 Battlefield 2 v 1.01 Patch Released
In Battlefield 2, players will choose to fight for one of three military superpowers: the United States, the Chinese, or the newly formed Middle East Coalition. Armed with the latest modern weaponry, players can take control of any of the game?s 30+ vehicles to engage in major conflicts with over 64 players in some of the largest online battles on the PC. Additionally, persistent character growth allows players to rise through the ranks and attain the ultimate rank of General.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: July 7, 2005, 2:49 pm
News Source : Neowin
Download : Patch @ Gamershell
Next Gen Rumours Resurface
It seems when the companies behind new and exciting products keep schtum, the community speaks on their behalf, and in the last week or so none other than four new rumours have sprung up.
Last week, Jeux-France posted what it claimed to be the first GTA4 screenshot running on a next generation console. The image, depicting a trendy looking apartment block or two, a few pedestrians and an impressive looking sky was oddly devoid of traffic. Accompanying the dubious screenshot came a news article, claiming that the highly anticipated title would span an area six times that of San Andreas, deliver some 350 vehicles and have multiplayer capabilities.
"It's a fake," boomed Rockstar, "It appears Jeux-France got duped."
Excitement arose once more when SPOnG.com posted news of an Xbox360 and PlayStation 3 compatibility that could possibly allow gamers to play Microsoft games using their PSPs and DSs. Unsurprisingly both SCEA and Microsoft denied the claims. Bearing in mind that both consoles will utilise network capabilities, the possibility of file sharing between the two platforms is very real - which could explain the source of the rumour.
Yet more 360 hardware grilling came from Anandtech, when the site's owner - Anand Lal Shimpi - published a now missing article. "Right now, from what we've heard, the real-world performance of the Xenon CPU is about twice that of the 733MHz processor in the first Xbox," he claimed.
The hardware guru came to this decision after research led him to believe that both Sony and Microsoft weren't being completely honest about how powerful their new consoles are. Highlighting the 360 as the main culprit, he went on to speculate; "game developers will most likely only be using one of [the 360's three 3.2Ghz] cores for the majority of their calculations."
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: July 6, 2005, 3:30 pm
News Source : Neowin
Valve Opens Developer Community
Half-Life 2 developer gathers modders, mappers, and modelers for "how-tos" and online discussion.
The tight bond between avid underground game developers and modders has gotten a bit cozier thanks to Valve. The Half-Life 2 publisher has opened up a Web site devoted to establishing a community amongst gamers with an interest in tweaking the company's ever-popular Source code. The page is a wiki, allowing users to add and edit content on the site.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: July 6, 2005, 3:29 pm
News Source : Gamespot
SEGA Signs Total War Expansion
Following the recent acquisition of development studio Creative Assembly, SEGA has announced that it's also secured the rights to publish the Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion expansion pack, previously down as an Activision title. You can see some screenshots here.
The storyline is set 200 years after the original game, when the last Emperor of a unified Rome has finally carked - leaving potential successors vying for power. Meanwhile, the barbarians are gathering along Rome's borders, preparing to pillage their way through the entire empire.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: July 6, 2005, 3:26 pm
News Source : Eurogamer
 Crazy Frog Heads to Your Playstation
Widely regarded as the most annoying ring tone in the U.K, the crazy frog is renowned for its success in the U.K charts reaching No.1 in the singles charts. Now the frog is hoping to dominate the gaming charts this Autumn with a host of games heading for the Playstation and PC.
The ?cute? frog will see him and his friends thrown into an arcade racing game, almost certainly featuring tracks from the Axel F mix and the upcoming Pop Corn mix for the soundtrack. Leo Zullo, co-founder of Digital Jesters, said the firm was ?obviously proud? to have secured the deal "We?re working with Wallaroo to develop our own intellectual property within the Crazy Frog universe, capitalising on the colossal success of the ubiquitous character. We?ve continually hinted that big things were just around the corner at Digital Jesters, and they don?t get much bigger than this.?
Crazy Frog Racer is expected to hit European shelves in November and will then go on a global assault in early 2006.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: July 6, 2005, 3:25 pm
News Source : The Enquirer
 ATI Expands All-In-Wonder Lineup
ATI Technologies said Tuesday it has expanded its family of multimedia graphics cards with All-In-Wonder X800 XL. The new addition is designed for both U.S. and European customers and provides both relatively high performance in 3D games as well as multimedia capabilities.
?This is the year consumers embrace PCI Express high-quality performance and ATI is ready to deliver leading multimedia solutions for those consumers. As a global company, ATI is working hard to meet the needs of multimedia computer users around the world with examples like SCART and DVB-T support for Europe. ATI delivers outstanding innovative multimedia video products, such as All-In-Wonder X800 XL, that transform the PC into a global entertainment solution,? said Paul Lypaczewski, Vice-President & General Manager, Multimedia Business Unit, ATI Technologies Inc.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: July 6, 2005, 3:25 pm
News Source : X-Bit Labs
 Nvidia Preps More GeForce 7 Graphics Chips
NVIDIA Corp. may be preparing a new GeForce 7-series graphics processors in addition to already launched GeForce 7800 GTX product, as the firm?s unofficial drivers already list a chip code-named G72, which may turn out to be a more affordable GeForce 7 family member.
