Computer Sense

Massive holiday promotions kick off on Valve's store.
Steam has started its big Holiday Sale promotion, and you might as well tell everyone you know to stop calling you for the next few months.

There are more discounts than you could ever need in a lifetime, in addition rewards for completing tasks in games.
Steam will update with six challenges every day from now until January 1. Completing these challenges gets you either a gift - ranging from coupons to full games - or a piece of coal.

Coal can then be traded in for more gifts or saved up for entry into a giveaway on January 2 which will see one lucky winner get every game on Steam. All of them.

Hundreds more will win their top wish list entries and other freebies.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/330276/steam-holiday-gives-you-games-for-playing-games/

Dead Island has been well and truly banned in Germany.  Developers Techland join everyone else in expressing their lack of surprise at the decision. "This isn't unexpected," they told Eurogamer. "Germany has its unique regulations regarding video games and violence and the industry can only comply"

Turning the blood green won't help them with this one. Dead Island has been put on the "List B" by Germany's Federal Department of Media Harmful to Young Persons. It's a list reserved for media that contains extreme torture or Nazi content. It's probably best not to think about what gets onto "List A."

"Both Deep Silvers and Techland were aware of such a possibility from the very beginning," say the publisher. The reasons for the ban haven't been revealed publicly, but it's likely something to do with Dead Island's vast amounts of gore and dismemberment.

A place on List B makes it illegal for stores to sell the game in Germany and shipments heading into the country risk being seized at customs.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/30/dead-island-banned-in-germany/

Steve Jobs believed he'd "cracked the code" on how to build a TV as well as Apple makes phones.


Apple is likely to launch its own range of televisions next year or in early 2013, according to Gene Munster, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray.


Munster, who's billed by Business Insider as the most widely trusted Apple analyst in the industry, says Steve Jobs revealed in Walter Isaacson's newly released biography that he finally "cracked the code" on how to build a TV as well as Apple makes phones.

"Our thesis is based on meetings with contacts close to Asian component suppliers, industry contacts, Apple's patent portfolio for television technology, and recent product launched (iCloud, Siri)," Munster said.

"Based on Jan-11 meetings in Asia (not with component suppliers), we believe Apple is investing in manufacturing facilities and securing supply for LCD displays. These displays could range from 3.5" mobile displays to 50" television displays.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/324062/apple-itv-probably-launching-next-year-report/

Reports suggest the PS3 has been opened up to piracy again via a new hack which takes the form of a successor to the original PSJailbreak.

Dubbed JB2, Digital Foundry says the device is a USB dongle that plugs directly into the PS3 and circumvents its security measures, giving users access to a number of features only available on developer consoles and allowing for the installation of illegal or copied code.

Newer games released after the PS3 firmware 3.60 update that locked out previous piracy methods reportedly can't be played from the hard drive using JB2. Instead, they have to come in the form of burned Blu-ray discs, which the machine reads as authorised.

With most of the evidence surrounding JB2 based on internet videos and unverified claims from sources, all talk of the device and its abilities remains speculative.

However, the report goes on to say that JB2 is believed to have undergone a small launch in Indonesia - witha  number of pirate games including PES 2012, God of War Collection Volume II and FIFA 12 made available - in preparation for a global rollout.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/323334/playstation-3-hacked-again/

How powerful does a laptop need to be? It's a pertinent question. Last week Razer unveiled a laptop it proclaimed the "saviour of PC gaming". But the big laptop news is that we're about to be deluged by 'ultrabooks' - thin and light Macbook Air clones which weigh just over a kilo, but pack powerful Core i5/i7 processors.

Earlier in the year, Intel demonstrated its commitment to ultrabooks by setting aside a $300m fund to support laptop manufacturers trying to build affordable lightweight laptops. The Macbook Air is very nice, but it isn't cheap. The chip maker is keen on the idea because it's hoping that potential tablet buyers will be tempted to get a real laptop that's very nearly as portable.

There's absolutely no reason to buy an Intel-based tablet right now, as they're power hungry, heavy and run Windows. The iPad and Android tablets are all doing much better with processors derived from ARM's architecture. As tablets eat into one of Intel's core markets - netbook shipments fell by over 50% in Europe last quarter - it's clear they have to do something.

Over at IFA in Berlin this week, quite a few manufacturers have been showing off ultrabooks. Toshiba's Portege Z830 (pictured above) looks fantastic , as does ASUS UX31, and Acer's Aspire S3 packs a (duel core) Core i7 chip into machine that's thinner, lighter and cheaper than an Air. Samsung's Series 9 and Sony's Vaio Z have both been out for a few weeks now, although they're a bit pricier.

As far as gaming goes, most of these ultrabooks feature the higher specced option from Intel's Sandy Bridge hybrid GPUs, the HD Graphics 3000. It's not great, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not entirely useless either. I've been playing aorund with an ultrabook - although I can't say which one - for a couple of days. It's obviously very limited for gaming, but Dues Ex: Human Revolution is just about playable at its lowest detail settings. Even there, it looks better than most Xbox games.

I wouldn't recommend buying an ultrabook for games just yet, but next year's models with better GPUs should be really interesting. With the Steam Cloud syncing save games between your desktop PC and an ultraportable laptop so you can fill in a few puzzles or levels while you're on the train, the convenience more than makes up for the temporary loss in resolution and details.

As much as I like the look of Razer's LED laptop touchpads, I'd be willing to bet that there'll be more ultrabooks figuring in the future of PC gaming than there will be Blades.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/02/are-ultrabooks-the-future-of-pc-gaming/