Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine’s launch is fast approaching, coming out on the 6th and 9th of this month for North America and Europe respectively. While we already knew that the game would be shipping with a multiplayer component, that deal is getting even sweeter with a co-op mode coming shortly after as free DLC. If you’ve ever wanted to sash your way through an Ork horde with a buddy – and really, who hasn’t? – you’re going to get that chance.

This upcoming DLC, which will come in “early October,” will be going under the name of “Exterminatus,” which seems straight forward enough, in a Latin-sort-of-way. Included in this release will be two scenarios that are designed to let four players romp around, unleashing gleeful destruction upon their hapless foes. Additionally, there will be global leaderboards and “posing ‘dynamic challenges’ to players and supporting additional ‘score modifiers.’”

This mode comes in addition to the already included 8v8 multiplayer mode that allows players to battle as either Space Marines or Chaos Space Marines in a variety of game modes, including a team death match mode, and a capture point mode.

Late Wednesday evening, new information about Star Trek Online came to light during a Q&A session between investors and Perfect World Entertainment’s CEO and CFO.  While fielding questions about the acquisition of Cryptic Studios by PWE, it was revealed that “Cryptic is working on the free-to-play model for Star Trek Online. This is going to be launched by the end of this year as well. So I think free-to-play model we have a bigger potential in US market and also in China market.”

Honestly, this information isn’t completely unexpected. It’s definitely something that a lot of players and fans of the property have been clammoring about for a long time. Add to the mix that Champions Online: Free for All version appears to be doing very well and PWE’s commitment to F2P titles, it appears that we have the recipe for the announcement.

There is no question that this is a smart move by PWE on behalf of Star Trek Online. By all reports out of Champions Online, the in-game store is not a “pay to win” type of store and truly does contain fluffy vanity items rather than overpowered weapons, etc. If PWE and Cryptic have learned anything from Champions’ transformation into a F2P game, let’s hope it’s this one.

A sticky issue for PWE is going to be the fact that STO has run on a “sort of” item mall model from its inception. While the game charged a monthly fee, players who wanted to, for instance, play other races had to unlock them using the Cryptic Store. The new model is going to have to address some of that when it reemerges as a F2P game. Devs are going to have to ask themselves which things will stay in the store as vanity and which will have to be released wholesale as something required to “win” at the game. Without adequate answers, the idea of pay to win might have some merit.

Fans of the game and those who love the IP will want to watch the transformation of STO as the months roll on. We can certainly hope that the development team will be expanded as (hopefully) revenue rolls in. More devs = more content which is always a good thing.

So what are your thoughts about the F2P Star Trek Online? Is this a good or a bad thing? What about the announcement pleases you and what worries you? Let us know!

We’ve seen something like this before, but CNET has reported that Apple has lost yet another unreleased iPhone, in a bar of all places.

Cava 22, a restaurant in San Francisco’s mission district, is the purported location where the phone was misplaced late last month.

Determined to get their property back, Apple tracked the device to a home in the Bernal Heights area of San Francisco, where police officials questioned a man in his twenties regarding the location of the phone and even searched the property to try to locate it. The man admitted that he had no knowledge of its whereabouts, despite reportedly being offered money by Apple employees in exchange for information.

In addition, there are speculations that the device has already been sold on Craigslist. Developers have already been given a version of Apple’s new phone, but they are said to be using the identical casing as the iPhone 4. Considering its physical makeup is the same as the current iPhone, a Craigslist seller may have sold it without knowing that it was actually the iPhone 4’s successor.

It is unknown as to whether or not the phone has been retrieved in the last month, although the San Francisco Police Department verified that Apple has not filed a police report in regards to the misplaced device. Considering the debacle that ensued as a result of last year’s “lost” iPhone, Apple is surely working hard to make sure that history does not repeat itself.

Apple has made no announcements about their next iPhone, although reports suggest that they will be revealing the iPhone 5 within the next month or two.

