Nintendo's first mobile game delayed to March, won't have Mario

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><h2 itemprop="description" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-family: facitweb, sans-serif; font-size: 1.35em; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-top: 0.5em;">The company's first smartphone game will be a 'free-to-start' title called Miitomo.</h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqmZnTSbkOB4bTK5Ge2xZlISMAqk6lUlZQJOWusG3RsskhzIgGzoabNNZS-ciSFCW0P4eNtWYNWtxldoirhblYkEGS6hh2oWIuMTGt_s590BHSX8xxbUQ2lsJhfcy72VgSIpKWCrYncPB5/s1600/nintendo_primary-100574510-gallery.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqmZnTSbkOB4bTK5Ge2xZlISMAqk6lUlZQJOWusG3RsskhzIgGzoabNNZS-ciSFCW0P4eNtWYNWtxldoirhblYkEGS6hh2oWIuMTGt_s590BHSX8xxbUQ2lsJhfcy72VgSIpKWCrYncPB5/s640/nintendo_primary-100574510-gallery.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Nintendo will roll out its first smartphone game in March rather than this year as originally planned, delaying the company’s plans to cash in on the growing market for games on smartphones.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">The company’s president Tatsumi Kimishima said during an investor presentation that the first game to be released would be Miitomo, which he described as a “friendly conversation starter.” It allows users to create their own avatars, called Mii, which will converse with the user and share the information with  avatars created by other persons registered as friends.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">The game is likely to be a disappointment for gamers who had expected the popular character Mario to figure in the first smartphone game from Nintendo.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">“The Mii asks you a variety of questions and communicates your answers with your Friends’ Mii,” according to a copy of Kimishima’s <a href="http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/151029/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;">presentation</a> on the company’s website.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Kimishima took over as president from Satoru Iwata after his death earlier this year. Iwata spearheaded Nintendo’s moves into smartphone games, but expected that the new games, built in partnership with Japanese mobile gaming company DeNA, would help boost sales of its consoles, as users “become familiar with the charms of video games.”</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">The first smartphone game from the alliance between Nintendo and DeNA was scheduled to be available later this year, with about five titles in all planned to be released by March 2017.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Kimishima on Thursday also said the company was setting up a membership service, called “My Nintendo,” which would connect users through a cloud across a variety of devices including consoles and smartphones. “My Nintendo will work as a bridge between dedicated game systems and smart devices,” Kimishima said.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Under a new point program to be launched, users can earn points across both consoles and smart devices allowing users to carry points from one device to another. Points will be earned not only for buying software but also from playing the games, unlike an earlier plan that ended in September.</div><br /><aside class="nativo-promo smartphone tablet desktop" id="" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"></aside><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">In the six-months ended Sept. 30, Nintendo posted revenue of 204 billion yen ($1.7 billion), up 19 percent from the same period last year but net profit dropped 20 percent to 11.4 billion yen.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Besides its core consoles business, Nintendo is aiming to cash in on its intellectual property through smartphone games, theme parks, visual content and merchandise. “We are planning to maximize the value of Nintendo IP, which has traditionally been used mainly for our dedicated video game systems,” Kimishima said.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Nintendo aims to make profits from the smart devices business, maximize access to its intellectual property among a variety users, while building synergies with its console business, he added, indicating a continuation of Iwata’s game plan.</div></div></div>

Nintendo's first mobile game delayed to March, won't have Mario

The company's first smartphone game will be a 'free-to-start' title called Miitomo. Nintendo will roll out its first smartphone ...

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Assassin's Creed Syndicate PC review impressions: This gorgeous, mostly smooth game is no Unity

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg76zkT1DllDbFAozWGJlIv1MvVPb_8gBfWosrHc1UujMw1QaiWT0NHBJX1RTjT757xSgSy0wk0GohjjsDzCTfiMCf910IrRQYDFSFUG7lWtZLbDPtmZGN2h069QMu-tOHxM827ki-MsHcF/s1600/assassins-creed-syndicate2015-11-18-21-24-28-100628992-large.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg76zkT1DllDbFAozWGJlIv1MvVPb_8gBfWosrHc1UujMw1QaiWT0NHBJX1RTjT757xSgSy0wk0GohjjsDzCTfiMCf910IrRQYDFSFUG7lWtZLbDPtmZGN2h069QMu-tOHxM827ki-MsHcF/s640/assassins-creed-syndicate2015-11-18-21-24-28-100628992-large.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />I don’t know whether we have the month-long delay on <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Assassin’s Creed Syndicate</em>’s PC version to thank, but hooray: It runs. I’m maybe six hours into the game and haven’t hit any major bugs, though there are some minor jitters and a bit of slowdown here and there. Some pop-in. Some weirdly low-res textures at times.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Nothing too serious. Nothing at <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">all</em> on par with last year’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Assassin’s Creed Unity</em>debacle. Nothing game-breaking.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">More importantly, I think it’s worth noting the game is <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">really</em> pretty and has brought my 980 Ti to its knees even at 1920x1080. I can run the game at Ultra settings, but doing so drops me to around 45 frames per second (compared to 70-80 at “Very High”). I dipped a few of the Nvidia-specific settings since I prefer smooth, buttery frame rate, but that’s impressive in itself given it’s the only game this year to make that happen.</div><br /><br /><figure class="large " style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden;"><a class="zoom cboxElement" href="https://cms-images.idgesg.net/images/article/2015/11/assassins-creed-syndicate2015-11-18-13-33-38-100628991-orig.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Assassin’s Creed Syndicate" height="326" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2015/11/assassins-creed-syndicate2015-11-18-13-33-38-100628991-large.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="100%" /></a></figure><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">I don’t think it’s because of poor optimization, either. I think the game mostly earns it, especially by cranking the draw distance <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">way </em>out to the horizons, rows and rows of Victorian-era smokestacks pumping coal into the London sky. Although we did lose<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Unity</em>’s massive crowds this year—London’s streets are noticeably emptier than Paris’s, and the civilians quite a bit dumber. </div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">The one perpetual issue I’ve noticed is that your character’s clothing is a bit herky-jerky. It looks almost as if the animation is running at 30 frames per second even though the game is running more than twice as fast. I don’t pay attention to it often, but sometimes it catches my eye and I find myself watching Evie’s robes twitch around haphazardly. Ugly.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Other than that, no major issues to report. Steam reviews and Reddit threads seem to agree it’s an all-around improvement over Unity—and that’s (at least when I’m writing this, on early Thursday morning) before Nvidia’s even released its <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Syndicate</em>-specific drivers. I have seen a few complaints here and there—some complaining about frame rate issues, a couple about texture bugs—but nowhere near the level of vitriol I saw after last year’s release.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">That goes for the actual <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">content</em> of the game too. The twin siblings Evie and Jacob are both genuinely charismatic, the more egregious parts of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Unity</em>’s design (companion apps, et cetera) have been pared back, and Austin Wintory’s score is mesmerizing.</div><br /><br /><figure class="large " style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden;"><a class="zoom cboxElement" href="https://cms-images.idgesg.net/images/article/2015/11/assassins-creed-syndicate2015-11-18-22-35-57-100628995-orig.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Assassin’s Creed Syndicate" height="326" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2015/11/assassins-creed-syndicate2015-11-18-22-35-57-100628995-large.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="100%" /></a></figure><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">It’s a lot more cartoony than usual—more a parody of history than anything else—but at least I’m casually enjoying myself. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Unity </em>bored me to tears. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Syndicate</em> is a lot less self-serious, and maybe that’s a good thing. It’s too early for me to tell.</div><br /><br /><aside class="nativo-promo smartphone tablet desktop" id="" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"></aside><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">I’ll be keeping an eye on general Internet buzz over the next few days to see if widespread issues start cropping up—and playing through the game myself, of course—but for the moment <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Syndicate</em> seems fine.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Though if you’re going to purchase it, I’d urge you to buy through Steam and leave yourself the option of a refund. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Syndicate </em>is a good start, but I still trust Ubisoft’s PC ports about as far as I can throw a copy of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Assassin’s Creed Unity</em>. Which is about three feet from here to the nearest trash can.</div></div>

Assassin's Creed Syndicate PC review impressions: This gorgeous, mostly smooth game is no Unity

I don’t know whether we have the month-long delay on  Assassin’s Creed Syndicate ’s PC version to thank, but hooray: It runs. I’m maybe six ...

