Software & Gaming

Free to play is pretty much the model everyone who's not making a unique indie title or the next sequel in an established franchise is doing. You go free to play, add some aesthetic upgrades for micro-transactions and voila, your MMO, MOBA, Shooter, thing will make a decent amount of …

Yesterday at Gamescom, EA Games and Maxis debuted a trailer for their highly expected Sims 4 game, set for release later this year. However, it wasn't all nude shower patches and make-believe-languages, some people were worried that we'd see the same sort of forced-online DRM that we had with Sim …

While the little Android console Ouya, isn't exactly kicking up a storm of interest in itself, the developers are certainly branching out with their advertising, targeting Ren and Stimpy fans with a vomit and gore filled, cartoon advert for itself. There's also more than a minor swing taken at more …

Riot games has admitted via its official site that unfortunately, a portion of its North American user base, has had their account details exposed in what we can presume was some sort of hack. However, Riot never explicitly states this, saying that instead data was “compromised,” so either it's avoiding …

We have a code for Splinter Cell Blacklist which we will give away on Thursday night, just in time for official launch on Friday. All you have to do is head over to our Facebook page and post a funny caption for the image attached to the post. We would …

Ex Commodore Amiga owners like myself will be anticipating the upcoming release of Shadow Of The Beast, just announced by Sony at their Gamecom press conference. The Shadow Of The Beast was a side scrolling platform game produced by Reflections Interactive and published by Psygnosis in 1989. The original version …

The Chinese Room, the studio behind the PC indie hit Dear Esther has revealed some information about Everybody's Gone To The Rapture, a first person adventure developed for the Playstation 4. At the official Playstation Blog, the co-directors of the story driven title Dan and Jessica have detailed more about …

Sony have announced their intended release dates for the next generation Playstation 4 console. The dates are set at 15th November in North America and 29th November in Europe. The Xbox One will go on sale in the same month, although some countries will now have to wait until 2014 …

Google went down on Saturday, dropping over a third of the world's web traffic in the process. Amazon has followed suit just a few days later, with its 40 minutes of inactivity purportedly costing the company as much as $5 million. When sites get this massive, are teething problems expected …

Inspiration and crushed dreams all rolled in to one, that's what high-level Donkey Kong scores are. They show us what we'd potentially be capable of if we spent an inordinate amount of time jumping barrels and punching out rivets, but at the same time, they show us just how much …

How often have you wanted to punch someone in the face over the internet? No need to answer that question young padawan, we've all been there hundreds and hundreds of times. Which is why, when Kinect first came out, it finally looked like we might get the next best thing …

Microsoft may have annoyed many countries after announcing some will need to wait until 2014 to get the Xbox One, but the company have announced a huge list of games for the next generation console. According to Xbox.com, there are now 50 games listed for the Xbox One console, with …

Nvidia has been quite vocal about its disinterest in the console industry, citing low profit margins as one of the reasons you won't find any of its hardware in the next-gen Xbox One or PS4 consoles. AMD however, believes this isn't true and that by bringing its hardware to bear, …

Mozilla released the notes from their latest Firefox planning meeting showing that they plan on releasing a version of Firefox for Windows 8's ‘Metro' user interface system. The preview release will officially arrive as part of the companies Firefox 26 release on December 10th. If you want it earlier, then …

Plants V Zombies was one of my favourite games of all time. I played it on and off for around a full year, after it was released. I bought it for several devices and just loved the whole experience. Great pricing and such an additive little game. Regular readers will …

Microsoft has accused Google of deliberately sabotaging its ability to have a working Youtube application on the Windows phone platform, by “manufacturing” reasons why it could revoke the Windows maker's license to use the Youtube API. In a blog post titled, “The limits of Google's openness,” Microsoft corporate VP and …

With just over a week to go until Microsoft points are discontinued for good, Microsoft has highlighted that this will also lead to the end of buying games through its Games for Windows Live marketplace – as if that was something we all did with glee before. GFWL, while a …

The Xbox One has been pushed back to 2014 in eight countries, Microsoft confirmed late yesterday. Gamers who want to snag the latest console in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland will have to wait now until an unspecified date next year. The Xbox One will still be …

The latest version of Geekbench has just been released, the first major update to the program in 6 years. The software is available for Windows, OSX, Linux, Android and iOS. Geekbench 3 includes 15 new benchmark tests that are designed to model real-world processor intensive tasks.  The new tests cover …

While all the ins and outs of the next-generation of consoles have yet to be finalised, this hasn't stopped one investment firm speculating about how profitable it could be. While Sony famously didn't charge a thing for its PS3 online service, it will be on the PS4 and that should …

Wondering what specials, extras and bonuses you'll get if you happen to order one of the special packs that Call of Duty: Ghosts will come as part of? Well we can now reveal that there's a camera in the mix, as well as a strap. Yes people, CoD now comes …

EA Games might not be everyone's favourite company, but it's trying to turn that image around. No not with some big new advertising campaign, but by writing a cheque to charity, using its games to fund it. Teaming up with the guys at Humble Bundle, EA is offering a  huge …

Grand Theft Auto 5 is one of the most awaiting new games to be released this year. This and WatchDogs are on my top ‘to get list' before the year end. RockStar have released a ‘travelogue' for the upcoming title with a focus on locations. Los Angeles and Southern California …

Windows 8.1 is going to make its debut on October 18th, according to Microsoft. It will get released in New Zealand first at 12am. Windows 8 users around the world will be able to download and install 8.1 as a free update via the Windows Store. Yes, ‘free' and ‘Microsoft' …

Mario Kart 7 has sold well for Nintendo, topping the charts several times since it was released two years ago. The company have decided to launch a new Mario Kart 7 Community Facebook application to target a wide audience of gamers. The application will store the details of the best …

Companies which are classified as being critical to the infrastructure of the United Kingdom are going to receive support to prevent serious cyber attacks. A new service is starting which will combine industry experts with the services of a British eavesdropping agency. Yesterday the two cyber incident response units launched …

If you or your child is having difficulty standing up straight then you may need to blame your console. The effects of hunching over to play with smartphones, consoles and tablets have created what two Dutch orthopaedic experts are calling ‘Game Boy Back'. These back problems are normally associated with …

A group of Chinese hackers called the ‘Comment Crew' have resumed their attacks against dissidents. FireEye, a security organisation who specialise in stopping sophisticated attacks have documented attackers who are using a new set of tools and evasion techniques. The company cannot name their clients but Rob Rachwald, director of …

PC gamers are always miffed when the consoles owners get Grand Theft Auto before the beloved PC version. In the past it has taken RockStar between 9 months and a year to get the PC version out to market. There are two theories for this. The first is that it …

A project set up by Upheaval Arts is set to interest many gamers who enjoyed  StarCraftII. StarCraft Universe is set in an ‘alternative reality' where the ending of StarCraft II:Wings of Liberty has a grim conclusion for Kerrigan. Without the Queen of Blades to stop the hybrid’s assault, the protoss …