Clarkson Gives His Verdict On The Warthog

Next up, he takes it round the Top Gear test track

 
ZOTAC debuts new home theatre PC friendly ZBOX nano AD10 series

HONG KONG – Aug. 31, 2011 – ZOTAC® International, a leading innovator and the world’s largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today debuts the palm-sized ZBOX nano AD10 series mini-PCs. The new ZOTAC® ZBOX nano AD10 series shrinks the standard ZBOX form factor and adds more home theatre PC friendly features for your digital media needs.
Powered by the AMD “Brazos” E-350 APU Platform with Discrete-Class AMD Radeon™ HD 6310 graphics, the ZOTAC® ZBOX nano AD10 series packs plenty of performance with hardware video decode acceleration technologies for popular high-definition video formats, including Blu-ray and Adobe® Flash®, into a miniature 127mm x 127mm x 45mm form factor that fits in the palm of your hand.
“The ZOTAC® ZBOX nano AD10 series is our smallest mini-PC,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC® International. “Despite the miniature size, the ZBOX nano AD10 series has nearly all the same features as our award-winning ZBOX and ZBOX Blu-ray series, and even introduces a couple new features.”
New to the ZOTAC® ZBOX nano AD10 series is an integrated infra-red receiver with bundled Windows Media Center compatible remote control – a USB IR receiver is also bundled.
“There was a lot of demand for a bundled remote with our mini-PCs so we listened and engineered a solution that would work for all home theatre PC installation scenarios,” Mr. Berger added. “Our dual IR receiver solution enables use of the remote control with all placements, including hidden and wall-mounted installations.”
Customizing the ZOTAC® ZBOX nano AD10 series remains easy with two thumb screws that unlock the internals. A DDR3 SO-DIMM slot and space for a 2.5-inch SATA 6.0 Gb/s hard drive or SSD is available in the ZOTAC® ZBOX nano AD10 while the ZBOX nano AD10 Plus ships with 2GB of memory and a 320GB hard drive preinstalled.
A new VESA 75/100 mount for monitor or wall mounting installations is included with all ZOTAC® ZBOX nano AD10 series mini-Pcs and enables users to attach the mini-PC in four different orientations for improved flexibility.
It’s time to play with the ZOTAC® ZBOX nano AD10 series.

 
General details
·        ZOTAC® Debuts Palm-Sized ZBOX nano AD10 series
·        AMD E-350 APU platform
o   1.6 GHz, dual-core
·        AMD Radeon™ HD 6310 graphics processor
o   80 unified shaders
o   Engine clock: 500 MHz
·        ZBOX nano AD10
o   1 x DDR3-1066 SO-DIMM slot
o   Support 1 x 2.5-inch SATA 6.0 Gb/s HDD/SSD
·        ZBOX nano AD10 Plus
o   2GB DDR3
o   320GB 5400RPM HDD
·        2 x SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports
·        HDMI & DisplayPort outputs
·        AMD UVD technology(hardware accelerated H.264, VC-1, decode)
·        Dolby® TrueHD™ & DTS-HD™: Master Audio bitstream ready
·        Gigabit Ethernet
·        Onboard 802.11n WiFi
·        Onboard Bluetooth 3.0 technology

ZBOX Specifications:
Product Name ZBOX nano AD10 ZBOX nano AD10 Plus
SKU ZBOXNANO-AD10 ZBOXNANO-AD10-PLUS
Memory 1 x 204-pin DDR3-1066 SODIMM slot 2GB DDR3

Hard Disk 1 x 2.5-inch 320GB 5400RPM
CPU AMD E-350 APU Platform (1.6 GHz, dual-core)
GPU AMD Radeon™ HD 6310
Video Memory Unified Memory Architecture
Display Options HDMI (w/audio) & DisplayPort
Memory Card Reader 6-in-1 (SD/SDHC/MMC/MS/MS Pro/xD)
SATA eSATA (rear)
Ethernet 10/100/1000Mbps
WiFi Onboard 802.11n WiFi & Bluetooth 3.0
USB Ports 2 USB 2.0 (rear)
2 USB 3.0 ports (rear)
Audio Onboard analog stereo high-definition audio
7.1-Channel digital audio (LPCM and Bistream capable via HDMI)
DirectX®Support DirectX® 11 with Shader Model 5
Other Features OpenCL compliant, OpenGL®4.1 compatible, AMD UVD technology
HDCP: Yes
Software Features
Windows®7 Capability Windows® 7 with Aero® user interface and DirectCompute compatible

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think I just got a bit too excited about this in me pants 😀

~Lone