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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided delayed until late next year

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: facitweb, sans-serif; font-size: 1.35em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4em;">February gets (if possible) even worse</span></h4><section class="page" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCe_wJ55A-58wGjtoduENSy1sJDajY1jNOHj4Ggh3Y0PnHOhomUuu06rDcvl4a1Bj9FV7acBHN_1DH2sIgdMGV6RYnQbvgWNOeTSSW0R2-Q-y6d8ZPYZZvy8Rte2Tit2pp0ePOjZCa9N_t/s1600/deus-ex-mankind-divided-100591318-gallery.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCe_wJ55A-58wGjtoduENSy1sJDajY1jNOHj4Ggh3Y0PnHOhomUuu06rDcvl4a1Bj9FV7acBHN_1DH2sIgdMGV6RYnQbvgWNOeTSSW0R2-Q-y6d8ZPYZZvy8Rte2Tit2pp0ePOjZCa9N_t/s640/deus-ex-mankind-divided-100591318-gallery.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>This week <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Deus Ex: Mankind Divided</em> popped briefly out of its hole, saw its shadow, and went straight back inside for six more months of development. The game will miss its slated February 23, 2016 date and will now launch on August 23, 2016—precisely five years <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">to the day</em> after <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Deus Ex: Human Revolution</em>’s release.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">Weird.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">From <a href="https://www.deusex.com/news/Deus-Ex-Mankind-Divided-New-Release-Date" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;">today’s news post</a> by Eidos-Montreal studio head David Anfossi:</div><blockquote style="border-left-color: rgb(217, 217, 217); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 40px; padding-left: 10px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">“As you may have already seen by reading and watching the many previews for <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Deus Ex: Mankind Divided</em>, our aim is for it to be a worthy successor to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Human Revolution</em> and to improve upon that game in every way possible.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">“We’re confident and proud of the game so far. However, as we are now playing through the game in full we can see that it will require more time in post-production for tuning, iterations, and refinement to meet our high standards. In order to achieve this, we need to move the release of the game to August 23rd, 2016.”</div></blockquote><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">Considering it took a decade to go from <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Invisible War</em> to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Human Revolution</em>, I think we can all sit tight and wait until August. Especially if it makes the game better than <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Thief</em>.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">Just go ahead and watch this demo video again:</div><div class="embed-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: 0px; margin: 20px 0px; max-width: 620px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 435px; position: relative; width: 580px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="150" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jh-iX2bxOjI" style="background-color: black; box-sizing: border-box; height: 435px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 100%;" width="300"></iframe><br /></div></section><br /><div class="department" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 2rem 0px 1.5rem; min-height: 30px; orphans: auto; overflow: hidden; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"></div><span itemprop="articleBody text" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"></span><br /><div class="am-btn" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 2rem; position: relative;"><br /></div></div>

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided delayed until late next year

February gets (if possible) even worse This week  Deus Ex: Mankind Divided  popped briefly out of its hole, saw its shadow, and went straigh...

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Path of Exile's free new Ascendancy expansion looks roguelike-like

