Posted on August 10, 2014 by David Berkowitz, Editor in Chief.

Official Shadow of Mordor Story Trailer – The Bright Lord

Shadow of Mordor!

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor delivers a dynamic game environment where the player orchestrates their personal plan of vengeance as they bend Mordor to their will. The game begins on the night of Sauron’s return to Mordor, as his Black Captains brutally execute the Rangers of the Black Gate. Players become Talion, a ranger who loses his family and everything he holds dear, only to be returned from death by a mysterious Spirit of vengeance. As Talion’s personal vendetta unfolds, players uncover the mystery of the Spirit that compels him, discover the origin of the Rings of Power and confront the ultimate nemesis.

The Palantir App is available to download for free from the App Store. A partnership between Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Wikia, Palantir will sync with game assets and the final game, to reveal additional layers of information, insights and fan-authored content, creating a unique second-screen experience. Enable Palantir’s sync mode while the Bright Lord video plays to try it out.

Posted on August 10, 2014 by David Berkowitz, Editor in Chief.

Reaper Of Souls Coming Soon, a Diablo Game by Blizzard.

For those of you into gaming here is an exciting new announcement!!

REAPER OF SOULS™ COMING TO CONSOLE AUGUST 19

Blizzard Entertainment 5/12/2014 495

On August 19, the Angel of Death invades console systems everywhere as Diablo® III: Reaper of Souls™ – Ultimate Evil Edition™ launches on the PS3™, PS4™, Xbox 360®, and Xbox One®. Prepare your living room now, nephalem, because by summer’s end you’ll face off against Death himself—with up to four players banding together on a single TV screen.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition is filled to the brim with fast-paced action, awe-inspiring heroes, and legendary treasure. It features all the content included in the Reaper of Souls expansion set, as well as Acts I through IV of the original Diablo III for those who have yet to vanquish the Lord of Terror on console.

The Ultimate Evil Edition goes on sale August 19 at select retail locations for a suggested retail price of $59.99 USD for the PS4 or Xbox One and $39.99 for the PS3 or Xbox 360. Keep in mind that this announcement is still fresh and some retailers may require several days to get their pre-order pages set up.

Posted on August 10, 2014 by David Berkowitz, Editor in Chief.

Path of Exile Game Announcement and Press Release!

New and exciting looking game just release

Since releasing the Sacrifice of the Vaal expansion in March, we’ve been working hard on our next major update to Path of Exile. Today, we’re proud to announce Path of Exile: Forsaken Masters.

Some say that Dominus exiled the dregs of Oriath to the shores of Wraeclast. No, he exiled anyone who was going to give him trouble, who was going to cause ripples in his progressive theocracy.

Seven men and women, masters in their fields, stood against Dominus’ tyranny. Some with words, others with steel. Seven masters forsaken, sent to die in a corrupted land. Seven masters who lived, learned, and now thrive in Wraeclast. Seven Forsaken Masters who can train you… if you choose to help them.

We’ve announced four of the seven Masters and will be revealing the other three over the next few weeks. Along with many unique mission variations, each Master has its own specialised crafting options, a different Hideout tileset and tiers of Hideout decorations to unlock.

Train with the Masters

As you roam the wilderness of Wraeclast, you will sometimes cross paths with the Forsaken Masters. All seven of them have their own unique missions that they either need your help with, or want to train you to handle. Haku asks you to cleanse an ancestral area and recover a lost Karui spirit. Vorici will train you in the art of assassination.

Completing missions for the Masters will increase your reputation with them. As you progress through the eight levels of reputation with each Master, you gain access to more of what they can offer you.

Dozens of Mission Variations

The seven Masters each have their own style of mission and each of these missions has many variations. As you explore deeper into Wraeclast, the pool of available variations increases to challenge you in new ways.

