What is Windows Home Server?

Xbox One Teams Up with Game for Lock Ins

Chris Hare

-

Oct 9, 2013

Today Game has announced that there have teamed up with Microsoft for a series of Lock Ins throughout October and November, with over 60 stores across the UK opening late to offer the gaming community the chance to get hands on with the Xbox One and games such as Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3, RYSE and Killer Instinct ahead of release! We only have 70 places available in each store, so to reserve your place, register at your nearest participating store, either in person or by sending them a tweet. Spaces are limited and will be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis. The events are strictly for gamers aged 18 or over and ID will be required for entry.

With Dundee on the 14th October and ending at BoxPark London on the 20th November for the full list of locations please click here.

I will be at the store in Maidstone on the 13th November please do say hi.

XCOM: Enemy Within Security Breach trailer

Andrew Edney

-

Oct 9, 2013

1

2K Games have just released a new trailer for their forthcoming release XCOM: Enemy Within.

XCOM: Enemy Within is the expansion to the 2012 Game of the Year award-winning strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Enemy Within adds an incredible array of new abilities, upgrades and weapons to combat new enemy and alien threats. This expansion pack also introduces new maps, new tactical and strategic gameplay, and new multiplayer content providing a fresh new gameplay experience.

It will be released on November 15, 2013.

Here is the new Security Breach trailer:

We recently went hands-on with XCOM: Enemy Within, so watch this space!

Meet the Voices Behind Batman, The Joker for Batman – Arkham Origins

Chris Hare

-

Oct 9, 2013

0

Meet the Voices Behind Batman, The Joker for Batman – Arkham Origins

Meet the voices behind Batman and The Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins at GAME Stratford on 25th October

Warner Bros today announced that UK fans of the highly anticipated Batman: Arkham Origins videogame will soon have the chance to meet Roger Craig Smith and Troy Baker, the voices behind Batman and The Joker.

To mark the launch day of the next instalment in the Batman: Arkham series, games industry veterans Smith (Batman) and Baker (The Joker) will be meeting fans and signing copies of the title at GAME’s Stratford store between 09.00 and 11.00am on Friday, October 25^th, 2013.

For those who aren’t able to make it to the launch day event can meet the duo at MCM London Comic Con www.mcmcomiccon.com/london on Saturday October 26 at the Batman: Arkham Origins stand. Throughout the weekend at MCM, both will be signing autographs, making personal appearances and answering fan questions on their very own panel.

As the UK’s foremost cultural expo, MCM London Comicon brings the best in anime and pop culture to over 100,000 consumers across the weekend.

Batman: Arkham Origins is developed by WB Games Montréal and will be available for the PS3, Xbox 360, the Wii U, and Windows PC. The handheld version is developed by Armature Studio, Batman: City Origins Blackgate and will be available for the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS. The games will release on all platforms worldwide on 25th October, 2013.

About the voice artists:

Roger Craig Smith (Batman)

Roger Craig Smith is one of the most recognizable voice actors in the entertainment business today, recently lending his voice as the lead villain “Ripslinger” in Disney’s animated feature PLANES, which debuted in August 2013. He takes on the role of Bruce Wayne and Batman for the very first time in Batman: Arkham Origins.

Troy Baker (The Joker)

Rapidly becoming one of the most prominent names in videogames, Troy has performed in some of the most critically and commercially successful games of this generation. Batman: Arkham Origins marks the first time in the franchise that Troy has taken on the role of The Joker.

Blood and Madness update arrives next week for Guild Wars 2

News

Chris Hare

-

Oct 9, 2013

0

Blood and Madness update arrives next week for Guild Wars 2

NCSOFT and ArenaNet has officially unveil Blood and Madness, the next release for Guild Wars 2, scheduled to go live in the game on Tuesday 15^thOctober.

In addition to several Halloween-themed events, the update features several new features and rewards.

For more information about Blood and Madness, which continues ArenaNet’s trendsetting pace of delivering new content to players every two weeks, please
visit the following links: http://www.guildwars2.com/releases

Play Dark Souls 2 This Weekend at Play Expo

Chris Hare

-

Oct 9, 2013

0

Play Dark Souls 2 This Weekend at Play Expo

Dark Souls II is on its way to Manchester this weekend (12^th – 13^th October) at Play Expo and will offer many fans the opportunity to play for the first time and take on the irrepressible, Mirror Knight.