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><h2 itemprop="description" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-family: facitweb, sans-serif; font-size: 1.35em; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-top: 0.5em;">Where Path of Exile meets Spelunky's Daily Challenge</h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJdkUG9ZUrpUnekk4AV2gDXgKbfBxP7xm3sWUmF28sdd1Po_nEjvnRN3nU_Q-5YMoLxW0BR9gDAFpYNzbNy3aoRKrtVvIUorSZsq6exb-vqvCPSaDvKnKVy7dte6mhixBHfFH5ayDatYym/s1600/screenshot-4-100629221-large.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJdkUG9ZUrpUnekk4AV2gDXgKbfBxP7xm3sWUmF28sdd1Po_nEjvnRN3nU_Q-5YMoLxW0BR9gDAFpYNzbNy3aoRKrtVvIUorSZsq6exb-vqvCPSaDvKnKVy7dte6mhixBHfFH5ayDatYym/s640/screenshot-4-100629221-large.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><h1 itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: facitweb, sans-serif; font-size: 38px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.13; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"></em><br /><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Path of Exile</em>’s <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2908553/path-of-exile-a-killer-free-diablo-iii-alternative-gets-a-major-still-free-expansion.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;">largest-ever expansion</a>, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Awakening</em>, just released this past summer. So I was a bit surprised when Grinding Gear got in touch earlier this month wanting to show off yet <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">another</em> expansion to its excellent action-RPG, subtitled <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ascendancy,</em>arriving next year.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">The <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ascendancy</em> name comes from The Trials of Ascendancy—six challenges you’ll first need to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">find</em> and then (hopefully) overcome. Like a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Zelda</em> dungeon, each Trial revolves around one of the expansion’s new environmental traps.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vwCGT8ttfWE/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vwCGT8ttfWE?feature=player_embedded" width="100%"></iframe></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="line-height: 1.7em;">Floor spikes, floors that turn into lava, elaborate spinning blades—it’s your usual “Crazy Person’s Guide to Creating Dungeons That Will Murder The Hell Out Of Intruders” gizmos. As I said, each Trial revolves around </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em;">one</em><span style="line-height: 1.7em;"> of these traps. But the six Trials are basically just an extended tutorial.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">The real meat of the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ascendancy</em> expansion is The Lord’s Labyrinth a.k.a. Izaro’s Labyrinth a.k.a. Where <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Path of Exile</em> Meets <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Spelunky. </em>As you might expect, all six of the new trap types are represented in the Labyrinth, jumbled together with a mass of enemies to slaughter your way through. The most devious combination during my demo? A room full of easy-to-avoid spike traps...and monsters that spread movement-slowing tar. Suddenly that room didn’t seem quite so easy.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">It’s all pretty dastardly, though. The Labyrinth leans heavily on the new traps, with complicated patterns that remind me as much of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Prince of Persia: Sands of Time</em> as they do <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-worlds-hardest-game" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;">The World’s Hardest Game</a></em>. Here’s a good example:</div><figure class="large " style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden;"><a class="zoom cboxElement" href="https://cms-images.idgesg.net/images/article/2015/11/screenshot-7-100629224-orig.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Path of Exile: Ascendancy" height="326" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2015/11/screenshot-7-100629224-large.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="580" /></a></figure><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Sure, the big towers of spikes are the obvious danger. What you <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">can’t</em> see is that some of the tiles are actually traps, sending volleys of arrows (the red streaks) your direction.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">But the key difference is in how the Labyrinth is created. Part of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Path of Exile</em>’s appeal is the way it randomizes its dungeon layouts, enabling you to run and re-run content.<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ascendancy</em> uses the same system, but adds some structure.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">The Labyrinth will change <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">daily</em>, for <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">everyone</em>. As in, every single player is given the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">same</em>layout (which takes about an hour to complete) and has one single day to run that incarnation as many times as they’d like. Once 24 hours is up the Labyrinth disappears, replaced with a new seed.</div><aside class="nativo-promo smartphone tablet desktop" id="" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"></aside><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">It’s essentially <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Spelunky</em>’s Daily Challenge mode, but in an action-RPG and with unlimited retries. And like Spelunky’s Daily Challenge, I think we’ll see an interesting community pop up around the Labyrinth—people posting secret rooms they’ve found that day, people posting highlight videos, et cetera.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Complete the Labyrinth once and you’ll gain access to new Ascendancy Classes, which slot into the very center of your skill tree. Speaking to Grinding Gear, they said a common complaint is that there’s little to distinguish the game’s classes at a certain point—since the skill trees are all combined, you could essentially start the game as a melee-heavy character and end up heavy into magic by the end, or vice versa.</div><figure class="large " style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden;"><a class="zoom cboxElement" href="https://cms-images.idgesg.net/images/article/2015/11/gladiatorascendancytree-100629225-orig.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Path of Exile: Ascendancy" height="326" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2015/11/gladiatorascendancytree-100629225-large.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="580" /></a><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #999999; font-family: facitweb, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 5px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">(Click to expand)</div></figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Ascendancy Classes make that initial starting choice matter a bit more. Finish the Labyrinth and you’re given the choice of essentially three subclasses to tier into, each with unique abilities. I don’t have a full list, but we looked at the “Gladiator” Ascendancy Class for (I believe) the Duelist—mainly because the Gladiator can cause enemies to explode upon death.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">You’ll get two Ascendancy Class points for each difficulty level you run the Labyrinth on, so people who only play through once will get some sort of reward while those who run it repeatedly will get a more specialized build, plus the option to Enchant one piece of gear per run with a special effect.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">A pretty hefty reward for a pretty hefty dungeon, replete with a three-part boss fight against Emperor Izaro (namesake of Izaro’s Labyrinth), with aspects of the first two encounters carrying over into the final confrontation.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">It’s altogether a much larger expansion than I expected, so soon after <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Awakening—</em>and the game’s still free-to-play. Look for <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ascendancy</em> early in 2016</div></h1></div>

