This isn’t just one or two either, but five different games including Lumines Electronic Symphony, Michael Jackson the Experience, Dungeon Hunter Alliance, Asphalt Injection and Rayman Origins. Not only are titles like Rayman and Lumines representatives of long standing PSP franchises with the former being one of the console’s major characters, but five games takes up a big chunk of the launch titles which total 39 – over 10 per cent.

In a statement released earlier today, the ‘game’ seller said that: “All customers affected by this decision have been made aware of the situation and we will continue to communicate any updates to customers through our Twitter and Facebook feeds.”

That sounds like those that pre-ordered through the company have received refunds, or perhaps store credit. Either way, there’s likely to be some business lost from this lack of titles.

However this may not have been a decision from Game’s end. It would seem the most likely reason for this problem was the fact that Game has been struggling so much recently – perhaps Ubisoft felt the 0 day stock wouldn’t be sold as quickly as with other retailers or online sellers? Maybe it’s as extreme as Game couldn’t afford to buy enough copies of these titles to make the sale worth it for the publisher?

Whatever the reason though, this isn’t good news for Game which faces a tough 2012 and if these poor business results continue.

Featuring an accelerated processing unit (APU), the Edge is no bigger than past versions, offering up a full PC experience in about the size of a small book. Having tested previous versions I can atest to the minimal nature of the Edge systems and their surprisingly impressive performance considering the size. This latest version should be improved even more so though.

Combined with the AMD E450 APU, you get 4GB of DDR3, a 320GB hard drive, native wireless connectivity, ethernet adapter, twin USB 3.0 ports alongside two traditional USB 2.0. For graphical output there’s HDMI and VGA, with a bundled HDMI-DVI converter if needed, the former of which can output at 1920x1080p resolution.

The E450 that is brand spanking new in the Edge 3 is the most powerful of AMD’s E series of APUs, featuring two cores with a clock speed of 1.65GHZ each, 1MB of level 2 cache and a TDP of just 18w. In terms of graphical power, there’s 80 on die Radeon cores, featuring a clock speed of 600MHz.

Kitguru already has a review out of this little guy, and impressively on the lower settings, it was even able to just about play Left 4 Dead 2, though it did get a bit jittery in some of the tougher action sequences, bottoming out at about 20FPS.

While the description of the “game” looks like a review, with five stars being given and a quote of  “Just like the original. Love it,” the real reviews are far from as complimentary. “I want my money back if I don’t get it I’m going to sue the person who made this application this just a rip off lying to us of what it contains!!!!!!!” is followed by, “Shoulda read the bottom comments before purchasing, this is a scam. Crashes after main screen.”

Images from the original Pokemon yellow have been used to make things look as legitemate as possible, but this just seems like another instance where a fake game has snuck through Apple’s system.

Funnily enough, the Apple iTunes page also provides a support link. This takes you through to a simple wordpress site with only a single page. It features an “about” section that says, “If you are experiencing issues with Pokémon Yellow, we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience. Thanks for your patience while we thoroughly investigate this issue.”

It also promises that the developers are Qeab are working on a new version and that it should be completed soon. Somehow that seems unlikely.

It does however seem quite possible that the person behind this scam isn’t a native English speaker, since under the “Who is Qeab?” heading, you get: “Qeab is fast becoming world class leader in developing apps to inform, education and entertain users.”

Fudzilla has been perusing some data that seems to suggest internal tests comparing the equally clocked i7 2600 and the new i7 3770, the Ivy Bridge hardware – which sports four cores, eight threads and 8MB of cache – was between seven and 16 per cent faster.

According to the report, the lowest difference between the two was found when benchmarking ProShow 4.5 when operating a slide show. However, the 16 per cent results showed up when testing Excel 2010. Other software used includes: Sysmark 2012, HDXPRT 2011 and Cinebench 11.5  with the i7 3770 coming up trumps every time, with a lead of about 10 per cent.

