According to the interview by "The escapist" (which has, btw., been removed from their page but mirrored by mmo-champion, probably because the information has been released too early), the Random Raid Finder will introduce a new difficulty-level of raids and also a different loot.

The next big thing that we'll be doing is the random raid finder. The idea behind this is that it is very similar to the dungeon finder we have now except that it is for raids. There are special rules associated with how that is going to work, the first one is that the raid finder is going to be for 25 person only, it's not a way for you to have 10 person raids, it's only for 25 person. It is cross server we will do some auto match making very similar to how it is looking for dungeon. Another piece is that there is going to be another difficulty level and this raid difficulty – the random raid finder difficulty level – we haven't figured out exactly what it's going to be called but there will be a difficulty level easier than normal mode. You'll end up having this raid finder mode then you'll have your normal mode and your heroic mode. The normal and heroic modes are exactly what they are today.

Random hc => Normal raid => Hero raid

Now we got another step in between:

Random hc (to get gear + VP) => Random raid => Normal raid => (probably never ^^) hero raid

The good thing about RRF is, that there are lots of players who are in social-only guilds for the sake of their friends, but they're not raiding because ppl have only a few hours of gametime each week and those aren't at steady times (most guilds have steady dates + times for their raids. organisation ftw!). Additionally, if you want to find a good STEADY raid group, you most probably would have to leave your guild (thx to the guild perks). So with RRF, you can stay in your social guild AND find Random-raids way easier than to spam trade channel for hours.

Additionally, there will be lots of ppl who are curious about how RRF works, so i guess we're gonna see a lot of demand for gems, enchants and belt buckles within the first few weeks. And even if epic gems will be released, they will (probably) be too expensive for most players, so they will use the current gems for their gear.

Anyway – i'm happy to read this about the RRF, and perhaps i'm gonna give it a try with one or two of my twinks too.

New infographic illustrates how many Android smartphones are released and left running outdated software.

Between Donut, Eclair, Froyo and Gingerbread, Google's Android mobile operating system has received a number of substantial upgrades over the years. Unfortunately, not all devices have been made to support these updates, leaving many users with one or several generations old software. Worse yet, many new devices aren't being released with the latest version of Android.

 

Naturally, many users are unhappy with the results, and Michael DeGusta has created and posted an infographic highlighting how much of an impact Android fragmentation has had over the years.

 

As you can see, the results are not pretty.

 

Credit: TheUnderstatement.com

The infographic was paired with extensive research conducted by DeGusta, which reveal some startling facts. Of the eighteen recent Android devices discussed, seven have never ran a current version of the OS, ten of the eighteen were at least two years behind the most recent OS within two years of being introduced, and sixteen of the eighteen are unlikely to ever be updated to use Android 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich, which releases next month. By comparison, Apple's iPhone series has remained consistently up-to-date with new software releases, up to three years after they were originally introduced.

 

On the bright side, it seems that flagship Google devices like the Nexus One fared quite nicely, so Nexus S and future Galaxy Nexus owners shouldn't feel the woes that others experience, but that's just one line of devices out of many.

 

For everyone else, Android fragmentation is a persistent problem.

 

To see more of DeGusta's findings, head over to TheUnderstatement.com.

Interplay will continue development.

Bethesda sued Interplay back in 2009 to block development of Fallout Online, an MMO based on the Fallout franchise. Since then, the court battle has continued, with Bethesda losing multiple decisions along the way.

The court's latest decision blocks Bethesda's appeal against a recent ruling. According to Joystiq, Bethesda was denied a preliminary injunction against Interplay in June, and attempted to appeal the decision. That appeal has now also been denied.

Bethesda's argument was that "the district court abused its discretion and misapplied the law in concluding that Bethesda failed to establish a likelihood of irreparable harm." The injunction would have prevented development of Fallout Online, but with the denied appeal, the game will continue to be worked on.

The court battle still isn't over, as Bethesda owns the Fallout license. If the game is eventually completed, Interplay will still need to work out a deal with Bethesda for Fallout Online to be released. This is Bethesda's second high-profile legal loss in recent weeks, as the publisher also lost a recent decision in its legal battle against Minecraft creator Mojang.

THQ's executive VP of core games, Danny Bilson has been talking to Joystiq about the possibility of a sequel to Space Marine. His muted reaction isn't good news for those hoping for a bigger and better follow-up. He says he's "not sure if there's room" for Space Marine 2, thanks in part to the upcoming Warhammer 40,000 MMO, Dark Millenium Online.

Bilson points out that THQ have "already annouced the Imperium in the MMO as a class you can play," and notes that it's "very active, as opposed to the more turn-based stuff. I'm not sure there's room for Space Marine." Dark Millenium's estimated 2013 release could put it in competition with a Space Marine sequel.

There is some good news for those who have enjoyed Relic's use of the license so far with the Dawn of War series and Space Marine. "We are heavily invested in the 40K universe, so there's more stuff coming in the 40K universe, absolutely. We extended the deal for quite a while," says Bilson.

Dark Millenium is being developed by Vigil, but recent rumours have suggested that Relic may be helping out a little with development, and the MMO could use a version of the Darksiders Engine, with similar combat to Space Marine. That would fit Bilson's description of the MMO as "very active." The information, mentioned on Strategy Informer, hinted at some of the included classes and characters, namedropping Imperial Assassins, Eldar Farseers and even Tau units. The info-dump mentioned that races would be separated into Order and Disorder factions, with Chaos and Orks on one side, and Imperials and Eldar on the other.

THQ have since responded to say that "at this time THQ has not officially announced a release date and any reported features are pure speculation. THQ will announce confirmed game features and an official release date at a later time." We've assigned our finest Eldar Rangers to the bushes outside Vigil, but they haven't discovered anything yet because Eldar Rangers are a bit rubbish. We'll be sending in the Space Marines as soon as Rich has managed to fit himself into his power armour.

Bethesda reveals the hardware requirements.

Planning on picking up the PC version of the next entry in Bethesda's popular open world role-playing series? Bethesda's VP or PR and Marketing Pete Hines Tweeted the recommended and minimum hardware requirements, which you'll find listed below.

Hines gave some additional context for the hardware requirements in follow up posts. "The Min specs get you playing. The recommended specs let you play on High, not on Ultra. You'll want beefier rig for that."

Minimum Hardware Requirements:

• OS: Win XP/7/Vista (32 or 64 bit)
• CPU: Dual Core
• RAM: 2GB
• GPU: DX9c video card w/ 512MB RAM
• Internet Access for Steam activation

Recommended Hardware Requirements:

• OS: Win XP/7
• CPU: Quad-Core Intel/AMD CPU
• RAM: 4GB
• GPU: DX9 vid card w/ 1 GB. GTX 260/Radeon 4890 or higher
• Internet Access for Steam activation