The Fox engine is a cross-platform development that will be used in upcoming games like Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, The Phantom Pain and the next Metal Gear title, but beyond that, we don't know much about it. Fortunately, Hideo Kojima has spoken out on Twitter to give us some ideas. The original …
Read More »Alienvault director speaks out on South Korean digital security and hacks
Yesterday South Korean computers were hit by a big systems crash across banks and major media, prompting many to point the finger at North Korea. A few sources have suggested that a certain piece of malware was used in the suspected attack that wiped the Master Boot Record – but …
Read More »Steam launches “Early Access” buyable alphas
While you've been able to buy your way into a few games' alpha builds for a while now, Valve has created a special section of Steam just for that. Called, “Early Access,” those of you that want to pay early to get a chance to play unfinished games, can now …
Read More »NASA does nothing to assuage the world’s fears of asteroids
If you thought NASA chief, Charles Bolden, speaking to the US House of Representatives on the subject of world ending asteroids, would bring us some solutions to the potential threat, you'd be sorely mistaken. If it happened within the next few weeks, Bolden believes the best course of action would be …
Read More »High profile Microsoft employee Xbox Live accounts hacked
Well I say hacked, in reality I mean social engineered. It turns out that some high profile Microsoft employees have had their accounts taken over by a nefarious few, who used the employees' social security numbers and other services' customer support to gain access. Microsoft has been keen to point …
Read More »More evidence that Xbox 720 will be always online
Despite the horrible beating EA and Maxis have gotten for the recent gaff with the new Sim City, it looks like they aren't the only companies considering the idea of always on systems. Microsoft could very well be pushing for it with the next Xbox and this could lead to …
Read More »Jackass actor distances himself from BitTorrent legal action
Jason “Wee-man” Acuna, of Jackass fame, has distanced himself from the producers of a direct to DVD movie he starred in, known as Elf Man, after they announced their intention to sue over 200 Bittorrent downloaders for pirating the movie. Initially taking to Twitter to voice his concern, Acuna posted: …
Read More »ARM CEO steps down
After nearly two decades as part of one of the world's most dominant chip firms, ARM's CEO, Warren East, has announced his retirement, with his replacement, current president Simon Segars, set to take over the CEO position from 1st July. East has done a good job during his tenure too. …
Read More »Mass Effect 3 writer speaks about “issue” of girls in games
Just a day on from the developers of Remember Me discussing how difficult it was to get the lead character accepted as a female, one of the writers for Mass Effect 3, Ann Lemay, has spoken out about the approval process for adding a female Turian to a DLC release. …
Read More »Sony shares revive after debt agency upgrade
Sony might not have had a strong few years recently, with a severe drop off in its dominance of the TV and hardware market in general, but just recently it's started doing a bit better, with strong Xperiz Z sales and a good initial showing of PS4 features prompting debt agency Daiwa …
Read More »Microsoft Entertainment Rewards security leak reveals voter information
Microsoft's Entertainment Rewards voting procedure has been blighted after it was revealed that the information of everyone that had voted in order to become eligible for a prize draw, was freely available to anyone that knew a few simple steps. According to MCV, one of its readers sent over a …
Read More »Riot announces further player crack downs
With the most popular game in the world right now, it's not surprising that Riot is forced to deal with some irritatingly “toxic” players from time to time. However today's crack down is on an entire team for ELO boosting and one for seeming to DDOS an opposing player mid-game. The near …
Read More »No nuclear power stations, says NATO cyber war manual
A new NATO document on state-sponsored hacking has suggested some targets that are off-limits, in the same way that the UN doesn't allow for the stockpiling or usage of chemical weapons. This manual has suggested that the no-go areas of digital warfare are: hospitals, nuclear power stations, dams and dykes. …
Read More »Flattr makes micro-payments simple
Flattr is a site that's designed to allow end users to show a little financial support for the people that make the products and services they love the most. Now it's even easier, with a new “like” button system that means a small donation is made every time you click …
Read More »Kinect can now be used as a 3D scanner
Microsoft's Kinect motion tracking camera wasn't quite up to spec when it was first released, but its functionality has improved over the past couple of years, with regular SDK updates. The latest one that showed up today, 1.7, implements Fusion – a 3D scanning technique – and Kinect Interactions, which …
