In the years since Google launched Keep, its note taking app/service has continued to slowly add new features, and today it’s rolling out a couple of new tricks. The Keep website has a lightly refreshed design that looks similar to the new Google+ web layout, while across platforms (Chrome extension, Android and iOS) it’s now able to show previews for links to websites with a picture, the page title and domain. It has a new autocomplete feature that only works on lists so far, and it can also detect duplicates as soon as they’re entered. They’re not huge changes, but they should make staying organized a little easier, or at least prettier.
http://ift.tt/1UdZqYv
While this isn’t a ‘deal’ in the traditional sense, I figured it’s still worth posting.
GOG has a new system that you can add certain games that you own on Steam to your GOG account. This will give you access to DRM free versions of those games. The list is quite small, but they say that they’ll be adding more in the future. There can be some difficulty connecting and/or finding the games in your Steam Library, but just keep trying and it will connect eventually. You don’t need to set your profile to public.
from SlickDeals.net http://ift.tt/1sMyNn1
via IFTTT
Overwatch, the new multiplayer shooter from World of Warcraft maker Blizzard, doesn’t make sense at first glance. In a genre notorious for grim gameplay and toxic online communities, it’s a bright, optimistic surprise. It’s such a big departure, in fact, that some folks at Blizzard didn’t think it would work—and it all started with a desire for something that would be family-friendly.
Playing other popular shooters at home with his wife and children around, lead director Jeff Kaplan began to feel like the games’ content—the dirty language, the skimpy clothing—wasn’t appropriate for his surroundings. Discussing this with his coworkers, he found that his experience was common. “We decided we wanted to create something that we would feel comfortable playing alongside our [teenagers],†he said. “We didn’t want to be ashamed or embarrassed by our choices.â€
Many of the development staff on Overwatch were transplants from “Project Titan,†Blizzard’s ambitious but ultimately canceled MMO that would have let players choose between combat and pacifist roles. That concept was rolled in to Overwatch—so, in some sense, the game’s been in development for almost a decade. With that perspective, it’s a small miracle that Overwatch exists at all, much less as a beacon of positivity.
But that positivity drove much of Overwatch‘s design—like the decision to forego the traditional kill-based performance metrics that most shooters use. “Competitive environments naturally draw out negativity, and we didn’t want to leave those doors open,†Kaplan says. “We didn’t want to show how many kills each player got, because some characters don’t need to kill to be effective.â€
In fact, Kaplan described the trailer that accompanied the game’s initial announcement, the outside world’s first look at the Overwatch aesthetic, as being “about giving people hope.â€
Everything I’ve seen has shown this incredible tendency towards support and kindness. Jeff Kaplan
Indeed, the trailer looks like it could have been ripped from any Disney-Pixar flick. It opens with two kids wandering around a museum talking about the now-defunct Overwatch program. (Like the Incredibles or the Avengers, Overwatch was a broad organization of heroes that gradually lost favor with the international community.) One is starry-eyed and idealistic, the other cold and cynical. These kids, Kaplan says, could be seen as representing the game’s prospective audience, or even its own development team.
In the clip, the hoodie-cloaked cynical child jeers at his younger brother, pointing out that Overwatch has disbanded. That’s seconds before Winston, a genetically engineered, hyper-intelligent gorilla, smashes through the ceiling of the exhibit. Winston, one of the most prominent Overwatch members, immediately shields the children from a super-villain’s gunfire. There’s a stark shift in the tone of the clip as the cynic opens himself up and pulls back his hood, ready to believe in hope.
Corny as that may sound, Kaplan and his team believed in this message: A happier, brighter future for videogames does exist. Already, he says, they’re seeing the positive effects of their design decisions.
In a recent post to the Overwatch subreddit, a player with cerebral palsy describes how they were able to play as a sniper for the first time thanks to the game’s extensive control customization options. Games, especially the competitive sort, rarely afford disabled players these sorts of tools. Overwatch is different, including half a dozen features that help bring in as many people as possible, including a colorblind mode.
Already, Kaplan says, they’re seeing the positive effects of their design decisions.
Often, the more vitriolic slices of the gaming community take offense to accessibility features like this in competitive games, suggesting that the developers are giving others an unfair advantage. Kaplan says this hasn’t happened with Overwatch, though.
“While I can’t say we have zero bad eggs in our fan base, everything I’ve seen has shown this incredible tendency towards support and kindness,†he says. “Like our own team, it took some of them a bit to get an idea of where we were taking this project, but now they see why we’re making so many changes and why they’re important.â€
A quick scan of the Overwatch subreddit would seem to indicate that this is working. Where many fresh games struggle with an endless stream of player complaints and developer-prodding, Overwatch‘s community is vivacious and jubilant.
“More than anything else, playing Overwatch is about sharing an experience and working together, no matter who you’re with,†Kaplan says. “Whether you win or lose, you do so together. You all share in that.â€
An innovative sponge-filled dressing device recently saved the life of a coalition forces soldier who was shot in the leg. It’s the first documented clinical use of the product, known as XSTAT.
For its upcoming Polaris GPUs, AMD doesn’t just want to entice hardcore gamers. Instead, it’s aiming to bring virtual reality-capable PCs to just about everyone with its new Radeon RX480 video card, which will retail for a mere $199. The RX480 is capable of more than five teraflops of computing power, whereas NVIDIA’s new GTX 1070 packs in over six teraflops for $380, and the high-end GTX 1080 sports around nine teraflops for $600. On paper alone, AMD’s new card is an astounding value — and one that NVIDIA can’t yet counter without lowering prices.
The RX480 is based on AMD’s new Polaris architecture, and it’ll be available in 4GB and 8GB memory configurations. It will support AMD’s Freesync technology to smooth out frame rates, as well as HDR gaming with DisplayPort 1.3/1.4 support.
Really, though, the key selling point of the RX480 is its price. Currently, the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift require video cards costing around $300 at the minimum. By delivering a $199 card that’s VR capable, AMD has dramatically lowered the cost of entry to VR for consumers. It’s also a smart strategy for AMD, since NVIDIA has sewn up the high-end and mid-range market with the GTX 1080 and 1070.
Still, it’s not as if the RX480 won’t be good for gamers. In a remote video, Id developers praised its ability to run the new Doom remake (though we didn’t get exact frame rates). You could also run two RX480 units simultaneously, a configuration that managed to beat out NVIDIA’s GTX 1080 while playing Ashes of Singularity. Better yet, that configuration would only be around $400, compared to $600 or more for the 1070.
The RX480 clocked in 62.5 frames per second, while the GTX 1080 was a bit lower at 58.7 fps. AMD’s Radeon head Raja Koduri proudly pointed out that the dual-RX480 system only reached around 50 percent of its computing capacity, while the NVIDIA card was maxed near 100 percent.
The RX480 will hit store shelves on June 29th, and I hope to get hands-on soon.