You join the elite select players that have managed to slay the Mirror Knight, or will you, like many others before you, fall before his knees and submit to his might? You will have 20 minutes to find and beat him, so use your time wisely and make every hit count!

Win or lose, an A3 double-sided Dark Souls II poster will be presented to anyone brave enough to face the Mirror Knight. However, should you manage to defeat him, you shall be rewarded with a rare Dark Souls II T-shirt. Photos of the winners shall be uploaded onto the Namco Bandai Games Facebook account to forever immortalise those victorious!

At the event there will also have a pre-order incentive in place for all adoring Dark Souls II fans. Simply provide a member of staff with proof of your pre-order, and we will hand you a Dark Souls II T-shirt. Due to high interest, these T-shirts are very limited.

Last, but not least, the statue of the Knight that features in the fantastic Collector Edition will be available at our booth for everyone to see.

Call of Duty Endowment Promotion

Gaming
News

Chris Hare

-

Oct 9, 2013

0

Call of Duty: Black Ops II promotion that began yesterday (8th Oct) and ends on October 14th. Those who purchase any one of the 17 Call of Duty: Black Ops II Personalization Packs that are currently available on the Xbox Live will receive a 25% discount. All the profits will be donated to the Call of Duty Endowment– Activision Blizzard’s non-profit that helps place returning service members into high quality careers.

Watch the Official Union XY Press Conference about Pokemon X and Y

Gaming
News

Chris Hare

-

Oct 9, 2013

0

During a press conference on 4th October the boy band Union J exclusively revealed that they will be changing their name to Union XY for the launch of Pokémon X and Pokémon Y on 12th October.

The original idea to change their name for one day only came from George Shelley who suggested it to the rest of the band. At the press conference the official Union XY logo was revealed and Union J explained how excited they are to be part of the launch of the game.

“We’re changing our name to Union XY, it’s amazingly cool. This is something we’re so passionate about, we’ve grown up with this and it means so much to us to be able to promote it,” said George, Union J.

The official name change will happen on October 12^th, the same day as Pokémon X and Pokémon Y releases exclusively on Nintendo 3DS.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection coming November 8th

Gaming
News

Andrew Edney

-

Oct 9, 2013

0

Konami Digital Entertainment BV has announced it will release its Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection on November 8^th, for PlayStation3 and Xbox 360.

Set to end with the release of the final chapter of the heroic Dracula trilogy in February 2014, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection immerses gamers in Lords of Shadow lore and boasts over 40 hours of award-winning gameplay.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection comprises:

· Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Users guide Gabriel Belmont, a holy knight charged with protecting innocents from the malevolent Lords of Shadow, as his murdered wife’s spirit guides him to his ultimate destiny. Included with the first chapter are the ‘Reverie’ and ‘Resurrection’ DLC chapters.

· Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD – The second chapter of the series continues the story 26 years after the events of the original Lords of Shadow, as Gabriel’s descendants confront their destiny.

· Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Demo – Whetting appetites for February’s epic conclusion, players also have their first chance to play as Dracula in the epic Lords of Shadow finale, via this exclusive demo.

The compilation features the original Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and available via voucher code will be Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD and the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 demo, as well as both the Reverie and Resurrection DLC packs.

Are you going to get it? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Synology Launches RackStation RS2414+/RS2414RP+ and RX1214/RX1214RP

Storage & NAS

Jim McCarthy

-

Oct 9, 2013

0

Synology launched 2U 12 bay rack systems and expansion modules in a bid to improve their business-oriented line of NAS units. Read on for details.

Synology launched 2U 12 bay rack systems and expansion modules in a bid to improve their business-oriented line of NAS units. These units are capable of managing up to 96TB of data with an expansion chasis. Here is the press release:

Synology® Launches RackStation RS2414+/RS2414RP+ and RX1214/RX1214RP

High-performance & Scalable NAS Server

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom – 8th October 2013, Synology® today launched RackStation RS2414+ and RS2414RP+, the 2U 12-bay rackmount NAS severs that deliver high performance and scalability to small and medium businesses.

RS2414+ and RS2414RP+ are built to address SMB’s growing needs of performance, capacity and reliability”, said Chad Chiang, a Product Manager of Synology Inc. “An array of advanced hardware designs and reliability features are thus applied to ensure those needs are perfectly answered,” added Chiang.

