It’s 9 o’clock at night. Aaron Gilroy has been working 14-hour days nonstop for months. The tireless program manager’s latest task: hauling a dozen greasy bags of Kentucky Fried Chicken to a building in a scruffy light-industrial neighborhood in Silicon Valley.

Stockholm, Sweden - January 29, 2013 - Donya Labs, creators of Simplygon(TM), and the leading provider of automatic 3D-optimization solutions for the video-game industry, today announced a new licensing agreement with US game developer Insomniac Games. Simplygon's powerful 3D-optimization features have been integrated into the art pipeline to automatically optimize the 3D assets in Fuse.

Santa Monica, CA - January 29, 2013 - The revolution has begun!  Call of Duty®: Black Ops II Revolution, the first of four Downloadable Content (DLC) Map Packs for the record-setting Call of Duty: Black Ops II launches today!  From Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq:ATVI), and their award-winning studio Treyarch, Revolution delivers an unprecedented amount of new and innovative "must-play" content, including four radically diverse multiplayer maps from around the world, as well as a new Zombies map "Die Rise."  Revolution also features a couple franchise first offerings, including a brand-new Zombies mode "Turned," which literally turns the tables and allows gamers to play as a zombie, as well as a new bonus multiplayer weapon, the "Peacekeeper." Revolution is available today first, exclusively on Xbox LIVE® for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, with other platforms to follow.  Fans can purchase Revolution individually, or pick it up as part of the Call of Duty: Black Ops II DLC Season Pass discounted* bundle.

Developed using Unreal Engine 3, Hawken looks fantastic, putting players in the cockpits of lethal mechs, each with their own weapons, loadouts, and perks. Through kills and match victories, players will rank up and unlock new items for their mechs, opening up new tactical opportunities and new play styles. Being a free-to-play title, players also have the option of speeding progress along through the use of real money transactions, though these do not grant additional power or a competitive edge over players who progress through exclusively through the use of experience.

This morning NVIDIA released the new GeForce 313.95 beta driver. Most of the performance improvements are focused on Crysis 3's Open Beta but they also highlighted improvements in Assassin's Creed III of up to %27, 19% in Civ 5, and many more. Click the read more below to read their PR and to find out more details on what to expect from the 313.95 Beta driver, where to get it, and even more info on Crysis 3's Open Beta.

Last month, NVIDIA released GeForce Experience as a closed beta. Over 40,000 gamers downloaded the application and we received a tremendous amount of feedback. In the past month our software team has been busy incorporating that feedback and making improvements. Today, we're pleased to announce that GeForce Experience will be available as an open beta for anyone to download and try out.

Gothenburg, Sweden - January 18, 2013 - Entropia Universe AB, the largest Massively Multiplayer Online Real Cash Economy (or MMORCE) game, announced today that MindArk has released a brand new avatar system.  This new system will bring Entropia Universe to the forefront of graphics technology in an MMO with highly detailed and fully customizable new avatars.

Stockholm, Sweden - January 14, 2013  - Donya Labs, creators of Simplygon(TM) and the leading provider of automatic 3D-optimization solutions for the video-game industry, today announced a new licensing agreement with British developer Ninja Theory and game publisher Capcom for the upcoming game title DmC Devil May Cry(TM).

Santa Monica, CA - January 11, 2013 - Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced today that, according to data from the NPD Group, the Skylanders franchise crossed $500 million in retail sales in the U.S., inclusive of accessory packs and figures, and reached this milestone faster than any other kids' gaming property. Additionally, together Skylanders Giants and Skylanders Spyro's Adventure figures have outsold the top action figure lines in the toy category in the U.S., outselling such popular toy lines as Beyblades, WWE and Star Wars.¹

Santa Monica, CA - January 8, 2013 - Fresh on the heels of the biggest entertainment launch of 2012 -Call of Duty®: Black Ops II, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI), and their award-winning development studio Treyarch are kicking-off 2013 with the announcement of Revolution, the first massive Downloadable Content (DLC) Pack for the record-setting game. Since the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, millions of fans have taken-on the game's ambitious near-future fiction, engaged in over 427 million hours of near-future warfare in non-stop multiplayer action, and survived hordes of Zombies. Set to launch January 29 first, exclusively on Xbox LIVE® for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft with other platforms to follow, Revolution delivers an unprecedented level of content, and for the first time in Call of Duty® DLC history, a new bonus multiplayer weapon.

