Tech of Tomorrow » Videos http://www.techoftomorrow.com Thu, 24 Apr 2014 22:21:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.3 NVIDIA Debuts GeForce Experience 2.0: What’s New? (Features Overview) http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/nvidia-debuts-geforce-experience-2-0/ http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/nvidia-debuts-geforce-experience-2-0/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2014 09:59:32 +0000 http://www.techoftomorrow.com/?p=9779 NVIDIA Debuts GeForce Experience 2.0 on Monday April 7th. Its early Monday morning and we are happy to announce the latest release of NVIDIA’s control center for gaming, other wise known by the moniker GeForce Experience 2.0. 2.0 really brings a lot of new things to the portable gaming world and gamers who find themselves […]

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NVIDIA Debuts GeForce Experience 2.0 on Monday April 7th. Its early Monday morning and we are happy to announce the latest release of NVIDIA’s control center for gaming, other wise known by the moniker GeForce Experience 2.0. 2.0 really brings a lot of new things to the portable gaming world and gamers who find themselves doing a lot of laptop gaming will now be able to do a multitude things previously only available to the desktop.

Since its first iteration in May of 2013 the GeForce Experience has been a growing entity that seems to be getting better step by step. When version 1.0 was released there were 80 game titles available and an almost overnight 1 million installs of the software GUI.

Screenshot 2014-04-07 01.58.40

By October NVIDIA had implemented SHADOWPLAY, where users could now capture their game playing footage much better than FRAPS, and GAMESTREAM allowing users to play 100 games by way of their SHEILD through the NVIDIA cloud.

Screenshot 2014-04-07 02.29.42

By November Adjustable OPS was announced and now 120 game titles were supported with 18M installs. For Christmas NVIDIA let loose they’re TWITCH Broadcast option allowing users to “Live” broadcast their gaming so they could now show off their mad skills to the world. At this point there were also 130 games titles supported and 24 million people had jumped on GeForce Experience bandwagon. TWITCH has become a very popular way for people to share and NVIDIA was smart to add this into their feature set.

Screenshot 2014-04-07 02.30.15

Today NVIDIA announces 4 new things with the release of GeForce Experience 2.0 and many of them seem to be focused on the laptop and mobile sector, but not there are also a few new cool things all around with 2.0. SHADOWPLAY on Notebooks, GAMESTREAM on Notebooks, Battery Boost, and Desktop Capture are all new things that are being introduced today by team green. With this release also comes a brand new DX 12 capable driver the new 337.50, which replaces the 335.23 driver offering substantial performance gains and better overall performance than MANTLE can currently muster.

Screenshot 2014-04-07 02.11.17

Now you will be able to have all of your games on your laptop optimized for not only better playing, but also 2X longer gaming times. This will run automatically in the background with very little system resources being used. NIDIA’s Battery Boost is a step in the right direction for laptop gaming as there is a huge divide between desktop and laptop GPU/CPU power and now with GeForce Experience 2.0 your games will automatically be set to what is best for your system. You will also now be able to capture and broadcast all of your games from your laptop as well as stream all of your titles to the NVIDIA SHEILD via GAMESTREAM.

Screenshot 2014-04-07 02.11.35

 

Screenshot 2014-04-07 02.10.23

Full Desktop Capture is another feature of 2.0 and will now allow users to capture images from your desktop. This new feature will be used for capturing Windowed and Borderless Windowed Games in both DirectX and OpenGL games. This is something that is currently only for the desktop and one of the features not having to do with the mobile market, yet. Another desktop feature is custom encoding and new broadcast options. You can now create a custom output resolutions as well as custom Bit Rate and Framerates, Auto-pause using the Alt-Tab keys, broadcast at 60 FPS and 2.0 now allows Auto Game Naming.  All in all you can see NVIDIA wants to make your gaming environment even better and easier than ever with GeForce Experience 2.0 and it will be available for download by the time you are reading this at 6AM PST. If you are an NVIDIA fan it has never been easier to keep your games up to date, configured for there best playing options and with the latest drivers always installed. Are you Experienced? If you have a new NVIDIA card and are not using the GeForce Experience you are seriously missing out on something cool from team green. Thanks for reading Tech Of Tomorrow where we have a comparison of the older 335.23 driver against the new 337.50, and the results are very nice so check out the site later today for that article.