NVIDIA?s ForceWare 80.40 drivers, which were recently leaked on the Internet and are available at 3DChipset web-site, list G72 and NV48 graphics processing units, which were not yet released, among all the graphics chips the driver is capable of support. The driver also supports yet unreleased, but already somewhat known ? GeForce 6600 LE, nForce4 C51 IGP, G70GL and Quadro FX 4500 ? products.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: July 6, 2005, 3:24 pm
News Source : X-Bit Labs
 Accused Sasser Worm Author Confesses in Court
Sven Jaschan, a 19 year old man on trial for authoring the Sasser Worm, has reportedly confessed to writing the malicious code which caused extensive damage to business and personal data all over the world, according to a German court. Worldwide it is estimated that his virus attacked over one million computer systems running Microsoft Windows. State prosecutor Silke Streichsbier was reportedly "highly satisfied" with the progression of the trial, and a verdict was expected to be reached on Thursday.
Jaschan, who was a minor at the time of the offenses, could face up to five years in prison for his crimes as well as compensation payments to victims, whose damages were estimated at approximately 130,000 Euro. It is not clear how much Jaschan would owe, since claims from victims internationally could potentially spiral into the millions. Some more notable victims of the Sasser Worm were the British Coastguard and global investment bank Goldman Sachs.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: July 6, 2005, 3:23 pm
News Source : Reuters
Game on, cries AMD
As part of an ongoing effort to deliver the industry's highest-performing PC technology, AMD has announced the immediate availability of the AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 processor, the world's ultimate PC processor for enthusiasts and hard-core gamers. Providing unparalleled PC performance on 3D games and intense applications, the new AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 processor allows power-hungry users to experience the next generation of single-threaded games with intense and realistic graphic resolutions. As PC gaming continues to escalate, the award-winning AMD Athlon 64 FX family of processors consistently outperforms the competition, performing up to 20 per cent faster than competitive products on 3D games.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: June 30, 2005, 11:19 am
News Source : eChannel
Fujitsu Pushes Hard Drive Limits
Researchers are working on technology that could offer seven times as much storage.
Researchers in Japan have reported success in an advanced data-storage technology that could help yield hard drives with capacities of seven times or more than today's most advanced drives in as soon as five years.
Their work is a refinement of perpendicular storage technology, a method of data storage that is only just beginning to come into commercial use in hard drives. Drive makers are switching to perpendicular storage because it allows much more data to be stored on a disk. This is because the magnetic particles on which data is stored stand perpendicular to the disk's surface and so more of them can be packed onto the disk than in the current longitudinal recording method in which they lay flat.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: June 30, 2005, 11:07 am
News Source : Neowin
World of Warcraft Expansion Confirmed
Blizzard producer makes it official: An add-on for the ever-popular MMORPG is in the works.
Given the increasing popularity of World of Warcraft--which reached the 2 million subscriber milestone last week--it was only a matter of time until it got an expansion pack.
However, developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment has remained mum on matters of an add-on for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game. There was some speculation that the silence was because a large number of designers assigned to the project had left Blizzard for NCsoft, stymieing work on the project. Others pointed to the numerous new job openings listed on Blizzard's Web site as evidence the company was just starting to ramp up work on the project.
However, it was only today that Blizzard made it official--or one of its employees did anyway. On the official World of Warcraft forums, Shane Dabiri, lead producer of the World of Warcraft development team, posted a lengthy message titled "World of Warcraft Battleplan." Besides outlining increased customer service, the addition of servers, and gameplay additions, Dabiri's post also addressed the $64,000 question. "Some have asked about an expansion and what it might hold," he said. "I wanted to let players know that it is in the works, and we'll release details as soon as we can."
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: June 27, 2005, 12:05 pm
News Source : Gamespot
Exclusive: Fresh Javascript Browser Exploit
Hot on the heels of an exploit which allowed Javascript popups to appear in front of another site, Neowin has learned of another, potentially more dangerous, use for the script.
The latest problem, reported to us by Neowin user flanderssoft, centres around the ability to refresh a page other than the one currently open - if that page has loaded a popup in the first place. It would allow visitors clicking on a malicious link to Hotmail to initially be served with the correct page, before being transferred seconds later to one which looks identical on another server. If the URLs were similar, it's likely many users wouldn't notice the change.
The exploit sample below only works on IE: however, tests seem to suggest it may work on other browsers. The only reason it doesn't in this case is the use of an unusual extension (.srf) throwing them off.
It's likely this exploit, like the previous one, may not be patched; many sites use this ability in a legitimate way to refresh a page after a link in another window is clicked. Therefore the only way to avoid it is, as always, to not click suspicious links - or to disable Javascript.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: June 27, 2005, 12:04 pm
News Source : Neowin
IE Pop-Up Spoof Won't Get Patched
Microsoft does not plan to update Internet Explorer to prevent a spoofing attack that could trick users into giving out personal information to hackers.