Path of Exile's free new Ascendancy expansion looks roguelike-like

Where Path of Exile meets Spelunky's Daily Challenge Path of Exile ’s  largest-ever expansion ,  The Awakening , just released this past...

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With Stellaris, Paradox is making a better Star Trek game than any official Star Trek game

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiem0zekH_RvEgmMwue_9_d5wUHvPLlAuLSHI-uQr1i29JV9_rdad0hiPWA04mkv7XGrE2ZDzoSn0-2g6MLUo95X2Z9v5FM3Uc_pnbYjaDncp8zhDwcKUoGdudNih3QOirqBKRLSyBkbKRH/s1600/stellaris_screenshot_20151118_09_fleet_movement-100629643-large.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiem0zekH_RvEgmMwue_9_d5wUHvPLlAuLSHI-uQr1i29JV9_rdad0hiPWA04mkv7XGrE2ZDzoSn0-2g6MLUo95X2Z9v5FM3Uc_pnbYjaDncp8zhDwcKUoGdudNih3QOirqBKRLSyBkbKRH/s640/stellaris_screenshot_20151118_09_fleet_movement-100629643-large.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />There’s a romanticism to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Star Trek</em>’s breed of science fiction. “Space: The Final Frontier.” Such a quietly elegant way to describe the fact that for thousands of years, humanity has looked<br /><a name="more"></a>up at the big blue dome above our heads and pondered the unknowable. Millions of stars. Billions of planets. An interminable push-pull on the question of whether we are, in fact, alone in this universe—whether we are unique, or whether there are others out there in the universe pondering these same questions.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">This idea of exploration, of Lewis and Clark rocketing through space in a vain attempt to chart the unchartable, is intoxicating. And it’s what has drawn me towards Paradox’s latest grand strategy game, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stellaris.</em></div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: facitweb, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-top: 1em;">Set a course</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Paradox described <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stellaris</em> to me in August, but last week I got the opportunity to see about an hour of the game. Not <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">play </em>an hour of the game, unfortunately, but watch it be played. Even hands-off I came away intrigued though, mainly because <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stellaris</em> will enable me to play a science fiction game the way I’ve always wanted: Peacefully.</div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="large " style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden;"><a class="zoom cboxElement" href="https://cms-images.idgesg.net/images/article/2015/11/stellaris_screenshot_20151118_11_situation_log-100629645-orig.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Stellaris" height="326" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2015/11/stellaris_screenshot_20151118_11_situation_log-100629645-large.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="100%" /></a><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #999999; font-family: facitweb, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 5px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">(Click to expand)</div></figcaption></figure><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Or, at least, with the best of intentions—like the crew of the Enterprise, off gallivanting around space on a mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before. Cue inspirational music—but keep the photon torpedoes handy in case something goes wrong.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">This proclivity towards peaceful discovery is uniquely Paradox, though. It’s why I, despite the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">immense</em> learning curve and the brick wall of a user interface, keep coming back to Paradox's titles. They are sandboxes, not board games. “Winning” is a largely arbitrary metric. What matters are the stories you tell afterward.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">It’s a claim many make but few follow through on, especially in the strategy genre. In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Europa Universalis IV</em>, for instance, it’s what allowed me to “discover” the New World fifty years ahead of schedule and build a massive Portuguese trade empire before the Spanish had a chance. But there’s a level of artifice to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Europa Universalis</em> because it is, after all, constrained by reality. You’re not actually “discovering” America because obviously you live in 2015 and America has already been discovered.</div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="large " style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden;"><a class="zoom cboxElement" href="https://cms-images.idgesg.net/images/article/2015/11/stellaris_screenshot_20151118_10_custum_race_creation-100629644-orig.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Stellaris" height="326" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2015/11/stellaris_screenshot_20151118_10_custum_race_creation-100629644-large.