Some of the performance difference could be put down to the slightly improved turbo frequency of the new Ivy Bridge chips. However there’s only 100 MHz difference, so it seems that most of it can be attributed to the new achitecture. It seems likely as well that thanks to the die shrink, and therefore reduced power requirements and thermal output, that overclocking on this new line of hardware could be monstrous.

As long as cooling is enough, it seems perfectly reasonable to hope for 5GHz on air, maybe 6GHz on water.

Apple has said it also plans to file a complaint with the International Trade Comission, and a suit in the U.S. District Court. Interestingly the latter filing will be designed to stop Kodak using Apple’s patents in future – something that would be pretty hard to do if the company isn’t in operation at all.

As Fudzilla reports, the patent in question is one for an image-preview technology that both Apple and Research in Motion claim to own. However, RIM isn’t the only one that has contested this in the past. While Apple claims that it developed a digital camera in the 1990s and shared the technology with Kodak, the camera firm claims that it was more the other way around. Before the bankruptcy issues, Kodak was set to bring its own patent infringement suit against Apple.

In a statement released, Kodak said that it was a shame that Apple felt the need to continue legal proceedings against a company that was clearly in financial troubles because of these sorts of proceedings.

More at Fudzilla.

Introduction

To conclude these last few Cooler Master reviews, I’m going to look at the Hyper 412S. It’s the only tower style cooler that I’ve had from them this time. The cooler has quite a low FPI (Fins Per Inch) which should make for a cooler that performs well at low fan speeds. Hopefully it makes for another quiet cooler from Cooler Master!

Specifications

CPU Socket support: Intel LGA 1366 / 1156 / 1155 / 775, AMD FM1 / AM3+ / AM3 / AM2+
Dimension: (W / H / D) 132 x 99 x 160mm (5.2 x 3.9 x 6.3 in)
Fan Dimension: (W / H / D) 120 x 120 x 25mm (4.7 x 4.7 x 1.0 in)
Fan Speed: 1,300 RPM ± 10% (900 RPM with silent mode adapter)
Fan Airflow: 52.6 CFM ± 10% (36.4 CFM @ 900RPM)
Fan Noise Level (dB-A): 22.5 dBA (16.1 dBA @ 900RPM)
Bearing Type: Long Life Sleeve Bearing
Connector: 3-Pin

Unboxing

Great box design from Cooler master. It clearly displays the information you need to decide if this cooler is correct for you along with really looking good.

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The back has information in multiple languages and some technical drawings of the cooler.

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The bundled items include: a manual, AMD and Intel mounting parts, thermal compound and nuts, rubber pieces, nut setter, fan mounts, screw driver and the silent mode adapter .

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This version of Cooler Masters mounting system is my least favourite. The reason for this is once you have the backplate assembly attached, you have to push the screws with some force into the holes. While doing this the mounting piece is moving around and wants to change size for a different socket. I don’t like having to apply lots of downwards pressure to a screw inside a computer due to the possibility of slipping and damaging something.

Next up you have to attach the fans to the heatsink which isn’t always easy inside smaller cramped cases. Fortunately once the heatsink was mounted it was firm and wasn’t going anywhere. The mounting solution for a cooler is becoming more and more important as part of a bundle like this. It’s good to see Cooler Master trying lots of different systems.
The thermal paste is the same standard thermal paste Cooler Master provides with all of their coolers. It’s of a high quality and has a good viscosity for a thermal compound, making sure it spreads well when you mount it.

Until that day though, those down under will have to make do with the 15+ age rating, which prohibits the sale of any computer game, console or otherwise, that isn’t age appropriate for 15 year olds. How this has existed as the maximum for so long seems crazy, since the 18+ age rating for movies has been around for a long time.

In the past this 15+ system has led to many games being banned outright, with even more being forced to change their content to comply with the rating. Left 4 Dead 2 famously ran into trouble for its melee weapon attacks against zombies. Gore had to be removed before this game could go on sale.

Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Justice Jason Clare has been discussing the move to a new age rating, saying:  The R 18+ category will inform consumers, parents and retailers about which games are not suitable for minors to play, and will prevent minors from purchasing unsuitable material.”