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HTC One (M8) vs. iPhone 5s: Which Aluminum Beast to Buy? http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/mobile/htc-one-m8-vs-iphone-5s-which-aluminum-beast-to-buy/ http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/mobile/htc-one-m8-vs-iphone-5s-which-aluminum-beast-to-buy/#comments Fri, 28 Mar 2014 21:19:20 +0000 http://www.techoftomorrow.com/?p=9744 If you value build quality and design in your smartphone very highly, it all comes down to two gadgets: the iPhone 5s and the HTC One (M8). Both are undoubtedly fantastic smartphones, but there are pros and cons to each one and one or the other may fit your needs a bit better than the […]

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If you value build quality and design in your smartphone very highly, it all comes down to two gadgets: the iPhone 5s and the HTC One (M8). Both are undoubtedly fantastic smartphones, but there are pros and cons to each one and one or the other may fit your needs a bit better than the other.

The HTC One (M8) is undoubtedly one of the most leaked smartphones of all time, but still manages to impress with its bold design. Thought it is similar to its predecessor, the M7, the minor improvements make it feel even better. The rounded off edges make the device fit better in the hand than last year’s model.  HTC has of course included their now-staple BoomSound front-facing speakers, which just makes sense for watching video and makes me wish every smartphone I use has it.

The iPhone 5s is definitely an “S” generation iPhone for Apple. It stays virtually the same, design-wise, to the 2012 iPhone 5. However, that’s probably a good thing. We’ll always see the Apple-critics moaning about the lack of a bigger screen, but no one can deny the beauty and elegance of Apple’s simple design. The 5s fits perfectly in the hand and the gold color option adds an appeal of its own.

Clearly, the HTC One M8 would win a pure spec war, but specs are irrelevant when compared to the actual experience using the device. HTC’s M8 is running Android 4.4 with its brand new Sense 6 skin. Android 4.4 KitKat is the latest (and sweetest) version of Google’s OS and HTC’s Sense skin has just gotten better from what we’ve seen from the M7. From my time using the M8, it absolutely flies, with its industry-best Snapdragon 801 CPU, and Sense 6 looks sleek and modern. The iPhone 5s is running iOS 7.1, an update to iOS 7 that has really improved the user experience from my 5s. iOS does lack the customizability and flexibility of Android on the M8, but iOS 7 on the 5s and its zippy A7 chip is blazing fast, smooth, and consistent.

One thing Apple has been doing right with the iPhone is the camera. The 5s camera is, hands-down, the best camera on any smartphone (save for the Lumia 1020 which is more camera than phone). HTC’s previous flagship, the M7, had a decent 4-megapixel “Ultrapixel” camera. It worked well in low light, but was just about an average performer overall. The shots from the M8 camera have shown improvement over the M7, but I’d still give the edge to the iPhone.

HTC One M8 iPhone 5s HTC One M8 iPhone 5s

If you want a big screen, however, go HTC. The HTC One M8 features a gorgeous 5-inch 1080p LD with 441 PPI. The colors are accurate and the screen has great brightness. This leads me to give the crown to the M8 as the best “media consumption device” with its industry-best screen paired with front-facing BoomSound speakers. Apple has a smaller 4-inch display on board with the 5s and 326 PPI. This is not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but the HTC One M8 dwarfs it here.

And then, there are the little things. The iPhone 5s features a Touch ID fingerprint scanner for unlocking the phone and for payments, and is overall consistent and convenient. HTC throws in a microSD slot for expandable storage and is great if you take a lot of pictures or enjoy taking your entire music library with you. Both carry Bluetooth 4.0, but the M8 brings NFC and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. No wireless charging at all here, probably due to their primarily aluminum architectures.

At the end of the day, deciding between these two flagships is tough. Keep in mind, when purchasing an Android device over an iOS device, and vice-versa; you’re buying into an ecosystem (Google’s vs. Apple’s). If you like the simplicity of iOS, the spectacular camera, and pocketable, yet gorgeous, design, the iPhone 5s is the better fit. If you like the flexibility of Android, a big and beautiful screen, front-facing speakers, and aren’t the biggest photographer around, the HTC One M8 is your phone. Either way, both smartphones both secure their places in the top of the smartphone world, and honestly, it is quite the luxury to be struggling to make a choice on which superphone to carry in your pocket.