The Master Assassin, Vorici, may task you with aiding him in an assassination against one of a number of well-guarded targets, leaving no survivors. The guards may have powerful mods, or be protected by traps or Rogue Exiles. Or he may want to simply send a message by grievously harming his mark, or incapacitating and robbing him, or leaving a witness to the bloodshed. Perhaps you’ll have to free and rescue a helpless hostage.

All of the Missions and their variations can occur anywhere in the game, including within end-game Maps.

Customise Your Hideout

In their extensive travels throughout Wraeclast, the seven Masters have discovered ideal locations for an Exile to use as their own secret Hideout.

Once you’ve earned a Master’s trust, you may be taken to a Hideout, where you can create your own personalised town. Masters residing in your Hideout offer you daily Missions and train you in advanced crafting options.

Use your Hideout as a quiet place to craft after battle, or expand it and use it as a personalised Guild Hall with hundreds of decorations.

Upgrade Your Crafting Benches

Each master specialises in crafting different types of items. As you gain reputation with your chosen Masters, they train you in their various specialisations. At a Crafting Bench in your Hideout, you can manipulate items in new ways, such as modifying their sockets or crafting special mods.

As you level up your Masters, you gain access to more crafting options and special abilities such as being able to modify the sockets of corrupted items.

New Items and Mods

Not only can the Masters help you craft new mods onto your items, but they also function as vendors that sell you items ranging from Skill Gems to Unique items.

Mods added by Crafting Benches appear in a brighter blue on items (pictured to the right) so that it’s clear which mod will be replaced if you craft another mod onto the item.

At higher levels, each Master also sells Magic items with a specific, new, build-defining mod. These can be used as-is or crafted further with either the new Hideout Crafting Benches or the traditional Orb system to create powerful items based around these mods.

The expansion also includes 16 new Unique Items, some of which are exclusive and may only be found in one or the other of the new Challenge Leagues.

New Support and Skill Gems

Tornado Shot fires a piercing arrow that fires arrows in all directions upon impact.

Herald of Ice and Herald of Ash are self-buff skills that reserve some of your mana pool to add elemental bonuses to your attacks.

We’ve also overhauled many of Path of Exile’s Curses and added some new ones such as Poacher’s Mark.

The new Support Gem, Generosity, increases the effect of your auras on party members but prevents them affecting you.

New Challenge Leagues

With the release of Forsaken Masters, we’re starting a pair of new Challenge Leagues – Rampage and Beyond. These leagues are self-contained economies and provide an opportunity for players to demonstrate their mastery of Path of Exile.

The new leagues contain eight difficult challenges. Players who complete five of these challenges will be rewarded with an exclusive microtransaction effect. Completing all eight challenges rewards you with another, different, exclusive microtransaction effect. The first 50 players to complete all of the challenges will receive a Rampage/Beyond t-shirt.

These challenge leagues last for three months. We’ll be starting a second set of challenge leagues in December.

Rampage Challenge League

Rampage is the upcoming standard Challenge League. Details of the Rampage League have been unveiled on MMORPG.com!

Beyond Challenge League

Beyond is the upcoming hardcore Challenge League. Full details of the Beyond League will be unveiled in the news update on August 15!

Updated Passive Skill Tree

We’ve redesigned large portions of the Passive Skill Tree – mostly focusing on the Witch, Shadow and outer Ranger areas.

We’ve also made extensive balance improvements to the core game that are supported by these changes.

All players will receive an optional one-off passive tree reset so that they can adjust their characters to these changes.

Revamped Existing Content

During the development of Forsaken Masters, we’ve revamped many of the existing boss fights in Path of Exile. Encounters with Merveil, Brutus, Captain Fairgraves and other bosses have been made more intense and surprising.

We’ve also added more lore for you to discover as you explore Wraeclast. Snippets of Wraeclast’s history can be unveiled as you discover lore scattered around the existing acts.

Coming on August 20!

Path of Exile: Forsaken Masters will be released at 3pm on August 20 (US Pacific Time). This is midnight in the CEST timezone and 10am on August 21 in New Zealand.