Austin, TX -- Jan 08, 2013 -- Mushkin, Inc., an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, announced today at CES 2013 that its new line of memory modules, code named Stealth, are scheduled for worldwide release mid-February. The new family of modules includes high-performance specifications for professionals and tech enthusiasts who want the best possible computing experience.

A video gamed themed halftime show to help you guys start your week. If you haven't seen this yet, you are missing out if you don't watch it. Especially around the six minute mark. It doesn't matter if you are an Ohio State fan or not, this is very impressive. 

That's right, you can now setup multiple install locations on steam. Not to mention you can also sort through and see the installation size of all of your hardly played games. 

Here is how you go about doing this. 

• Make sure you have the Beta client installed
• Start Steam with -dev  AKA create a shortcut and change the save target to look like this 

  D:\Steam\Steam.exe -dev

• Go to console and type install_folder_ui
• Add other folders as needed that have the space you need

I'm not sure how I missed this before. But we spoke before about EA's thoughts on Steam sales. Valve's Jason Holtman, business development chief, responded back with a wealth of information on why they do what they do and how it works for them. But the best quote that I found from the interview sums up Valves outlook and reasoning. 

 If we thought having a 75 per cent sale on Portal 2 would cheapen Portal 2, we wouldn't do it.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-11-valve-counters-eas-steam-sales-cheapen-intellectual-property-accusation

Get out your wallet now, its time for the steam summer sale!!

A good read from a friend of mine over at Bright Side of the News

Valve cannot and will not hide behind a claim of being a victim of piracy, but rather innovate around it. By decreasing the price of CS:GO to $15 and the price of DOTA 2 to free, they have effectively de-incentivized piracy and at the same time have significantly increased their legitimate audience. By decreasing the price, Valve made CS:GO and DOTA 2 affordable to almost everyone, and as a result of pure economics, their market is expanded. What does this mean? More people are going to buy these games and whenever more people buy a game, computer hardware sales go up, bringing the entire PC gaming industry with it.

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/newsv2.aspx?id=3138

As a big fan of Prototype game this is very disappointing to me.

"Although we made a substantial investment in the Prototype IP, it did not find a broad commercial audience. Radical is a very talented team of developers, however, we have explored various options for the studio, including a potential sale of the business, and have made a difficult conclusion through the consultation process that the only remaining option is a significant reduction in staff. As such, some employees will remain working for Radical Entertainment supporting other existing Activision Publishing projects, but the studio will cease development of its own games going forward."

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/02/prototype-2-developers-wont-be-making-any-more-games-pc-version-unaffected/

This weekend (June 30th - July 1st), during the Starcraft II MCSL Season 7 playoffs, SAPPHIRE Technology will run a Manic Weekend giveaway with Team EG on Facebook. EDGE HD3 mini PC, HD 7870 GHz Edition graphics card or one of ten Team EG Jabba t-shirts are in the prize pool. A teaser about the giveaway is available athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnufVsoZtgY
Manic Weekend with Team EG is a special edition of SAPPHIRE’s Manic Monday giveaway series. To enter the giveaway, go to www.facebook.com/SapphireTechnology and visit the EG Manic Weekend application. Answer the question presented by Evil Geniuses’ ‘Machine’ and submit your entry. From the group of correct entries, 12 winners will be randomly selected. The contest will close on July 1st 11:59PM PDT.
MCSL (Master’s Cup Series League - http://mcsl.evilgeniuses.net/) is hosted by the Team EG StarCraft 2 league. The MCSL has grown to become one of the world’s most prestigious online leagues for professional gamers. This year’s series will be settled this weekend between four teams (SlayerS, Mousesports, Complexity and Fnatic).

For those old school gamers like me, I came across this image on reddit this morning. The post was titled "100 amazing DOS games. This was my childhood." but the image itself is titled List of worthwhile DOS games. Either way, it’s a walk into the past for those of us who grew up with floppy disks and command prompts. 

http://information2share.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/list-of-worthwhile-dos-games.jpg

The long awaited Meet the Pryo video is finally very close to release and the three days leading up to it are being called Pyromania. Today being the first day Valve introduced a new game mode called Doomsday. To go along with it they added 11 more achievements that correspond with the map. I know if I get the time I will be checking the new map out, who's with me? Here are the links to both Valves blob posting and the landing page for pyromania. 

http://www.teamfortress.com/pyromania/

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=8260