The RS2414+/RS2414RP+ is designed to answer the growing demand of performance for a storage system. Running on a 2.13 GHz dual-core processor, the RS2414+/RS2414RP+ delivers high performance with read and write speeds at 339 MB/sec and 209 MB/sec respectively under RAID 5 configuration in a Windows® environment with Link Aggregation enabled. In addition, the RS2414+/RS2414RP+ further boosts multitasking power with 2GB DDR3 RAM, twice the size of its predecessor. Memory of the NAS is also expandable to 4 GB to enhance efficiency.

Affordable scalability is what matters to small and medium business. Paired with expansion units RX1214/RX1214RP with a specially-designed connection cable that ensures maximum throughput, the RS2414+/RS2414RP+ can easily be expanded up to 96TB capacity.

With a comprehensive set of highly reliable mechanisms, the RS2414+/RS2414RP+ assures users of uninterrupted availability, which is crucial for all businesses. Both units are equipped with passive CPU cooling technology, system fan redundancy, hot-swappable drives, and 4 LAN ports with failover support, which altogether eliminate single point of failure and ensure continuous system uptime. RS2414RP+ and RX1214RP even come with redundant power supplies to further guarantee system reliability.

The RS2414+/RS2414RP+ runs on DiskStation Manager (DSM) 4.3, an intuitive web-based operating system that provides a host of applications to bring better productivity at work. DSM 4.2, the last version, is the only NAS operation system being honored “Best Choice Award” and “Media’s Choice Award” at Computex 2013.

For more information, please visit http://www.synology.com/products/product.php?product_name=RS2414%2B&lang=enu

http://www.synology.com/products/product.php?product_name=RX1214&lang=enu

Availability

Synology RackStation RS2414+/RS2414RP+ and RX1214/RS1214RP are now shipping globally.

Pricing is as follows:

The UK RRPs

RS2414+ = £1290, including vat

RS2414RP+ = £1722, including vat

RX1214 = £996, including vat

RX1214RP = £1488, including vat

Scandinavian RRPs

RS2414+ = €1260, before tax

RS2414RP+ = €1685, before tax

RX1214 = €970, before tax

RX1214RP = €1450, before tax

UK buyers can purchase this at one of Synology’s partners, which are all listed here.

First Look at the Exclusive Content for AC4 Black Flag for PS3 and PS4

Gaming
News

Chris Hare

-

Oct 8, 2013

0

First Look at the Exclusive Content for AC4 Black Flag for PS3 and PS4

Deep dive into Sony Exclusive content on Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag with Aveline and her Machete. Enjoy 3 new missions for 60minutes of new content on PS3 and PS4. This exclusive content with feature Aveline from Assassin’s Creed III Liberation, with insights from game director Ashraf Ismail.

Ubisoft Announces AC4 Blackflag Season Pass

Gaming
News

Chris Hare

-

Oct 8, 2013

0

Ubisoft Announces AC4 Blackflag Season Pass

Today Ubisoft announced post launch downloadable content for Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation3, Xbox One, PlayStation4 and Windows PC.

The Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag downloadable content features additional single player missions, including ‘Freedom Cry’, a nine mission self-contained story featuring Edward Kenway’s first mate Adewale.

A Season Pass will be available for purchase at the launch of the game on PlayStation 4, Playstation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC, and will include the below. Downloadable game content at a 20 percent discount savings off the regular price of each individual downloadable pack to be released before March 2014,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoxNjLX4M-A

– Freedom Cry: Born a slave, Adewale found freedom as a pirate aboard the Jackdaw as Captain Edward Kenway’s second-in-command. Fifteen years later, Adewale has become a trained assassin and finds himself shipwrecked in Saint-Domingue with no weapon nor crew, starting a new adventure of his own.

– The Exclusive Kraken Ship Pack – Only available to Season Pass owners, this pack includes personalization elements for the Jackdaw

– New ways to personalize the player’s pirate experience – Additional single player missions, weapons, skins, and collectibles

– More Multiplayer Mayhem – Unlock new characters for an even more expansive multiplayer experience

If you Pre-order “Assassin’s Creed® IV Black Flag Uplay Digital Deluxe Edition” on Uplay Shop and save 25% on the season pass on http://shop.ubi.com/ac4deluxe

Mad Catz Announces the Release Date for M.O.J.O Micro Console

Chris Hare

-

Oct 8, 2013

0

Mad Catz Announces the Release Date for M.O.J.O Micro Console

Mad Catz has announced today that it will launch its M.O.J.O. Micro-Console for Android, in limited quantities, on 10th December, 2013. Mad Catz also announced that it has begun accepting pre-orders with a MSRP of $249.99/£219.99.

