Hello and welcome to another day of news postings for today December 15th, and also December 14th. Read on and enjoy!



SteelSeries 6Gv2 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard @ Benchmark Reviews

Thermaltake Armor A60 Mid-Tower Case Review @ Bigbruin.com

iXBT Labs Review: i3DSpeed, November 2010

HP Photosmart Premium C309G All-in-One Printer Review @ Hardware Secrets

Spire Savit 6003 case @ Rbmods

Verbatim Store & Go 320 GB @ techPowerUp

Vantec Nexstar NST-D400S3 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Dual Bay Hard Drive Dock Review @ Tweaknews

AMD Radeon HD 6970 & HD 6950 Review @ Neoseeker

News - Psyko 5.1 PC Gaming Headset Review at Overclockers Online

HIS Radeon HD 6970 2 GB @ techPowerUp

HIS Radeon HD 6950 2 GB @ techPowerUp

SAPPHIRE HD 6950 2GB Video Card

Diamond Radeon HD 6970 XOC DirectX 11 Video Card Review @Hi Tech Legion

Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB DDR5 DX11 Video Card Review @Hi Tech Legion

ASUS Radeon HD 6950 CrossFire @ techPowerUp

PowerColor Radeon HD 6970 Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews

HIS Radeon 6950 2GB Graphics Card Review @ eTeknix.com

AMD HD 6970 and HD 6950 Review @ OCC

AMD Radeon HD 6950 & 6970 CrossFire Video Card Reviews @ Legit Reviews

Inno3D Geforce GTX460 OC Review @ XtremeComputing

Pro Football Pick 'Em Week 15 - Win a Thermaltake BlacX 5G Drive Dock

HIS AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB Review @ Vortez

AMD Radeon HD6970 and HD6950 Announcement

TechwareLabs Review: Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 800w Power Supply

XFX HD 6970 Graphics Card Review @ Tweaknews

Kingston Data Traveller Mini Fun G2 Roundup @ XSReviews

AMD ATI Chips Comparison Table @ Hardware Secrets

Its almost Christmas time, have you filled out your list and checked it twice? Ah, who cares, on with the news.

World Of Warcraft Cataclysm


 
So we all know that WoW is the MMORPG juggernaut. With over twelve million subscribers according to Blizzard, there is no other than can touch it. With an new expansion the crowd of players comes out in force to pick up the game. Fans of Blizzard are a crazy bunch. I have never witnessed as many people that dress up for a game. You have to hand it to them for creating a game that draws so much attention. With this new release the level cap has been raised to 85 and you can now fly in Azeroth. Two new races have been introduced Goblins for the Horde side and Worgens for the Alliance side. All of the starting zones have been redesigned with all new quests. I haven't started a new character yet to see this new content. I have been working on my Blood Elf Hunter, hitting level 85 just a couple of days ago. The problem with WoW is that there is so much to do and so much to see that it turns players away. I have been playing for two years and I still haven't seen half of the game. With this new expansion Blizzard is hoping to change that. Until I create a new character I can't say how well this is done. What I can talk about is the new zones. Starting out, you want your hearthstone in Orgimmar.  This is the easiest way to get around the world now. Gone are the days of sitting in Dalaran and using the portals to transfer around the world. There are ports to the new zones in Orgimmar so it makes it pretty easy to get around. I try and stay away from Undercity because my Death Knight Tauren has problems going thru doors on his mount. About the quests, these are some of the best quests that I have ever done in the game. In Wrath of the Lich King Blizzard started this with flying quests and other quests that transformed your character. In Cataclysm they really took it to the next level. There are RTS style quests. mount quests and the all important siege tank quests. I can say that the RTS style quests were quite fun. They really changed up the gameplay. It took me about 25 hours to gather enough XP for me to get to level 85. One of the biggest changes that no one mentions is how much heath you gain. Being a Hunter in Mail, I was around 30k health in moderate gear. Now, its over 100k in randoms. There is so much to do and so much to see that this would be a 100 page post. If you play WoW and you haven't picked it up, you need to rush out or download it straight from Blizzard.

FireFall


I can't remember where I watched the PAX footage for this game but once I did I was hooked. Do yourself a favor and watch the trailer for this game.





It looks to be a cross between Team Fortress 2 and World Of Warcraft. If you want to see gameplay from PAX watch the video below.





I really like how you can switch between first and third person on the fly, with both views looking great. What I know so far is the game is a team-based-action-shooter that is free to play with micro transactions. I know for some the barrier for World of Warcraft is the subscription fee. With FireFall you don't have to worry about that. If you head on over the their site you can check out all the info for the game and also sign up for the beta. Hopefully when this comes out its going to turn some heads. This is one of my most anticipated games for 2011.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam



In three days the new expansion for Battlefield Bad Company 2 drops. For a measly $14.99 off the Steam store you can pick this up and join us for a great team based shooter. We will have a thread up in our forums of who has this and who is going to be playing. Remember, you must have the base Battlefield Bad Company 2 game to run Vietnam.

Steam's Midweek Madness Sale

 
If you haven't played Killing Floor you are missing out. If you like games with zombies, guns and weapon upgrades then this is the game for you. I have played many games with our writers Adam and Cory and have always had a great time. For $6.80 you can't go wrong. Do yourself a favor and pick this up and then play it at the next LAN on your downtime. 

Also on sale this week are Just Cause 2 for $7.49, Metro 2033 for $9.99.

Monday Night Combat


Monday Night Combat is launching on PC. You can pre-order it on Steam right now for $13.49 for a savings of 10%. This is a class based shooter, think Team Fortress 2 on steroids. This was a huge hit on XBLA but remember that not many people play TF2 on consoles. This may be something to look at when it comes out January 7, 2011. 


Game Nights

The comments started flowing over the last week or so about having game nights. We have a wide variety of people in LanOC which is great. Not all people play the same games. We have been thinking about setting up nights for specific games. The two biggest games right now are COD:Black Ops and  Battlefield. We need our community's input of which games for which nights you want to play. Now I know that we are going to have a TF2 night and a Starcraft 2 night but we are just wanting to get your input. There are so many games out there that we all play that we can't fit them all in but we will try and figure out a system that works. One night might be a FPS night then the next be a RTS night. Just thinking out loud here but what will make this work is people showing up on game nights with games that they own and giving their input. I know that games aren't cheap and we don't all own the same games but the ones that the community agrees on will be giving first priority. Let us know what you think in this thread.

That is all for Gaming News this week. I have one final left for the semester, hopefully i'll do just as good on this one as I did on my other ones. Remember your cast of editors/writers are leaving on January 5th for CES. Please post up what you want us to cover. I hope you have a good week and remember to get your Christmas shopping done early. Or, you can be like me and order all of your stuff online, have it gift wrapped and shipped to your family. I don't know what it is but I suck at wrapping gifts, I blame it on the wrapping paper. Have a good week everyone. Wingless92 out.

ISLANDIA, NY / IRVINE, CA -- Dec 13, 2010 -- MaxxVault LLC is pleased to announce that EMR Technologies, a leading provider of workflow solutions in southern California, has joined with MaxxVault as a Platinum reseller partner. EMR Technologies, based in Irvine, California, is ideally suited to resell MaxxVault Enterprise server as the tools included allow documents to be routed securely according to the efficient workflow the EMR experts design.

Connect via USB

Maori Warrior Meets PC Case:
Introducing the New Tattoo Series
Made for Gamers by Gamers

09 December 2010, Xizhi City, Taipei County, Taiwan – Cubitek Co. Ltd., a Taiwan-based manufacturer of uniquely designed computer cases, today released the all new Tattoo PC case series: The Tattoo Beta, the Tattoo Pro, and the Tattoo Fire computer chassis. Inspired by tattoos worn by Maori warriors, the “tattoo” graphics on these cases make them aesthetically powerful and creates a whole new dimension in PC case designing. Furthermore, the Tattoo chassis features an innovation not found on any other PC case: Conveniently located on the top panel next to a mini USB cable & micro USB adapter, a tray is built into the case. This tray is ideal for holding mobile phones, as well as photographic, storage, and backup devices, making uploading pics, syncing, and internet tethering easy while keeping devices safe.

??????FREMONT, CALIF., USA – December 9, 2010 - Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash, storage and enthusiast computer products, today announces the Supersonic USB 3.0 flash drive series with a native single-chip USB 3.0 controller. The Patriot Supersonic series breaks away from typical USB 3.0 flash drive and delivers blazing-fast performance with its Quad-Channel technology in a miniature ultra-light form factor.

The Patriot Supersonic series eliminates performance bottlenecks introduced when using a separate USB 3.0 bridge chip by integrating a native USB 3.0 flash memory controller. This results in a smaller footprint and higher performance than bridge based solutions - see chart below.