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="100%" /></a></figure><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stellaris, </em>freed from the bounds of history, allows for true exploration. My demo began with us constructing a galaxy of 1,000 stars, each with multiple planets. What’s out there? Nobody knows.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">No, seriously. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nobody knows</em>. We started in control of one small star system, our home planet second from the sun. All we knew for sure was there were at least thirty other procedurally-generated alien races somewhere out in the galaxy. And I say “at least” because those are only the competitors tracked by the scoring system.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">With our small fleet of ships, we sent to explore first the outer areas of our own solar system and then to the nearest neighboring star. And we immediately encountered strange pink crystals. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Living</em> crystals, as it turned out. From there, we had a choice: Research these crystals or fight them.</div><br /><br /><figure class="large " style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden;"><a class="zoom cboxElement" href="https://cms-images.idgesg.net/images/article/2015/11/stellaris_screenshot_20151118_02_ship_combat-100629638-orig.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Stellaris" height="326" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2015/11/stellaris_screenshot_20151118_02_ship_combat-100629638-large.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="100%" /></a></figure><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Sure, you can play <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stellaris</em> as a warmongering xenophobe. You can build your fleet and send it across the galaxy, wiping out or enslaving each new race you encounter.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">But that doesn’t much interest me. If I compare <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stellaris</em> to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Star Trek</em>, it’s because the game feels perfectly suited to the same “Conundrum of the Week” storytelling. You know:<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Captain’s Log, Stardate XXXX, Everything seemed like it was going okay today and then __________ happened</em>. Fill in the blank with whatever science fiction plot you can imagine. “We were recalled to Earth because someone found signs of an alien presence.” “The Dalarians have asked for our help negotiating a peace treaty.” “We encountered strange pink crystals in a neighboring system.”</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">With 1,000 star systems to explore you can imagine hundreds of these small stories in a single game—some playing out close to home, others as you pierce the veil of the unknown along the frontier. Pink crystals, ancient precursor aliens, empty husks and ruins, mysterious space debris, even (if you’re lucky) humans. Dozens of civilizations all making their way through a crowded galaxy, a few evil or warmongering but most simply trying to discover how they fit into this great cosmic ocean.</div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="large " style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden;"><a class="zoom cboxElement" href="https://cms-images.idgesg.net/images/article/2015/11/stellaris_screenshot_20151118_01_planet_view-100629636-orig.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Stellaris" height="326" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2015/11/stellaris_screenshot_20151118_01_planet_view-100629636-large.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="100%" /></a></figure><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Similar to how <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Crusader Kings II</em>’s much-loved <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Game of Thrones </em>mod is better than any<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Game of Thrones</em> game, I’m starting to think <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stellaris</em> will be better than any official <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Star Trek</em> game. It’s not that <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stellaris </em>wholesale copies the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Star Trek</em> property, but it captures the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">spirit</em> of Gene Roddenberry’s vision in a way few other video games have—space as a place to be explored, not feared or conquered. Space as our final collective frontier.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stellaris </em>will launch in 2016, Paradox confirmed during my demo—probably sometime in the latter half of the year. Side note: I fully expect we’ll see a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Star Trek</em> mod not long after<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stellaris </em>is released, and I look forward to it.</div></div>

With Stellaris, Paradox is making a better Star Trek game than any official Star Trek game

There’s a romanticism to  Star Trek ’s breed of science fiction. “Space: The Final Frontier.” Such a quietly elegant way to describe the fac...