Read More »EU commission confirms piracy doesn’t harm music sales
Echoing something most file sharers have claimed for a long time and several studies have brought to light, new research from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, has provided further evidence that there is in-fact a positive correlation between those that download music illegally and those that purchase music from a licensed …
Read More »US telecom firm backed by judge in FBI staredown
A US telecoms firm has been facing off against the Federal Bureau of Investigation in court, challenging the federal authority over its consistent attempts to retrieve the data of private citizen's – and impressively, it won. Credo Mobile is the company in question, which has now hailed the victory as …
Read More »Hacked casino CCTV nets hackers £22 million
In something that seems more like a scene from 21 or an Ocean's # movie, hackers in Australia have managed to nab over £20 million worth of down under dollars from a casino, after hacking its CCTV security system and using it to spy on the opposition's cards. Like any …
Read More »Two other games not coming to Wii U
The Wii U's future as one of the main consoles available for consumers is really not looking good. Not even taking into consideration the fact that many consumers confuse it with its predecessor, its price is already dropping because of poor sales – and another developer has announced its upcoming …
Read More »Higgs Boson more confirmed than it was last year
In July last year, scientists, nerds and humanists all celebrated as one at what looked likely to be the discovery of the Higgs Boson. Or at least, the discovery of data that seemed to suggest the Higgs Boson had a shadow and we might have seen it. Since then a …
Read More »Kinect add-on eye tracker doing well on Kickstarter
If you've been thinking that Microsoft's Kinect should be capable of tracking your eye movements as much as your hands and feet, well you're not alone. The guys from 4tiitoo are kickstarting a piece of kit called the NUIA eyeCharm, that slots over your Kinect and adds that tracking functionality; …
Read More »Valve’s business boomed 50 per cent in 2012
Gabe Newell got a chance to speak in the UK recently, after being awarded the fellowship Bafta. The acceptance speech was full of the sort of thanks and jokes you'd expect, but the interview afterwards was a bit more illuminating: Gabe said Valve had grown by as much as 50 …
Read More »Blogger forced to pay £25,000 in damages after criticising council
A woman who was initially arrested in 2011 for refusing to stop filming a local council meeting, has now been found guilty of libel and must pay £25,000 to the council chief, after she posted criticism of him and the local authorities on her blog. Jacqui Thomson was sent a letter by …
Read More »Wii U has worst US console sales in two generations
Despite Nintendo's bosses putting a brave face on things, all is not well with Wii U sales numbers. According to a new report, in the US, only 64,000 units were sold throughout the whole of February. Considering the gamepad sporting console hasn't even been out six months yet, this is …
Read More »Twitch hits 28 million unique viewers in February
Twitch, the game streaming service that only appeared on the scene a couple of years ago, has just hit a new milestone, with 28 million players taking a peek at someone else's gaming action at some point in February. It wasn't just a lot of people viewing for ten minutes …
Read More »Billboard hackers given security bounty
Similar to the way that Kim Dotcom's Mega has been doling out rewards to those that manage to find flaws in its security, a pair of hackers from Serbia have been given prizes for hacking into a local billboard and playing space invaders on it. We reported on the duo …
Read More »Ebay study finds Google adverts ineffective
Google makes the bulk of its revenue from advertising, almost £30 billion a year in fact. However that foundation of income could be threatened, as Ebay has just produced a new study that claims the adverts people are paying for, have almost no effect on sales. “Results show that brand-keyword …
Read More »Asda and Amazon drop Wii U pricing by £50
If Asda was the vanguard of the Wii U price drops, then Amazon was the main. While the supermarket chain might have beaten the online retailer to the punch, dropping its price by £50 before anyone else, Amazon wasn't far behind, announcing a similar price drop soon after. This means …
Read More »Modder makes SimCity playable offline
SimCity has been causing problems for gamers since release. Whether it's the always-on DRM, the restrictive city sizes, the god awful AI, or the fact that for days players weren't even able to connect to the main servers. Some of these issues have been fixed, but you can still only …
Read More »Ebooks now included in cost of living measure
It's a good indication that Ebooks are becoming more prevalent in society, that they are now used by the British government as part of its collection of products that measures the current cost of modern living. They join around 700 other goods that the Office for National Statistics use as …
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