are vital to making the correct choice of which platforms to develop for,” said TT.

Pondering features for the game, the post continues: “We would definitely include playing on the Wii U controller directly without the need for a TV. Toki Tori 2 has been designed with minimal use for a graphical user interface, so the game should be perfectly playable on the controller’s smaller widescreen display. As for the motion controls, we don’t think Toki Tori needs those and adding them to the game as it is currently designed does not make much sense.”

More excitingly, it says: “What could be very interesting, and what’s been requested countless times from the fans, is if we could incorporate a level editor utilizing the Wii U controller. This could mean that the game runs on the TV while you make adjustments to the level on the touchscreen in real time. We think that would work really well!”

So do we. But Nintendo need to talk more about Wii U before the developer is willing to confirm it. “this is pure speculation at this point, since there is nothing known about the Wii U’s ability to share and store levels at this point. In any case, we are excited and will do everything in our power to make sure you get to play Toki Tori 2 on Wii U!”

Sweet. Above is an image the dev says shows what the game might look like on Wii U.

Source: CVG