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AMD's Radeon Software Crimson doesn't live up to the hype on Linux

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLpiEFCSGbkEZDhk8E6rh_BQJNPrQyJ4Jix3pwZA4XkjFIp7XFBNVKfyIsffr_k5x-3_px3otKA2vRcbbPdVIyZKCxdPtXB-xeSq4UdILKDAAkWeFj5LASM2C3mvzXnGpngLVAFf4ytlio/s1600/amd-radeon-fiji-gpu-100591483-large.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLpiEFCSGbkEZDhk8E6rh_BQJNPrQyJ4Jix3pwZA4XkjFIp7XFBNVKfyIsffr_k5x-3_px3otKA2vRcbbPdVIyZKCxdPtXB-xeSq4UdILKDAAkWeFj5LASM2C3mvzXnGpngLVAFf4ytlio/s640/amd-radeon-fiji-gpu-100591483-large.png" width="100%" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Good news, gamers! AMD just launched Radeon Software Crimson for both Windows and Linux.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">The Windows drivers saw some serious improvements and contain a slick new control panel. But despite promises of performance improvements for games on Linux, little has changed on open-source operating systems. These are the same old Linux drivers with some new branding.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: facitweb, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-top: 1em;">Gaming performance didn’t improve</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">A slide from an AMD presentation promised some serious Linux performance improvements. AMD touted performance boosts of 112 percent to 155 percent for<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Bioshock Infinite</em>, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Total War</em>, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Portal 2</em>, and <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dota 2</em>.</div><br /><figure class="large " style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden;"><a class="zoom cboxElement" href="https://cms-images.idgesg.net/images/article/2015/11/radeon-software-crimson-linux-100630217-orig.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="radeon software crimson linux" height="274" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2015/11/radeon-software-crimson-linux-100630217-large.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="100%" /></a><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #999999; font-family: facitweb, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 5px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">AMD's claimed Linux performance gains with Radeon Software Crimson.</div></figcaption></figure><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Phoronix ran benchmarks with Radeon Software Crimson and several different AMD graphics cards, finding that <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Bioshock Infinite</em> performance was basically unchanged between Crimson and the last stable Catalyst driver release. Phoronix tested a few other game engines, too. According to Phoronix, “the only dramatic performance differences found with this new driver was in the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Metro Redux </em>games where the performance changes were regressions.”</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Ouch. This isn’t the driver update Linux gamers were hoping for.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: facitweb, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-top: 1em;">No Radeon Settings for Linux users</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Windows gamers get a new Radeon Settings interface along with Radeon Software Crimson. This interface is actually written in the cross-platform QT toolkit, so there was some speculation that it could also arrive on Linux. Alas, while Radeon Settings for Linux may arrive one day in the future, it hasn’t yet.</div><br /><figure class="large " style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden;"><a class="zoom cboxElement" href="https://cms-images.idgesg.net/images/article/2015/10/radeon-crimson-overview-100624924-orig.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="radeon crimson overview" height="272" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2015/10/radeon-crimson-overview-100624924-large.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="100%" /></a><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #999999; font-family: facitweb, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 5px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Radeon Software Crimson's new Radeon Settings interface for Windows hasn't landed on Linux yet.</div></figcaption></figure><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">Linux still has the same old “AMD Catalyst Control Center Linux Edition” software, but it’s been renamed the “AMD Radeon Control Center.” <a href="http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-Crimson-Linux-Control" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;">Phoronix</a> just found that mentions of “Catalyst” throughout the interface have been changed to “Radeon.”</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">This isn’t a huge surprise. After all, although Nvidia’s Linux drivers are excellent, Nvidia’s Linux control panel isn’t anywhere near as slick as the GeForce Experience software on Windows.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: facitweb, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-top: 1em;">So what did change?</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">This is really just a minor version bump on Linux. The biggest change here is that this version of the Radeon driver now builds against newer Linux 4.x kernels. As on Windows, the Radeon 5000 and 6000 series are no longer supported by this new driver. The mostly unhelpful <a href="http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDRadeonSoftwareCrimsonEdition15-11LINReleaseNotes.aspx" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;">release notes</a> also indicate that a few minor bugs with glxgears stuttering and occasional mouse cursor corruption were fixed.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;">While Radeon Software Crimson may be a huge change on Windows, all that looks changed in the Linux side is branding. We’re still waiting for AMD’s promised new driver architecture on Linux.</div></div>

AMD's Radeon Software Crimson doesn't live up to the hype on Linux

Good news, gamers! AMD just launched Radeon Software Crimson for both Windows and Linux. The Windows drivers saw some serious improvements a...

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