This article is not the full patch notes for Path of Exile: Forsaken Masters. We’ll be releasing those patch notes a day or two before the expansion is released. There are dozens of other changes included such as a new Quest Tracker, Tutorials and PvP Spectator Mode.

We’re so proud of this expansion and can’t wait to share it with you. There are so many interesting mission variations to explore and powerful new possibilities with crafting. Half of our development team is addicted to building custom Hideouts! Over the next three weeks we’ll be updating this article with reveals of unannounced Masters and other content. Enjoy!

Posted by Chris
on July 31, 2014 12:04 AM

Grinding Gear Games

Posted on August 2, 2014 by David Berkowitz, Editor in Chief.

Sharp launches a new 60″ and 70″ 4k tv.

Sharp Debuts New Ultra HD TVs

Posted Fri Jun 27, 2014 at 02:30 PM PDT by Steven Cohen

Two new 4K models are coming later this year.

At CE week in New York, Sharp demoed its latest 4K display series. The UD27 line will come in 60-inch and 70-inch models and both will feature a resolution of 3840×2160.

“Over the last three years Sharp has led the transformation of the home viewing experience with the introductions of 60″, 70″, 80″ and 90″ class screen sizes and unique picture quality technologies such as Quattron and Q+,” says John Herrington, President, Sharp Electronics Marketing Corporation of America. “Our new Sharp AQUOS 4K Ultra HD LED TV couples the most popular large screen sizes with the finest high resolution picture technology.”

The UD27 displays feature Sharp’s SmartCentral 3.0 Smart TV platform. SPECTROS Rich Color Display technology for a wider color gamut, an AquoDimming option for enhanced contrast, and the company’s Revelation Upscaler. Likewise, the televisions are expected to include THX 4K picture certification. HDMI 2.0 connections are integrated as well and the TVs will support the HEVC (H.265) codec for 4K streaming.

Sharp’s 60-inch LC60UD27U ($2,999) and 70-inch LC70UD27U ($4,499) are expected to start shipping in September.

Source: Sharp via Business Wire

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

Posted on July 31, 2014 by David Berkowitz, Editor in Chief.

Steel Series announces THE SIBERIA ELITE WORLD OF WARCRAFT® EDITION HEADSET

Watch this video on YouTube.

THE DRUMS OF WAR DRAW NEAR – STEELSERIES INTRODUCES

THE SIBERIA ELITE WORLD OF WARCRAFT^® EDITION HEADSET

FOR WARLORDS OF DRAENOR^™

CHICAGO, July 31, 2014 – SteelSeries, the global leader in premium gaming peripherals, in collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment, today announced the upcoming release of the Siberia Elite World of Warcraft^® Edition Headset. Gamers will soon be able to experience epic quests, intense raids, and endless adventure across Azeroth and Draenor while wielding a premium headset with jet-black ear cushions, illuminated runes, and a lightweight over-the-head suspension style designed for hours of comfortable gameplay.

“Our partnership with Blizzard Entertainment to create unique gear for the World of Warcraft community has culminated in this bold new version of our premium and award-winning headset—a perfect complement to Blizzard’s upcoming Warlords of Draenor expansion,” said Tino Soelberg, SteelSeries CTO. “Players deserve the best quality audio to experience the music and sounds of Draenor; this exclusive edition of the Siberia Elite headset delivers epic audio quality in a beautiful World of Warcraft-themed design.”

ILLUMINATE YOUR PATH TO VICTORY

The ring of runes is where gamers can see the power of the headset. Players can choose from millions of color options that can also be saved in an endless number of audio profiles. In addition to color, there are options for a pulsating glow, dynamic lighting based on your in-game actions, or no illumination at all—the choices are endless.

HEAR THE ROAR OF BATTLE

The headset is equipped with multiple Dolby® technologies and a closed-type earcup design that provides listeners with a virtual 7.1-channel surround sound experience. Players are able to create and save their own unique audio profiles through the SteelSeries Engine 3 software by tuning their own equalizer settings, microphone functionality and much more. Gamers can control their microphone mute as well as speaker volume from directly on the headset by turning the easy-to-find dials on each earcup, making quick adjustments simple and convenient.

The SteelSeries Siberia Elite World of Warcraft Edition headset is available for pre-order now on the SteelSeries Web Shop for $209.99 MSRP. For more information about the new headset and the rest of SteelSeries’ official Blizzard Entertainment licensed products, please visit www.steelseries.com/worldofwarcraft.

About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft^® and the Warcraft^®, StarCraft^®, and Diablo^® series, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes seventeen #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online-gaming service, Battle.net^®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active players.

About SteelSeries
SteelSeries is a leading manufacturer of top quality gaming peripherals from headsets, keyboards and mice to controllers, surfaces and software. For more than a decade, SteelSeries has been on the forefront of designing and creating gear for gamers. The company’s continued innovation also comes in collaboration with the world’s leading professional gaming teams and partners. SteelSeries is a global brand that continues to support the growth of competitive gaming tournaments and electronic sports leagues through professional team sponsorships, partnerships and community support. For more information, please visit www.steelseries.com.

We are working on testing and reviewing a few Steel Series Products and are so far very impressed by their products!

Posted on July 28, 2014 by David Berkowitz, Editor in Chief.

Please sponsor or advertise on our website!!

Posted on July 15, 2014 by David Berkowitz, Editor in Chief.

HEROES & LEGENDS: CONQUERORS OF KOLHARTM COMING AUGUST 21

Fantasy RPG Coming for PC, Mac, and Linux – Lets You Craft Weapons, Tactics and More

SAN JOSE, Calif. – July 15, 2014 – Phoenix Online Publishing today announced the upcoming release of new fantasy role-playing game Heroes & Legends: Conquerors of Kolhar, which invites players to battle legions of lethal enemies in both story-driven and random encounters. Featuring a full-fledged crafting system, over 130 monsters to battle and dozens of powers and special abilities to unlock, the game will ship August 21st for PC, Mac and Linux, and be available via Steam, the Phoenix Online Store, and other major online retailers.

In Heroes & Legends: Conquerors of Kolhar, players are invited to build their own weapons and armor, then lead a party of wizards, warriors, assassins and other characters into battle against waves of lethal adversaries as they race to stop an ancient evil. Armed with both might and magic, heroes will wield the powers of ice, fire and lighting against their adversaries as they take the fight to their enemies, gaining in experience and collecting wondrous mystical artifacts of every kind along the way.The deeper players delve into this epic tale, the more challenging scenarios they unlock, and host of new friends and enemies they’ll make as they experience the adventure of a lifetime.

Key Features:

Epic blend of fantasy role-playing and strategy
Fight for glory in story-driven quests and random adventures
Craft your own custom weapons and armor
More than 100 bloodthirsty monsters to battle
Dozens of powers and special abilities to pick from

“Heroes & Legends: Conquerors of Kolhar offers RPG fans of all skill levels the chance to dive right in and enjoy engaging fantasy battles in seconds,” said Scott Steinberg, general manager of Phoenix Online Publishing. “We’re pleased to provide enthusiasts with yet another great reason to go adventuring this summer.”

“You will find in Heroes & Legends elements that you won’t find in other RPGs, but it’s still a tribute to the fine J-RPGs of our youth,” said Jerome Bodin, game designer and owner of Cuve Games. “Its challenges will appeal to the older hardcore as much as to the newcomers.”

For more information, see www.POStudios.com.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Screenshots and trailers can be found in the Phoenix Online pressroom: pressroom.postudios.com.

For more information, contact Katie Hallahan ([email protected]).

About Phoenix Online Publishing – Every Game Has a Story™

Phoenix Online Publishing is a new independent video game publisher dedicated to bringing compelling and cutting-edge story-driven titles to market worldwide in every genre and across the full range of gaming platforms and devices. Providing game makers with business management, marketing, media and digital/retail distribution services, the company is committed to providing a platform for bringing titles with rich storytelling and atmosphere to life. Designed by indie game developers for indie game developers, Phoenix Online Publishing operates in parallel with Phoenix Online Studios, an award-winning game development studio (The Silver Lining,Cognition), and maintains a global network of development, publishing and distribution partners. More information about Phoenix Online Publishing can be found on the company’s website,www.POStudios.com.

About Cuve Games

A small, independent team based in France, Cuve Games is passionate, humble and resilient. Having worked on multiple titles for other developers previously, Cuve is now focused on delivering their own high quality games. For more information, visit the company’s website atwww.CuveGames.com.

Posted on July 15, 2014 by David Berkowitz, Editor in Chief.

Broadcast Pix Part of New Video Call Center Solution for New Genre of Production Workflow

Billerica, Massachusetts – July 15, 2014 – Broadcast Pix™ announced today that its integrated production switchers are being used with the new Video Call Center (VCC) automated production solution to bring the caller-based talk radio show format to television. By utilizing Broadcast Pix’s application programming interface (API) and file-based macros, the VCC system essentially creates a video-driven version of talk radio using Web-based video sources.

Inventor Tom Wolzien company received a patent for VCC on July 1. A 45-year television veteran, Wolzien serves as a consultant for large media organizations through his company, Wolzien LCC, and is the lead independent director for TiVo, Inc. Since last year, Wolzien and his team have been testing the VCC system by producing TalkCenterAmerica®, a series of call-in shows covering a variety of topics.

“VCC is right at the intersection of social and mass media, TV and the Web,” said Wolzien. “What’s unique is that the system doesn’t just handle a single IP video call, but it’s designed to handle multiple video calls simultaneously, each with the power of its own computer – essential for any live caller-based TV program.”

With VCC, the on-camera host produces the call-in show without a traditional control room. Broadcast Pix API and Fluent™ Macros allow the VCC software to provide the host with a great deal of production flexibility, such as triggering sequences of individual key/shot combinations that can be modified based on available callers. As a result, with no content costs for callers and minimal staffing requirements, VCC is a cost effective approach to producing live programming.

Using Skype and similar technologies on various devices, multiple Web video callers can connect to the show. Viewers can see the callers and whatever the callers want to show. Proprietary CAT™ Caller Acquisition Software assists screeners with incoming calls, audio metering, video cropping and conversion, and return video. Plus, a patented Text Overlay superimposes caller names and locations over the caller’s picture at the screener’s position and remains on-screen when the caller is added to the live production.

“The innovative technical team at Broadcast Pix has been supportive every step of the way as we implemented the Video Call Center,” said Wolzien. “As an inventor, I have appreciated their readiness to help us solve the challenges of integrating the complex aspects of television automation in a way that appears simple to the host who solely controls the air. And on the technical side, I have appreciated their rapid and creative support when we have run into problems.”

“Video Call Center utilizes today’s Web-based video technologies to adapt the caller-based talk radio format for TV,” said Steve Ellis, CEO of Broadcast Pix. “It’s truly an innovative way to produce high quality programming with minimal staff, and Broadcast Pix is proud to be part of the process.”

About Broadcast Pix Founded in 2002, Broadcast Pix is the leader in integrated production switchers, with customers in more than 110 countries. Available in several configurations, from compact systems with end-to-end integration to large-scale systems for high-end live productions, Broadcast Pix switchers include CG, dual clip stores, file-based macros, external control software, and customizable multi-view and virtual sets with patented control options. Broadcast Pix also offers ReVue next generation slow motion systems, fX3D real-time 3D graphics, Rapid CG dynamic graphic playout software, and VOX voice-automated live video production, each designed to enhance our highly integrated live production switchers. Customers include leading broadcast, corporate, education, government, religious, sports, streaming, and visual radio studios. Learn more at www.broadcastpix.com.

Broadcast Pix and Fluent are trademarks of Broadcast Pix, Inc. Patented. Made in USA.