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TitanFall (PC) Game Review: Worth Picking Up? http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/titanfall-review/ http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/titanfall-review/#comments Tue, 25 Mar 2014 20:32:27 +0000 http://www.techoftomorrow.com/?p=9693 Hello Techfans! These days a lot of the biggest budget releases tend to be new entries in long running franchises, with some games hitting as many as 7 or 8 games back to back to back once a year recently. As a result, new IP’s rarely get the same amount of love and attention, unless […]

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Hello Techfans! These days a lot of the biggest budget releases tend to be new entries in long running franchises, with some games hitting as many as 7 or 8 games back to back to back once a year recently. As a result, new IP’s rarely get the same amount of love and attention, unless of course it’s the first new work from a new studio composed of a lot of well known team members that abandoned one of those current dynasty franchises, which is what has made Titanfall one of the most talked about and anticipated games of this year. Titanfall is the first game from Respawn Entertainment which consists of a lot of the guys responsible for COD 4: Modern Warfare, and COD MW2, both games argued by many to be the peak of the COD franchise and responsible for creating much of the modern day warfare craze in the FPS genre. Respawn’s goal was often times stated to be that they wanted to shake things up a bit again, and get away from this formula they helped create, and Titanfall is meant to be the game that hopefully changes things once again, moving towards a sci fi setting with new and different mechanics, and in many ways I have to say it’s a fantastic step forward.

To begin with this game is entirely multiplayer focused, there is no single player campaign or any kind of side mode, the entire game is built around and focused on it’s 6v6 mode, meaning that this was the sole focus of the development team. Players take on the role of Pilots, fighting on foot with means very familiar to a lot of FPS conventions, albeit with the addition of a lot more mobility options including a wall run and double jump ability. What really sets Titanfall apart though is of course Titans, monstrous personal mechs that every player can summon during a match to force a change in team tactics. All match types are permanently set to 6v6 in every mode, and while maps are larger than most traditional 12 player designs, the use of Titans and the games inclusion of AI controlled minion soldier’s helps to keep the action alive across the entire landscape.

At it’s core there’s a lot of things familiar about Titanfall that have simply been reconstructed or changed up to fit it’s new approach, the majority of which I really like personally. First off the game doesn’t use any kind of Killstreak system, instead giving all player and titan abilities either a cooldown period after use, or set them on a timer you have to wait for. The only exception is the ability to summon a titan itself, which while requiring a timer initially, can be sped up through good performance like killing minions, pilots, or simply damaging enemy titans. This means that all players share a similar frequency of power use instead of simply based on kills, so it doesn’t give any kind of ridiculous momentum to someone with an early advantage or punish those players unlucky enough to get sent into a match midway through.

Gunplay on foot feels very similar to the COD franchise (for fairly good reasons), though recoil across all guns feels a lot weaker compared to most games. The new mobility options give pilot’s a crazier amount of speed than most games, and players definitely feel rewarded for learning the fastest ways to travel across the game’s 16 different maps. While titans control for the most part very similarly to pilots, the lack of jump and inclusion of a dash really change up the tactics of titan on titan combat, and players really need to learn how to adjust their strategies based on whether they stay on foot or in a titan, and what they’re up against. I really like the fact that while a titan can easily destroy pilots that just run around in the open, those who are careful enough and take their time are completely capable of taking on a titan one on one thanks to the games rodeo mechanic, though of course teamwork on either side can mess with this dynamic.

As is pretty popular these days in a lot multiplayer FPS games, players earn experience from matches and completed challenges and in return, level up and gain new abilities or options for customization. Pilots run fairly trodden ground getting a primary weapon, side arm, some kind of ordinance, a special cooldown based tactical ability like cloaking or stim pack, and a pair of passive bonuses. Titan’s share the choice of main gun, ordinance (albeit these consist more missiles than grenades), and passive bonuses and tactical ability; though an important unique option is the titan’s core which determines its appearance, speed, and defense. This brings us to the first thing I don’t like about the game: Lack of customization options. While some areas are fine and cover all the usual bases like weapon choice, other options are exceedingly slim like pilot tactical abilities, of which there are only three to choose from. Restricting this variety does make the game a bit easier to balance and test, but it just feels a bit too stifling and having a total of 5 customized loadouts almost feels like overkill considering how many you actually switch between mid match.

The second problem is it’s campaign, which honestly I can forgive considering this games approach. The campaign mode itself is simply running through 9 matches back to back on a specific level and match type, with the addition of some dialogue before hand and maybe some special picture in picture scenes during. It’s short, not always easy to follow since a lot of developments can occur while you’re focused on the match itself, and just not really all that interesting. Still though, I honestly prefer this over the choice of having a single player campaign that lasts 6 hours with no difficulty and was just added on out of a sense of tradition. Instead they knew they wanted the game to be about multiplayer, and made it focused just on that, which personally I respect rather than seeing time and resources go to a mode that devs clearly didn’t care that much for.

My last issue is one that is admittedly a matter of personal taste, and that’s burn cards. Burn cards are these special one time use items you get for completing matches and challenges, and offer some kind of special bonus that lasts for a single life, or in some rare cases an entire match. Effects vary from fairly useful temp bonuses like increased speed or a slightly reduced titan build time, whereas some others can get absolutely crazy like super amped versions of regular guns and permanently active tactical abilities in addition to the one you have equipped. I’ll admit they’re fun to use when you have them, but they just add an element of randomness that just doesn’t sit right with me for the competitive side of the game, and while they’re inclusion in the first place is ok, the fact that there’s no mode in which they’re turned off just bothers me.

Overall despite the few things I didn’t enjoy, Titanfall is a super fun casual style shooter, especially for those of you out there with a love of giant robots punching each other. From a competitive standpoint there are some things to take issue with, but if you just go in looking for a fun way to kill time, then this game is definitely worth picking up. I’d say it’s worth full price to anyone itching to grab it right away, though with EA’s track record and existence of a season pass, then patience can be rewarded since a more price affordable, complete version of the game is bound to come out in a year’s time under the name “GOTY edition” or “Premium edition”. Make sure to check out our complete Video review of the game which covers several of the same topics, but with the inclusion of shiny gameplay to give you a real sense of how the game flows. As always guys, thanks for reading Tech of Tomorrow!

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Razer Unleashes New Razer Blade with 14″ QHD+ Display & GTX 870M GPU http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/razer-unleashes-new-razer-blade-with-14-qhd-display-gtx-870m-gpu/ http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/razer-unleashes-new-razer-blade-with-14-qhd-display-gtx-870m-gpu/#comments Thu, 13 Mar 2014 15:28:24 +0000 http://www.techoftomorrow.com/?p=9615 The Razer Blade has been an impressive machine these last couple of years. The last two versions packed a decent Nvidia GeForce GT 555M GPU into a thin and svelte body. All though this was great and all, it had one glaring error: the display. It was okay, but for such a high price point, […]

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The Razer Blade has been an impressive machine these last couple of years. The last two versions packed a decent Nvidia GeForce GT 555M GPU into a thin and svelte body. All though this was great and all, it had one glaring error: the display. It was okay, but for such a high price point, you’d expect something a bit better. So, Razer has set out to fix this critical mistake.

The freshly-debuted Razer Blade for 2014 highlights an insane 14-inch 3,200×1,800 resolution (QHD+) touch screen. This all comes with a similar design as before powered by a Core i7 chip, Nvidia GeForce 870M, and 8GB of DDR3 memory. But an increase to such a high resolution would definitely need some powerful processing power backing it up.

Luckily, the 870M has 3GB of dedicated GGDR5 VRAM, along with the system’s standard 8GBs. As a result, the Blade can run drive the QHD+ display smoothly, but can also handle gaming at this native resolution. Software-wise, it runs Windows 8.1, which may upset some of you out there who swear by Windows 7. Razer has also reintroduced the Switchblade UI and second screen touchpad.

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Oddly enough, the new 17-inch model, dubbed the Blade Pro, sticks to a standard 1080p non-touch display. Both the 14-inch and 17-inch models are ditching HDDs for good and going all in with SSDs. They start at a paltry 128GB (paltry for gamers, at least), and go up to 256 and 512GB. To compliment the speed boosts than SSD provides, Razer has also thrown in support of 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

What really has been setting the Blade apart from other competing gaming laptops has been the design, and the new Blade is no exception. It has a clean look and feel while maintaining a super thin profile. The green and black accents deliver a sleek look and are a neat touch. Let’s hope Haswell will deliver some stellar battery life here to give this notebook a serious edge over the competition.

The Razer Blade is now available for preorder with shipments expected to arrive in the next couple of weeks. Prices start at $2,199 and $2,299 for the Pro. I honestly couldn’t justify getting the Pro with its boring 1080p screen over the standard blade boasting a lively QHD+ panel. But, what do you guys think? Is that QHD+ awesome, or what? Let us know!

Source: Razer 

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WORLDWIDE NVIDIA SHIELD GIVEAWAY!! http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/videos/worldwide-nvidia-shield-giveaway/ http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/videos/worldwide-nvidia-shield-giveaway/#comments Thu, 13 Mar 2014 00:41:19 +0000 http://www.techoftomorrow.com/?p=9610 We’re back in action with some more free stuff. Free stuff is good, right? We’ve teamed up once again with our good friends over at Digital Storm to give one luck tech fanatic out there a brand new NVIDIA Shield. This giveaway is worldwide, will run for two weeks (winner announced March 27, 2014) and […]

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We’re back in action with some more free stuff. Free stuff is good, right? We’ve teamed up once again with our good friends over at Digital Storm to give one luck tech fanatic out there a brand new NVIDIA Shield.

This giveaway is worldwide, will run for two weeks (winner announced March 27, 2014) and is extremely easy to enter. To be eligible, all you have to do is 1) Subscribe to the Digital Storm YouTube channel, 2) Subscribe to our Tech of Tomorrow YouTube channel and 3) Leave a comment on Digital Storm’s VANQUISH II video.

Good luck to everyone that enters and as always, thank you for the continued support, it’s what allows us to do what we do and also give back to you guys at the same time. If you happen to prefer consuming your information via video format, you can check that out below.

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TitanFall (PC) Collector’s Edition Unboxing & Review http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/unboxing-titanfalls-massive-collectors-edition/ http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/unboxing-titanfalls-massive-collectors-edition/#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2014 02:44:41 +0000 http://www.techoftomorrow.com/?p=9600 Hello again Techfans! Today marks the release of one of the most anticipated PC games of the year: Titanfall. We went ahead and grabbed the collectors edition last night at midnight, and it is absolutely insane how big it is, easily one of the largest and most expensive collector’s editions we’ve ever purchased. Included inside […]

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Hello again Techfans! Today marks the release of one of the most anticipated PC games of the year: Titanfall.

We went ahead and grabbed the collectors edition last night at midnight, and it is absolutely insane how big it is, easily one of the largest and most expensive collector’s editions we’ve ever purchased.

Included inside is not only the game itself, but also a poster, fullsize 190 page artbook, and the main reason for the huge box (and $250 price tag), a 19.5” statue of a titan accompanied by a few soldiers. This is one of the most expensive collector’s editions around, and yet for what you get it feels surprisingly worth it as far as collectors editions go. Check out our full thoughts and the actual unboxing in todays video below!

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Thief for PC: Review, Gameplay & Benchmarks (2014) http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/thief-review/ http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/thief-review/#comments Mon, 10 Mar 2014 23:55:07 +0000 http://www.techoftomorrow.com/?p=9587 Hello again techfans! Today we’re taking a look at Thief, the reboot and technically fourth installment of the Thief franchise. This is the first one coming from Square enix as a production company, and the series hasn’t seen a new entry since mid 2004, making this a decade long restart. The original games, especially number […]

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Hello again techfans! Today we’re taking a look at Thief, the reboot and technically fourth installment of the Thief franchise. This is the first one coming from Square enix as a production company, and the series hasn’t seen a new entry since mid 2004, making this a decade long restart. The original games, especially number 2, were well known for their emphasis on stealth, planning, and non linear map design, heavily rewarding players that took their time exploring. Does this new one live up to it’s legacy? Let’s take a look.

To start off let’s look at the game’s visuals and performance. While everything is super dark and dreary, for the most part it’s visually pretty nice and there’s some good concept art that went into detailing the city. I especially like how there’s the occasional level that really highlights the difference between the common city you normally find yourself in, and the more posh higher class areas you’ll visit. Running on our system which includes an i7 4770k process and an Msi GTX 780 Twin Frozr, we got an average of about 42 FPS on 2560×1440, and around 62 FPS on 1920×1080 while running the games built in benchmark utility. Regular gameplay does usually run at least 10 fps smoother or even 20/30 thanks to the fact that usually you’re just dealing with being in doors and moving slowly and stealthily, but for those few action moments with weather effects you will see your frame rate take a nose dive. Now as for actual gameplay, Thief has been something of a mixed bag. There’s a lot of good groundwork that showed potential for a solid stealth game, but there’s just some key issues that end up causing it problems.

Starting with the good side, theres a number of flavorful mechanics, some old some new, for avoiding and distracting enemies, including using water arrows to put out torches, fire arrows to start fires as a distraction, avoiding stepping on broken glass, and the ever popular throw a glass bottle to make a sound. One of the newer mechanics is your focus powers, you can enter a focus mode that slowly drains a magic meter, and while active you receive a number of bonuses that you can unlock over time. Initially it just highlights things you can interact with whether its a hidden switch or something valuable to steal, but as you invest in it you can also perform special one hit K.O.’s in combat, steal and lock pick faster while focusing, and even have shadows stick with you while sneaking shortly after leaving them. It’s not too intrusive of a mechanic and you do have to spend money or find special items in order to expand its powers, and the game’s option menu even gives you the choice to just have it not be around if you want a more traditional thief experience. Overall i liked it, Honestly the only part of the game it diminished was making hidden passages way too easy to find, because even if you’re out of mp you can just do a focus blink that still reveals stuff like that.

All of the larceny side of things is really fun in this game as well. Searching rooms feels more thorough as you see yourself checking drawers, feeling for hidden switches on paintings, and overall the way you interact with the environment just feels nice. Some of the mechanics are a tad easy such as lockpicking, though the main reason for this is that failing picking isn’t so much an issue, as it is taking too long that you get caught, or rushing yourself and making a stupid mistake which makes noise and can attract attention. There’s plenty of loot to search for in every area, and often times fairly well hidden collectables that get added to your home base over time. Money isn’t purely for the sake of score, but goes into restocking useful equipment like arrows and flash bombs, or buying upgrades like better armor, decreased bow draw time, or more focus powers.

So just looking at the core gameplay alone, there’s actually a lot of good going on here. The problems start however when you look at three main things: How linear the game is, how flat the story is, and by far the biggest issue of the game, the fact that enemy AI has the equivalent intelligence of a sack of marbles. As far as linearity goes, the game is divided into two main pieces, the main chapters, and the central hub. The main story chapters are the missions you complete to move the plot forward, and for the most part these can get really linear. Sometimes they feature maybe one or two alternate paths as a reward for finding a hidden button or using an optional tool you purchased like a screwdriver, but there’s usually one obvious path to take and all routes work out as a straight way to get to the same location. The central hub town on the other hand offers numerous paths to get from point a to point b, this is where you’ll hang out between main missions and can do side jobs and purchase equipment. It’s much more non linear but it’s also just the one place that you’ll revisit often, so it gets old fairly fast.

Then there’s story, which isn’t horrible but at the same time isn’t great. Characters are 2 dimensional, dialogue offers nothing really memorable, and at the end of the day it’s mostly just one big excuse to get you from one side of the town to another, stealing to your hearts content along the way. Neither of these things completely break the game, and for some people might just be a matter of taste. Story alone might not matter to you at all, and maybe you’d prefer a linear straight forward experience to a more open one, though Series traditionalists definitely won’t like that fact.

In the end though the one thing that really does harm the game is Enemy AI. Guards are some of the most unaware, unthinking enemies I’ve ever seen, which might be bearable in an action game, but in a stealth title it’s one of the most key areas. The whole point of the game is to not get caught stealing things, which is easy to do with how often the guards fail to notice you simply because you’re crouching in a dark place 4 feet away from them, or decide not to be alerted for the dumbest of reasons. My favorite example has to be when a I slipped through a door that was closed, and a guard noticed it being left open so they become alarmed, which is a good thing, thats how stealth games should be. The problem is, all i had to do was shut the door he was directly staring at, and everyone decided that the problem worked itself out and didn’t need investigating. And even when you are caught the game’s combat system makes it so that one on one fights are super easy, thanks to a god mode dodge that nullifies any hit thrown at you, and then you just have to hit back till they fall down. The only time guards are ever an issue is if you do manage to aggro them somehow, and do it in bulk, since 3 at once can actually be an issue since they can instakill you from behind. Thing is, that almost never happens, and when it does, you should just run and hide somewhere till they completely forget you exist.

So, final thoughts, I’m a bit conflicted on this one. While it certainly isn’t the same experience as the original series, there were a lot of good ideas going into this one that I like, and I see this potential for a solid stealth game that just gets thrown out thanks to how little guards seem to care that you ransack the whole town. How linear it is on average plus the weak story line only help to solidify this sense of disappointment. The game can still be fun in short instances, and I don’t regret playing through it, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone as a full price purchase. If you want a stealth game that challenges you and gives you the thrill of avoiding and tricking enemies, this isn’t it. If you want a stealth game just to mess around in and try to get the highest score possible stealing everything not nailed to the ground, then this one can certainly be some fun, I’d just recommend caution and buy it some time later during a sale or after a price drop or two.

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Panasonic’s 4K GH4 Priced at $1,699: Shipping Late April/Early May http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/videos/panasonics-4k-gh4-priced-at-1699-shipping-late-aprilearly-may/ http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/videos/panasonics-4k-gh4-priced-at-1699-shipping-late-aprilearly-may/#comments Mon, 10 Mar 2014 16:33:50 +0000 http://www.techoftomorrow.com/?p=9584 Ever since Panasonic teased us with a prototype GH4 at CES 2014, the video community was overrun with excitement of an affordable 4K video solution with cinematic quality but the questions were , how much and when?  The rumor was that the GH4 body would be priced right around $2,000 for the body (which seemed […]

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Ever since Panasonic teased us with a prototype GH4 at CES 2014, the video community was overrun with excitement of an affordable 4K video solution with cinematic quality but the questions were , how much and when? 

The rumor was that the GH4 body would be priced right around $2,000 for the body (which seemed reasonable) but much to our surprise, pre-orders which went up early this morning let us know that it’s priced a few hundred dollars cheaper at $1,699.99. Keep in mind, that’s body only but regardless, full 4K video at that price is incredible.

The GH4 also features a 16 megapixel sensor, 49 point AF and a multitude of video options, which include an awesome 60p/1080p mode for slow-motion video. If you want to check out a video sample of what this little guy is capable of, check out the video quality sample below. Let us know what you think of the quality and if you plan on picking one up! We’ll definitely be getting one in the TOT labs and hopefully if we like it enough, it’ll help bring 4K video content your way. You can also pre-order the GH4 here.

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Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 Review http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/castlevania-lords-of-shadow-2-review/ http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/castlevania-lords-of-shadow-2-review/#comments Fri, 07 Mar 2014 02:55:02 +0000 http://www.techoftomorrow.com/?p=9558 Hello again techfans! Today we’re bringing you guys a review of Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2, which we’ve picked up for the PC. This is a direct sequel to the first Lords of Shadow game which served as an offshoot reboot of the Castlevania franchise, shifting the experience from a 2d platforming adventure, to a […]

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Hello again techfans! Today we’re bringing you guys a review of Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2, which we’ve picked up for the PC. This is a direct sequel to the first Lords of Shadow game which served as an offshoot reboot of the Castlevania franchise, shifting the experience from a 2d platforming adventure, to a full 3d action game drawing inspiration from titles like God of War and Prince of Persia.

This is technically the third entry in the series, and serves as the closing game in a trilogy including the 3ds game Mirror of Fate, so it’s responsible for wrapping up the whole story line, and hopefully giving the series and enjoyable strong finish. Did it accomplish this task? Well this particular case is a bit of a yes and no situation, so let’s take a look at what the game did well, and where it runs into some roadblocks.

First off, let’s talk about the game’s strengths and what it’s inherited from the first game. Combat is very much the same animal this time around, albeit with a few major changes to help capture the fact that you’re now playing Dracula, as opposed to the more traditional vampire hunter.

Alongside familiar combo attacks using a blood whip, players are able to now use a finishing move on enemies to regain a bit of health thanks to Dracula’s penchant for bloodsucking, and the magic system has received an excellent revamp in the form of different weapons. In the first game using light or dark magic just made your weapon glow a certain color, and rewarded you a benefit like increased damage or life gain, as well as opening up some special unique attacks. This time around though, magic not only does these things but also gives you a different weapon in the form of a sword or pair of gauntlets, and completely changes Dracula’s fighting style. This adds a bit more depth to the combo system, and makes activating magic a much more interesting and dynamic option, rather than just giving yourself a health or damage boost when you need it.

Boss fights are for the most part really fun and each have their own little quirks, though something missing compared to the first one that I personally miss is the inclusion of giant bosses. This time around they’re all more traditional designs, and feature little to no platforming mid fight, a change that some might love, and others (myself included) will miss. This exclusion aside, boss fights are varied, decently challenging, and overall good fun.

Another area the game continues to excel at is it’s art design, featuring some beautifully designed areas and stages. The actual texture quality is somewhat hit and miss, but this is more than made up for with the games beautiful backdrops and set pieces, giving the game a memorable world to fight through. The modern day city settings can get a bit drab at times, especially in doors, but city streets and the entirety of Dracula’s castle make for a beautiful game.

The platforming aspects have been toned down a little bit in this one, there’s still plenty of running and climbing, but it’s all very linear. New exploration abilities open up at a healthy pace, not only giving the game a smooth progression, but also making it worth backtracking every now and then to reach previously closed off side paths with collectables and character upgrades to find, and thankfully the game includes a fast travel system that doesn’t make every journey super short, but cuts time down from having to run on foot to every single location.

Now where the game begins to falter is in two main areas: Its plot and stealth segments. The game’s writing is a noticeable step down from the previous entry, both in it’s dialogue and overarching plot. Characters come across a lot more two dimensional, and there are several events that occur in the game with little to no explanation, and make zero sense in relation to the overall plot line. To top this off the ending, without going into details and spoilers, is entirely too short and sudden, with little in the form of a conclusion and a tone that just betrays where the rest of the game was heading. It’s not a terrible plot line overall, it just doesn’t have the same impact as the first game, and may leave fans of the first installment with a feeling of disappointment and where it ends up going.

Now the change in plot is something that may or may not bother some people, even with it being weaker it does nothing to detract from the games solid and enjoyable combat system. There is however one major new mechanic that does, and that’s the new stealth segments. For some reason becoming an undead being of incredible power has lead to the main character needing to hide and sneak more, whereas the first game was purely combat focused. These stealth segments feel entirely forced, and feature somewhat annoying mechanics like needing to possess slow moving enemies or rats, turning into mist to avoid detection, or just staying crouched in the shadows. None of these moments were remotely enjoyable, and thankfully their relatively few and far between compared to the rest of the game, but still negatively affect the overall experience by constantly interrupting the game’s momentum.

Terrible stealth and weaker plot aside, Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 is still a solid action game worth playing if you just want to wreck enemies. If you loved the plot of the first one and really want to grab the sequel to end the story, you might find it worth waiting a bit for a price drop, but if all you’re interested in is a fun action game with decent replay value thanks to collectables, upgrades, and higher difficulty modes, then it’ll make a good addition to your collection.

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Batman Arkham Knight Announced For PS4, Xbox One and PC (Video) http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/batman-arkham-knight-announced-for-ps4-xbox-one-and-pc/ http://www.techoftomorrow.com/2014/pc/batman-arkham-knight-announced-for-ps4-xbox-one-and-pc/#comments Wed, 05 Mar 2014 16:53:41 +0000 http://www.techoftomorrow.com/?p=9538 Fans of the Batman Arkham Game series rejoice! It’s just been announced today that not only is Batman Arkham Knight coming out this year for the newest gen consoles (PS4/Xbox One/PC), but that it is being developed by the series original creators Rocksteady. This means that while it has only been a year since the […]

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Fans of the Batman Arkham Game series rejoice! It’s just been announced today that not only is Batman Arkham Knight coming out this year for the newest gen consoles (PS4/Xbox One/PC), but that it is being developed by the series original creators Rocksteady.

This means that while it has only been a year since the release of Arkham Origins (developed by WB Games Montreal), Rocksteady may have been working on this one since before or during that, possibly shortly after Arkham City, giving the team up to two years working on it.

Not too much is known about the title just yet, not even an official release date outside of some time this year, though I’d say closer to holiday season is probably a safe bet. The game’s trailer includes appearances from series regular villains Harley Quinn, Two Face, and Penguin, and a voice that may belong to Scarecrow considering the wording “…I will unleash your greatest fears.” The trailer also shows, and Rocksteady has confirmed, that this next game will have a heavier emphasis on driving the Batmobile, possibly now as the games new form of fast transport. What do you guys think? You can check out the trailer below!

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