In the attack, JavaScript is used to display a pop-up window in front of a trusted Web site. The pop-up appears to be part of the legitimate site, but actually is linked to a different, malicious site. A user might be fooled into sending personal information to the scammers. Although the pop-ups could be used by attackers, overlaying multiple windows in a Web browser is a feature, not a vulnerability, according to an advisory posted Tuesday on Microsoft's TechNet Web site.
"This is an example of how current standard Web browser functionality could be used in phishing attempts," Microsoft said in the advisory. Phishing is a prevalent type of online fraud that attempts to steal sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card numbers. The schemes typically combine spam e-mail and fraudulent Web pages that look like legitimate sites.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: June 27, 2005, 12:02 pm
News Source : C-Net News
RealPlayer Flaws Trigger PC Hijack Alert
Digital-media delivery company RealNetworks on Thursday rolled out patches for four high-risk vulnerabilities in its flagship RealPlayer software, warning that the flaws put millions of users at risk of PC hijack attacks. The Seattle, Wash.-based RealNetworks Inc. said the flaws can be exploited by remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the logged-in user.
The company issued a high-risk alert and confirmed that all four flaws affect RealPlayer 10 and 10.5, RealOne Player versions 1 and 2 and RealPlayer 8. RealPlayer Enterprise, the configurable version of RealPlayer designed for enterprise deployments, the Rhapsody 3 music service and the open-source Linux and Helix versions are also affected, the company warned.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: June 27, 2005, 12:01 pm
News Source : eWeek
Worms 4: Mayhem Demo
There is now a playable demo for Worms 4: Mayhem, offering the first opportunity to try out the annelid-infested 3D turn-based strategy game that is nearing completion at Team17 Software. This demo contains one map playable in Quick match and multiplayer modes, a second map from the beginning of the story mode, and the ability to create new teams.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: June 23, 2005, 12:45 pm
News Source : 3D Gamers
Download : Demo
Far Cry Retail Patch v1.32
Ubi Soft Entertainment sends along a new patch for Far Cry, bringing the acclaimed tropical island first-person shooter by Crytek Studios to version 1.32. This update addresses a couple of shader issues, a potential crash when using RCON to start a new level, a few server problems, and a video playback issue.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: June 23, 2005, 12:38 pm
News Source : Neowin
Download : Patch
Spoofing Flaw Haunts IE, Firefox, Safari
A newly discovered flaw in all the major Web browsers could allow Internet scammers to successfully launch phishing attacks, according to a warning from security research outfit Secunia Inc. The vulnerability, confirmed on fully patched versions of Microsoft Corp.'s dominant Internet Explorer browser, can be exploited by malicious hackers to trick surfers into disclosing confidential information, including credit card and social security numbers.
"The problem is that JavaScript dialog boxes do not display or include their origin, which allows a new window to open a prompt dialog box, which appears to be from a trusted site," Secunia said in a public advisory. "Successful exploitation normally requires that a user is tricked into opening a link from a malicious Web site to a trusted Web site," the company added.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: June 23, 2005, 12:37 pm
News Source : eWeek
 Apple sued over iTunes software interface
Apple Computer, Inc. has been slapped with a lawsuit over iTunes, AppleInsider has learned.
Contois Music Technology last week asked a Federal Court to stop the iPod maker from distributing its iTunes jukebox software and is seeking damages over an alleged patent violation by the iTunes software. The suit, filed on June 13th in Vermont District Court, alleges that Apple's iTunes software design infringes on Contois' six-year old design patent (US Patent No. 5,864,868) entitled "Computer Control System and User Interface for Media Playing Devices."
The Essex Junction, Vt.-based Contois is seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction enjoining Apple from further distributing its iTunes software in its current form. The company also asked the Court for an unspecified amount of monetary damages resulting from Apple's "copying and willful infringement" of its design patent as well as reimbursement of legal fees associated with the lawsuit.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: June 23, 2005, 12:37 pm
News Source : Neowin
World of Warcraft Surpasses 2 Million Subscribers
Blizzard Entertainment has announced that its massively successful MMORPG World of Warcraft now has over 2 million subscribers worldwide. This latest surge in subscriptions is credited to WoW's new PvP Battlegrounds, which were introduced in a new patch last week.
With the game's upcoming release in China, the number of subscribers is expected to continue to climb, as the beta test in that country had over 500,000 players. Recent releases in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau are also expected to pad the total.
Just how far can it go? With players reaching the limits of the game, can Blizzard keep it fresh and engaging for everyone?
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: June 20, 2005, 11:36 am
News Source : Neowin
 Microsoft builds a better Bit Torrent
Researchers at Microsoft's computer science lab in Cambridge have developed a peer-to-peer filesharing system that they say overcomes the scheduling problems associated with existing distribution protocols such as Bit Torrent.
The researchers claim download times are between 20-30 per cent faster, using their network coding approach, than on systems that only code at the server, and between 200 and 300 per cent faster than distributing un-encoded information.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: June 20, 2005, 11:36 am
News Source : The Register
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