Tech Humor (of Sorts): Rumors of the Demise of PC Have Been Greatly Exaggerated…

DOOM! If you have an eye or ear close to any device that drops tech news into your world, you’ve probably been hearing of the “death of the PC” or its imminent demise from a few business analysts and other cracked crystal ball gazers. As someone who’s not a tablet/phablet user or huge fan and who knows plenty of people who prefer a larger screen experience for assorted work and entertainment, I have to poke a finger in the eyeballs of these analysts paid to say that crap and wag those fingers back and forth until they see the point. We’re NOT all headed into tiny screen world just yet and there are plenty of options for folks who like living larger and want to enhance their setups in a few ways.

Not counting the rabid PC “master race” clowns who deny any other choice for entertainment purposes while also denying their own childhoods (yeah, yeah, yeah, suuuuure you “never played a console game” in your life… maybe if you’re under 20 and was kept in a cage), there are plenty of normal Joes and Janes that like a PC or laptop as everything from a game machine to a prose and art producing monster. If you’re a dedicated device user sitting there squinting at that small to medium sized screen reading this (and about to have your expensive toy knicked by some sneering traveling highwayman), here’s a peek as some of the cool stuff you’re ignoring in favor of that “handy” device. You may want to read quickly on that device, as I hear one is stolen every fourteen seconds… or less in some areas. Eeek. Eeek. Halp, Police.

Continue reading

GOG.com’s Summer Sale Is ON: FREE Torchlight For All! More Games @ HUGE Discounts!


 
OK, this is just great (plus tax, which still makes this deal FREE, by the way). Scoot on over to gog.com and check out their Summer Sale for up to 85% (!) off select DRM-free games and a FREE digital copy of Runic’s awesomely addictive dungeon crawler, Torchlight waiting for your hot little hands to snap it up. Torchlight is a Diablo-style hack & slash RPG with a lovely cartoon style (it sort of looks like a mildly angry Disney cartoon), additively simple gameplay, and loads of loot to collect. Sure, it’s a solo-only focus, but the game has a way of hooking you in and keeping you occupied that’s hard to explain. Poke around the internet for some mods that add levels, items, new character skins and more to the experience and you end up with a game that’s bigger than it seems. Even if you don’t buy anything else, a free game any day of the week is a fantastic deal, I say. Act fast, though – Torchlight goes back to being a paid product on June 20. Oh, look at that… the room cleared out faster than if a gassy cow exploded in a corner… people just love those deals!

Amusingly enough, I’d get this…but I have three copies of Torchlight here already. er, no… FOUR (2 physical discs, one on each computer here). Yes, I do love my Torchlight. It’s like a digital blanket of demons and loot… ahhhh…

Review: Bloody V3 Multi-Core Gun3 Gaming Mouse – Shooter’s Paradise?

Bloody V3 MouseThrow a dead stuffed cat anywhere on the Internet and you’ll hit a gaming mouse review or recommendation. It’s a tough and packed market these days, what with big name companies getting their products out through big PC gaming tournaments worldwide, all sorts of promotions, pro review recommends and community board high fives pumping up interest in the best and often, most expensive mice you can buy. Then there’s A4Tech and their quiet storm of putting out some decently awesome peripherals and seeing what happens as folks like me try them out. Well, without a glowing trumpet or flaming flag in sight, I can safely report than the Bloody V3 Multi-Core Gun3 Gaming Mouse is a really awesome deal at $39.99 (or less if you shop around) and it’s also an excellent mouse FPS fans should take to like ducks to water. Packed with features (and some nice goodies inside the box that make it an even better value), the V3’s only drawback is the option to buy into what amounts to a cheat upgrade that allows even more functions to an already solid peripheral. Continue reading

The Elder Scrolls Online: It’s Beta Sign-Up Time!

 
 

I’ve been following TES Online for a while now and while I won’t be diving into this one at all (I have an awful internet connection, prefer my fantasy RPGs offline and solo play with no PVP nonsense or dealing with jerks of the helpful and unhelpful variety), I won’t stop YOU from joining the beta and helping with the stress testing on the first ever Elder Scrolls MMO. I do respect that the dev team at ZeniMax isn’t simply tossing out a game set in the same era as the single player TES games from Bethsoft. With a thousand years or so separating this new game from the more familiar lands some of us ancient fans have explored many times over, there’s room to do pretty much anything with the history that won’t step on the toes of past or future RPGs. Of course, I’m hoping Bethesda has at least started working out concepts and early pre-production work on the follow up to Skyrim (and that they make a game that’s much more stable on any console it gets made for)…

E3 2012: Unreal Engine 4 Tech Demo: Like It Or Not, It’s Coming Your Way…

 

This is pretty great to look at, but remember: it’s ONLY a tech demo and under the right hands, I’m betting things can only go up from there. But at what cost? For me, a game engine is only as good as the programmers and artists who end up using it. There have been a number of games created with older and current versions of the Unreal engine that do an amazing job of NOT looking as if they were made using it (which is really cool in my book). This leads me to believe that while we will indeed see plenty of games that make us all say “Oh…THAT’S Unreal 4?”… we’re going to be sitting through a lot of games before that, sighing “Oh, that’s Unreal 4…” Continue reading

Razer SnakeEyes AR Visor: Best. April. Fools. Joke. Ever. (So Far…)

Hmmm… I wonder if any game or tech sites are going to run this as an actual product story. My money is on some poor print newspaper’s tech section where the weekend guy sees that email and thinks he’s got the scoop on THE hot new product of the month. I wonder how many product requests Razer will get from fellow editor-types out there? Um… I’ll take a dozen, please!

Anyway, I got the joke and didn’t even need to visit the “official” site link, but it’s absolutely worth a read because it’s hilarious stuff. Good show, guys – now get back to work!