“The M.O.J.O. Micro-Console for Android has attracted strong interest due to its high-performance hardware, open software platform and the ecosystem of accessories,” said Darren Richardson, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. “M.O.J.O. is the centre piece of our GameSmart mobile initiative and brings core gaming experiences to the mobile platform.”

Confirmed specifications for M.O.J.O. include an NVIDIA Tegra4 T40S 1.8GHz Processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, HDMI out capabilities with full 1080p resolution, Bluetooth, microSD Flash Slot with support for SDXC™ Cards up to 128GB, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and the Android 4.2.2 operating system.

For more information on M.O.J.O please visit http://madcatz.com/mojo/

Watch the Mad Catz MOJO Android Console video from this years E3.

Yaiba Ninja Gaiden Z announced for Steam

Gaming
News

Chris Hare

-

Oct 8, 2013

0

Yaiba Ninja Gaiden Z announced for Steam

TECMO KOEI has announced today that YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z, slated for release on the PlayStation3 and Xbox 360 in early 2014, will see a simultaneous release on Steam (PC) via digital download.

YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z is an impressive project led by the expertise of Team NINJA’s Yosuke Hayashi and comcept’s Keiji Inafune, with the goal of creating a thrilling new experience for fans. The world of the ninja meets undead warriors, cybernetic weapons, in an entirely new game that draws from the NINJA GAIDEN franchise with a host of bold, new features including an original storyline and style of gameplay.

Players all called to battle fierce zombies as YAIBA, a cyborg ninja who will do anything to get revenge and stay alive. Cleaved in two, he is brought back to life with cyber-technology. Brandishing his ninja sword and the mecha weapons in his cyborg arm, he slaughters zombies with brutal, over-the-top abandon.

Step inside a stylised, living comic book where stunning graphics depict a world gone mad. Hordes of undead can only be stopped by YAIBA’s willingness to use any means necessary to get the job done. Will he kill by turning his cyborg arm into

a razor chainsaw for slicing up undead—or just rip off an opponent’s arms to use as zombie nun-chucks? Both possibilities fill YAIBA’s heart with twisted laughter—and the desire to kill more and more zombies!

A PC release through Steam will allow their action-packed creation to reach even more gamers.

Always intense and fast paced, YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z is violent, creative, and daringly different. Sharpen your sword, fire up your cyborg arm, and prepare to GET SOME!

Win an Xbox One From Mountain Dew

Gaming
News

Chris Hare

-

Oct 8, 2013

1

When it comes to an amazing new partnership between Mountain Dew and Xbox One, the most eagerly awaited games and entertainment product coming 22^nd November. This autumn will see a true taste of awesome for hundreds of lucky winners as Mountain Dew has teamed up with Microsoft to offer an exclusive on-pack promotion in the UK for the eagerly anticipated new games console.

Mountain Dew and Microsoft has teamed up for this not-to-be-missed competition will give entrants the chance to win a new Xbox One, plus two games, EVERY DAY. The awesomeness doesn’t end there, with £50 vouchers to spend at Microsoft’s online store also up for grabs and offered every hour. Running for ten weeks from 30^th September until 8^th December, this competition will be available on bottles of Mountain Dew Original, Sugar Free and limited edition Game Fuel.

So, how will it work? After drinking your favourite Mountain Dew, visit www.mountaindewenergy.co.uk (full Terms & Conditions can also be found here) and simply enter the unique code located on the reverse of the label to find out if your bottle makes it GAME ON or GAME OVER for your chance to win Xbox One consoles, games and Microsoft vouchers.

Back by popular demand and available for a limited time only, Mountain Dew Game Fuel is the ultimate taste of awesome to accompany all your gaming sessions – game fuelled to the max!

Xbox One is the successor to the Xbox 360 console, which has sold more than 76 million units globally[1]. Xbox One is an all-in-one gaming and entertainment system, putting the user at the centre of all their games, TV, movies, music, sports and Skype. If features the all-new Kinect sensor, the new Xbox One Wireless Controller, a 500GB hard drive, wireless networking connectivity, HDMI® cable, and a high-speed Blu-ray™ disc player.

The on-pack promotion will feature on:

500ml PET and 1L bottles of Mountain Dew Energy
500ml PET and 1L bottles of limited edition raspberry flavour Game Fuel
500ml PET bottles of Sugar Free