While the ammendment to current legislation still needs to be approved by the Australian Senate, public support is so high that it seems unlikely it will be blocked at this stage.

Souce: Games Industry

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The system I’m going to be using is:

AMD FX-8120 with a Cooler Master Hyper 412S and a Little Devil PC-V2 phase unit.

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD7

ASUS Reference 5870

Crucial C300 128GB

Cooler Master Silent Pro 850W

Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Antec SOLO II

A few may know of a couple of flaws this board has. First off is the Vdroop. Vdroop is when you apply load to your CPU and the voltage being sent to the CPU drops. The UD7 has this badly and for that reason some of the voltages in the below screenshots are higher than what I would normally use.

The two main benchmarks I focused on are wPrime and Super PI.

First off I checked up on HWBot.org to see what and who I had to beat.

wPrime 7sec 347ms at 4730 MHz on air

wPrime 5sec 991ms at 5587 MHz on Single stage phase

Super PI 17sec 221ms at 5066 MHz on air

There is no Super PI Single stage phase record.

So I dropped on my Cooler Master Hyper 412S with two Gentle Typhoons and opened up my window, fortunately my PC is right next to my window so cold air goes straight in.

Here’s my three scores for air.

Got 1st place with 6.817 for wPrime 32mb on air.

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I got 1st place with 17.129 for Super PI 1mb on air.

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Finally I got 214.159 for wPrime 1024mb on air, also a 1st.

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After those couple of scores I got a bit bored and started setting up my LD PC-V2 phase unit.
Here’s a photo of the unit.

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The unit is able to drop -60C in the correct ambient. Here’s a photo of display, this is while the CPU was sitting at idle.

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So I set off to beat both wPrime 32m and Super PI 1mb in the phase category.

After tweaking for around 20 – 30 minutes I reached this score.

It’s a 1st but only just.

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10 – 15 Minutes after I got this Super PI score, it’s has no competition so that’s in the 1st spot too.

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After completing the bench runs I went for maximum CPUZ validation. I got 5.8GHz on Phase. I was running at 6GHz but unfortunately the validation file was corrupt.

To sum up, I’m pretty happy with this chip, it did well considering the slow DDR3 RAM I was running.
I’m very happy with this FX-8120 and I feel it’s at a good price point. Lastly I hope to get a 6GHz validation very soon and update this! Wish me luck.

WillHemmens

The first releases aren’t the most exciting, with the 3DS photo editing application known as Tobidasu Print Club Kiradeco Revolution now has three different decoration sets according to GamesIndustry. Each one costs less than £1, meaning they’re pretty accessible.

Other planned DLC set for release soon includes some from Square Enix for the popular Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. This will be the first official game – non application – to make use of the DLC.

“In terms of what the next system update will allow, it will allow developers to sell add-on content, and whether that’s for a physical game or a digitally released game,” said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.

“In terms of how it will work, it’s up to the developer whether they want to make it to buy new levels, new items – all of that is up to their imagination. Essentially, what we’re doing is creating the framework for those transactions to happen.”

Presumably he’s talking about the PS4 and Xbox 720 Loop, perhaps AMD 7000 series GPUs as well as since those are out in the wild now. The last generation of Crytek’s engine was simultaneously supportive of both major console maker’s hardware, so it seems likely that Epic will have built in such a feature for its next generation engine – of course though that depends on the hardware used by both Sony and Microsoft.

Considering the first screenshots of Unreal Engine 3 began appearing back in 2oo4, it’s understandable that Rein also claimed at the DICE conferance that gamers would be “shocked when they see how much of a profound effect that the new engine is going to have.” The only real hint of how good it could be is the real time rendered Samaritan demo that showed some very advanced graphical affects. The kicker though, is that that demo only used a modified Unreal Engine 3.5, suggesting that 4 could be a huge jump from even that level of detail.

It’s thought that we’ll be getting our first look at the engine a little later this year. I for one, can’t wait. Here’s hoping for some big jumps in AI.

To whet your appetite, here’s the Samaritan demo: