Diablo 3 Barbarian Tank Build

Hey Diablo 3 fans. Here is another build for the Barbarian, this time it's a tank / melee build.

Thanks to Hipicleas for this build. If you have a build you would like to submit, please post a comment below.

I love looking at different builds (for the classes I like) and I love to discuss them as well. I attempted to post my build on the forums but we all know how useful the forums for Diablo are. I will post a link and my reasoning for each skill choice.

My main purpose is to tank with friends and to have a lot of fun and grab all of the mobs attention while my friends do all of the damage.

Mouse Abilities:


Cleave: Gathering Storm
I want to use Cleave obviously because it is a great aoe move and works well with a sword and board. Gathering Storm is to help with some crowd control and keep good enemy containment. unsecured loans

Whirlwind: Blood Funnel
I didn't have any fury spenders so I wanted to add something in to this build. I added in Whirlwind because my main in D2 was a whirly barb and I love it and with Blood Funnel I get some extra health.

Ignore Pain: Mob Rule
This is a pretty obvious choice. I want a nice panic button in case I get too many mobs and I added Mob Rule because I will be playing this build with friends and it helps them out with DR.

Leap: Iron Impact
I really like Leap as an ability while romping through dungeons and also as a jump in on the enemies and wreck some !@#$. Iron Impact I feel is really awesome because the extra armor just gives me that much more durability. bad credit loans

Threatening Shout: Demoralize
With Demoralize this becomes a great AoE taunt and with Inspiring Presence I double the duration of the taunt.

Revenge: Provocation
Revenge I feel is so awesome for tanking, especially large groups. With Provocation it will proc more which is something I want.

Passives:

Superstition:
Originally I had Nerves of Steel but swapped it for Superstition because I wanted nice defense against Ranged mobs and the added fury generation is nice as well.

Tough as Nails:
Again more armor and I feel that this and Revenge mesh really well together.

Inspiring Presence:
I really like this because it not only increases the duration of War Cry but also gives me a really nice heal over time.

Black Ops 2 Quadrotor Confirmed

A prototype Quadrotor with machine gun attachment that had been featured in a video by YouTube sensation FPSRussia, and sponsored by Activision. Today that blurry picture has unsecured loans been declassified (embedded below) revealing that it is indeed the same piece of kit featured in the video. Not only has the full picture been revealed but it also links bad credit loans directly to FPSRussia’s video.

The question still remains; even though it’s confirmed to be in the game, will the Quadrotor be one of the killstreaks in Black Ops 2′s multiplayer or just something you get to play about with in the campaign? We guess – and hope – that it’s the former.

Age of Empires Online gold guide

In this Age of Empires Online gold guide, I will be outlining the fastest way to outfit your army with the best equipment and your civilization with the best advisors and buildings.
There are two parts of this guide: how to get gold in Age of Empires Online and where the best places to spend it are.

Age of Empires Online Gold Guide – How to Get It


The easiest way to get gold in Age of Empires Online is to do quests to collect Empire Points and then use those Empire Points on Lucky Tickets. Allow me to explain:
In your capital city, you will find a small shop with a crown-shaped icon floating over it. This is called the Empire Store (not the premium store – that has a treasure chest floating over it).
Inside the Empire Store, you will find that you can spend your “Empire Points” on various items. There is one particular item of interest: the Lucky Ticket.
The Lucky Ticket costs just 10 empire points and has a treasure chest icon. When you open the chest, you get a random quality ticket: Common, Uncommon, Rare, or Epic. You then sell these tickets to any shop (all shops pay the same price for these tickets).
Common tickets are only worth 1-10 coins, uncommon ones are typically worth 50-100 coins, but rare tickets will sell for 500-1000 and epic tickets will sell for 5,000-10,000 gold! Note that you usually get the small denominator; for example most rare tickets will be worth 500 coins but rarely you will find one that sells for 1,000 gold.
Most quests pay out less than 100 coins a piece, as do most loot pieces. When you consider that these same quests often give you enough Empire Points to buy several lucky tickets, you will realize that the Lucky Ticket is your key to wealth in Age of Empires Online.

Farming Lucky Tickets


Now that you know that the Lucky Ticket is by far the best way to get gold in Age of Empires Online, the answer to getting more of these becomes obvious: get more Empire Points. Know that:

• Empire Points are rewarded from quests.

• Collecting random loot chests around the map during quests does not provide extra Empire Points

• Higher level quests reward more Empire Points.

From this we can infer:

• The faster we can complete quests, the more Empire Points and the more gold you will earn. This means that the short, timed repeatable quests like “Lots of Rogues” are one of the best ways to farm Empire Points, as opposed to “Defeat All Enemies” quests, unsecured loans which typically take a lot longer to complete.

• Collecting chests around the map is a waste of time unless they are extremely easy to get. On any given map, there are 2-6 chests guarded by neutral enemies which you can take out in order to collect a random loot award. One of the biggest newbie mistakes is seeking out every single chest and trying to collect every one.

What you have to consider is that you can buy these same chests for coins from Moe’s Mystorium, and that we can get coins very easily from Lucky Tickets. As a result, unless a chest is easy to get, you will want to complete the quest quickly and do another quest for more Empire Points rather than spending an extra 15 minutes tracking down each chest around the map.
Leveling up quickly to get access to better quests will yield more empire points. This ties into the bit above; yes chests do provide some experience points, but it is paltry compared to how many points quests provide.
Completing quests fast means you will get more levels, which means you will get access to better quests, and hence better loot.

Quick Note About Selling Items To Other Players


One shocking way players waste their time is by trying to sell crummy items and Advisors for slightly more than vendor price. If you have a rare Advisor that you do not need, the last thing you want to do is take 15 minutes to find a buyer.
If the vendor is going to pay you for 300 coins, and you waste 15 minutes negotiating finding a buyer to take it for 600 coins, you just wasted an extreme amount of time that you could have used to do another quest, a quest that would have likely rewarded much more than 300 coins between the loot chests, XP, and Empire Points.
As a general rule of thumb, if you cannot get more than 1,000 gold coins for an item, do not even bother trying to sell it. Besides, most players would rather be doing missions than hawking trade chat looking for a buyer.

Age of Empires Online Gold Guide Conclusion


To sum up this Age of Empires Online Gold Guide a few bullet points:

• Buying Lucky Tickets is the easiest and simplest way to wealth.

• Questing for Empire Points is the best way to get said lucky tickets.

• Look for fast repeatable quests like “Lots of Rogues”; A 5 minute of quest which rewards 30+ Empire Points is an excellent way to make money.

• Time is money in the real world and Age of Empires: do not waste your time selling trivial items for small mark-ups over vendor price. Do quests instead and only sell your best items that are worth 1,000 coins or more.

• Do not waste your time running out of the way looking for loot bad credit loans chests; only grab the random world chests you can grab with little extra work or time invested. Low-level chests are particularly worthless as they will never contain valuable items.

Xbox 360 union jack edition

Amazon has leaked a 25th May release date for the Xbox 360 4GB Celebration Pack. unsecured loans

It’s identical to the Xbox 360 Family Kinect Bundle that was announced back in February.

Bar for one thing: a Union Jack skin for console, Kinect and controller.

Amazon’s listing has since disappeared, but not before the website Videogamer bad credit loans could record some evidence.

Microsoft told us it had nothing to share at this point.

Xbox 360 d pad controller

Codenamed the “Aberdeen” the new controller comes in cardboard packaging complete with the re-branded Xbox swoosh, which is much more pleasing to the eye than the graphic design of Xbox’s previous peripherals and hardware, whats more is that packaging no longer comes in that awful plastic that was tough to break into. The pack itself comes with a ‘special edition’ control pad featuring the new transformable dpad and custom colours on the buttons, as well as a play and charge kit, why then do Microsoft insist on packing in a battery casing so you can use AA batteries? Also I noted an excessive amount of instruction sheets, ok so it has a new transforming dpad, people may need instructions on how to transform it (as simple as it is). I’m sure this is something that has to be included in the pack but I doubt many gamers will actually read them, besides there is a perfect holographic sticker next to the d-pad which shows off the different stages in the dpads transformation – a nice touch.

The dpad itself protrudes a lot more than previous d-pads on the Xbox controllers (a good 3-4 mm in height) it’s also in the metallic silver that the newer controllers opted for in the look of the guide button. The dpad transforms into a protruding disc by rotating in either a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction. It is easy to get it to transform to a disc, the diagram shows you that you hold the pad with one hand and use your finger and thumb of the other to make that transformation. I found it easier to use my finger and thumb of both hands and rotate the dpad in either direction. To get the dpad back again a further rotation is required but this time there is little to grip so you need to use your nails to get a hold of the dpad which still protrudes a tiny bit when in disc form.


Although fiddly at first, the transformation process is a very firm and satisfying motion. Whether using it as a dpad or disc, it doesn’t feel flimsy in any way. Previously, I’ve always found that the dpad has felt like its attached loosely onto the pad which seemed to make it less responsive when making movements. The new dpad feels like your movements are more commanding and it actually made me want to consider using the dpad rather than the left stick.

The disc mode of the pad feels a lot more like using the left stick but without the loose movement that sticks can suffer from. Microsoft mentions on the packaging that it’s a more sweeping movement which can certainly be used to make more slight adjustments and movements, like tweaks to a drift in a racing game or pulling off the straight punch in Fight Night Champion (if only you had the option to be able to actually use the dpad for this ingame!). This would certainly benefit games other than the streetfighters or arcade style games, something that the dpad has been stereotyped as being used for.

The dpad mode is a traditional dpad, a more assertive movement is achievable in the X and Y axis directions and although it wont help you spam fireballs faster, pull off moves that you couldn’t achieve before or gain an advantage over someone not using a new pad, it does mentally help your brain gauge and map those directional combination’s. Often the left stick can be rotated just that little bit too far and combat moves are messed up, with the new dpad these movements are more definite and almost ‘click’ into position as your thumb dances over the dpad.



The pad comes in a really nice matt silver finish and the X,Y,B and A buttons are all in differing tints and tones of silver. The dpad and the guide button are in the metallic silver finish that has begun to find its way into the more recent peripherals and hardware of Xbox. I really love the look of the new controller, ok so your not going to rush out and buy one just because it looks really smart unsecured loans (ok well some people will) but it certainly helps. The whole look is smooth and somewhat understated with silver highlighting the key points of the pad and the all important heart of the Xbox, the logo and guide button.



The sticks have also seen a slight redesign. Using a harder plastic and doing away with the nubs on top, the new sticks almost look like those of a much older worn down controller. They are however slightly more springy when you push against them and feel less loose in comparison to my latest controller which came with the Xbox 360 S. There is more of a recess in the top that your thumbs sit into rather than rest and I can’t say that I particularly liked this new look and feel of the sticks underneath my thumbs, although I really liked the new resistance feel when moving them.

I’m actually quite taken with the new look pad, being dubbed as a special edition I’m not sure how long these pads will remain in circulation in the shops or whether the special edition part refers to the transforming dpad or the custom colours. Whatever the answer I now own one of these pads and I can actually see myself sticking with and using the new dpad over the left stick, particularly for shooters, something I never dreamt I would have said before. The only problem bad credit loans with this statement is that games now seem to reserve the dpad for minor actions like nightvision or perk activation which brings me to the question “is it too late for the dpad to re-enter gaming as a main control option?” If so then the effort gone into the transforming capabilities of the dpad is a bit demeaning leaving it stuck in stereotypes and reserved for fighting and arcade games, a real shame because I really like the new pad and its abilities.

I love the aesthetic look of the new pad and coming bundled with a Play and Charge Kit it makes it great value for money at £44.99 (Previously these packs were £42.99) although I would have thought most gamers would have already purchased a Play and Charge Kit by now.

Xbox 720 rumor

The past few weeks have been a circle jerk of next-gen rumors and now we have a new one from Xbox World Magazine that the next Xbox, code named Durango is currently in developers hands and is a bit of a beast.
Devkits for Microsoft’s next generation console are already in the wild, and were shipped to developers in March. The first devkits reached a select number of developers after Microsoft’s hush-hush developer’s conference in London on February 28, 2012. The purpose of the conference was to brief European representatives on the new hardware, which is codenamed Durango – the meeting was subsequently confirmed by a senior technical artist at Crytek, who tweeted unsecured loans that he was “enjoying the Durango developers summit in London. So far, great swag and interesting talks.” Further meetings were held for American developers at the Game Developers’ Conference in San Francisco, with Durango devkits shipping “shortly afterwards.”

The publication states that current devkits will not mirror the final hardware in appearance, however, initial specifications are representative of the console set to ship in late 2013. Sources close to Xbox World magazine have revealed that Durango’s devkit features a “monster” 16-core IBM PowerPC CPU, a GPU comparable to AMD’s Radeon HD 7000-series graphics cards, and a Blu-Ray optical drive. 
“Even if you had a 16-core processor in your gaming PC there are currently no games built to use it, but games for the next Xbox could put all sixteen cores to work on day one for a level of performance far in excess of current gaming PCs. It’s a ridiculous amount of power for a games machine – too much power, even. But remember, Kinect 2 could chew up four whole cores tracking multiple players right down to their fingertips, so it’ll need a lot of power.”

Discrete sources at GDC also confirmed to the publication that developers expect Sony’s Playstation 4 to be more powerful than the next Xbox, and that various studios are aiming to unveil their next generation software at E3 2012 in June, regardless of whether “Microsoft and Sony are ready or not.”
“Regardless of whether the next Xbox makes it to E3, the arrival of those Durango devkits is the starting gun for the next generation and once again Microsoft have beaten Sony out of the gate by getting hardware into the developers’ hands first. Sony keep denying any possibility of PS4 at E3 2012 too, but if they don’t move fast  bad credit loans Microsoft could roll into June’s LA showcase with dozens of next-generation exclusives from third-parties. When Epic shows that first Unreal 4 demo they’ll only have one console platform to talk about – call it Durango, call it 720, call it what you like, but if Microsoft move fast it might be the only game in town.”

The Film, loosely based on a game. Battleship!

After endless remakes, reboots and adaptations of every movie, novel or comic book out there, Hollywood seems to have finally ran out of ideas and are now turning to board games for inspiration. Enter Battleship, a cynical cash in on the success of the Transformers franchise that's very loosely based on the classic Hasbro board game, only with added aliens. It really should be terrible, and on some levels it is, but director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) has managed to make it a big, dumb blockbuster that's way more fun than it has any right to be.

Taylor Kitsch stars as Hopper, a loose-cannon Lieutenant on board the USS John Paul Jones, part of a fleet that becomes trapped inside a giant force field after five alien ships interrupt a Naval training exercise off the coast of Hawaii.

The aliens come from a planet in a different solar system that has a similar climate to Earth and have been alerted to our existence by an exploratory signal sent from a base in Honolulu. Their mission appears to be similar, coming only to explore but when the over-eager Navy opens fire, the extra-terrestrials become aggressive and hit back, hard.

After the alien attacks leave the John Paul Jones the only ship in the water, Hopper finds himself charged with saving the world along with his rag tag band Unsecured loans of survivors including sassy weapons specialist Raikes (pop-star Rihanna, not terrible) and Japanese captain Nagata (Tadanobu Asano, Ichi The Killer).
Meanwhile Hopper's girlfriend Sam (Brooklyn Decker) is stuck in a borderline needless subplot with a double amputee (real life Iraq vet and noticeable non-actor Gregory D Gadson) and the mandatory geeky comic relief character (Hamish Linklater), roaming around the satellite base that's been taken over by the ETs to try to phone home.

All these characters are extremely broadly drawn and there's no subtlety in their development, especially Hopper, with Berg spending the first 30-40 minutes of the film really hammering home just how useless and unreliable he is and then, lo and behold, he has to step up and be the hero.

At least the script provides ridiculous enough dialogue ("Let's see if we can buy the world another day!") and finds plenty of ludicrous scenarios to put them in. bad credit loans None less silly than the one reference to the board game, a cleverly contrived scene in which Hopper and crew have to combat the aliens by watching a grid and yelling out co-ordinates.

Somehow that scene, like most of the others in the movie, works. All the cheesy dialogue, wooden acting and ludicrous scenarios are instantly forgivable due to just how fun the film is. There's a feeling that Berg and his cast know just how stupid all of this is but are having too much fun to care.

Clearly using Michael Bay's Transformers as a template, Berg shows a sure hand with the action, mustering up some very big, very loud and often very impressive action sequences. The one problem with the action is the bland aliens who just seem to bend to whatever the script needs of them, going from peaceful to hostile or intelligent to downright stupid whenever it's convenient.

It's hard to call Battleship a good film since there's so much blatantly wrong with it but if you check your IQ at the door and let the silly action thrills wash over you, it's a fun ride and the perfect way to kick off the summer blockbuster season.

Irish GAME sit-in

Staff staging a sit-in protest at GAME’s now closed Monaghan store have posted a number of pictures of their exploits on Facebook.
They are demanding compensation for both the lack of notice of their job termination and PwC’s advice that they should pursue the Government for redundancy compensation.
Staff member Ben Lamb O’Sullivan has been unsecured loans documenting the protest on Facebook.
“So, at half one today we received a phone call. At which point our store manager wrote this down and passed it to me. Was the first real insight we were given to our jobs from head office who gladly would have kept us in the dark.....”
“First night in store, a hugs thanks to all the support we have bad credit loans received, we are over whelmed and extremely grateful, please keep it up!”
“Just had an administrator at our door, ain't getting our keys! Its all official now!”
The pictures can be seen below.

Operation Raccoon City

Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City is a Shooting game available on the 360. It can be played in Singleplayer Cooperative modes.

Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City is a Shooting game. Shooting games present a world in which the character must shoot their way out of dangerous situations. They provide the player with an array of weapons tailored to specific tasks. This unavoidably involves a combination of fisticuffs and gun based fighting that dictates the violent nature of these experiences. unsecured loans Beneath this harsh exterior though is often an intricate tactile game - and this is usually what drives the player.

Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City can be played in a Singleplayer mode. Single Player Campaign games focus on one player's experience. Rather than collaborate with other players either locally or online, players progress alone. The campaign style of gameplay offers a connected series of challenges to play through. These chapters work together to tell a story through which players progress. Single player games are able to focus on one experience of a scenario, so that it is usually a richer, more visceral game.

Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City can be played in a Cooperative mode. Cooperative Multiplayer games provide an experience that is played symaltaneously by multiple players. Unlike the simple arena competitive multiplayer style games where players try to kill the most enemies, true co-operative games are designed to take a group of players through a campaign experience together. bad credit loans This will involve sections where players have to work together to proceed - either from the sheer difficulty as in Halo 3 on 360 or by the design of levels such as LittleBigPlanet on PS3.

EA letting the customer down again

In a move that is sure to tick off a large portion of the world's gamers, EA has decided to shut down a bunch of its game servers. PlayStation University points out that EA is trying to shift users over to their newer titles by phasing out online support for older ones. Once the servers go down, users will no longer be able to play certain games online. The first of the server shut downs will take place on February 2nd, with more servers coming down on February 9th and April 6th.
The list of titles being shut down is sure to surprise many gamers, as many of them are fairly recent releases. Not only are Madden '07 and '08 getting the unsecured loans axe in the February 2nd shutdown, but in April, Madden '09 will also be shut down across all consoles. Europe, unfortunately, will also be getting a few extra shut downs that the US will not (NBA Live '09 for Wii and NASCAR '09 for PS3 and Xbox 360).
Without the ability to sign into EA's servers, it's unlikely that any sort of online gameplay will be possible (even P2P). If you're a big online sports gamer, get ready to pay for new games every bad credit loans year. It looks like this server shutdown thing could become a yearly event. It's only a matter of time till we see if this new strategy of EA's will work out in their favor, or not. Below is the list of servers that will be shut down.
Straight from the EA Online Service Update:

BBc iplay on xbox 360 to lauch soon

Microsoft has confirmed its Xbox 360 will get BBC iPlayer next year as the firm attempts to make the device more of an all-round entertainment hub like Sony's PS3.

A major update will begin rolling out to Xbox 360 consoles around the world from tomorrow, December 6th.

But while the update will also bring the new 'Metro' interface, plus unsecured loans Kinect voice control integrated with Microsoft's Bing search engine, owners will have to wait longer for the hugely popular BBC iPlayer.

Around 40 media companies have been signed up to bring both live and on-demand movie and TV content to the console. In the UK, LoveFilm will be available through the Xbox 360 from December 6th.

Later in the month it will be joined by other on-demand services including 4OD, Demand 5, Blinkbox, Muzu.TV and Sony's Crackle. The iPlayer will be available via an Xbox Live app from early 2012.

Xbox 360 owners will be able to view a string of on-demand and streaming services from the likes of the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and film rental service Blinkbox and bad credit loans Lovefilm this Christmas.

Microsoft has done deals with 40 television and video-on-demand companies to bring a range of entertainment services to Xbox Live.

Users will be able to search much of the content via Microsoft's Bing engine, and in some cases it will be possible to use voice commands to find films and TV shows using the Kinect device.

However, it's not yet clear  if BBC programmes will be supplied via an Xbox version of iPlayer.

"Combining the world's leading TV and entertainment providers with the power of Kinect for Xbox 360 and the intelligence of Bing voice search will make TV and entertainment more personal, social and effortless," says Don Mattrick, president of interactive entertainment at Microsoft.

Halo 4

Update: It's official. As expected, at this morning's E3 keynote, unsecured loans Microsoft revealed both Halo 4 and an enhanced remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo 4 will be the start of an all-new trilogy and will launch on the 360 at the end of next year. And unlike some of the more recent entries in the franchise, it stars none other than Master Chief.

Meanwhile, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary will be launching on November 15, and will feature enhanced visuals, online co-op, and seven classic multiplayer maps.

Original story: Just hours before the keynote at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Microsoft pushed an update to its E3 website stating that Halo 4 is "on the way." The post was bad credit loans quickly taken down, but it confirms the existence of the fifth installment (or seventh, if you count Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST) in the Halo franchise, as well as other expected games, including Dance Central 2, Kinect Star Wars, and Kinect Sports 2.

The blurb for the Halo 4 post described the news as something "millions of Halo fans have waited for." As Halo: Reach was franchise creator Bungie's last entry to the series, it's likely that Halo 4 will have been developed by Microsoft and 343 Industries. The updated site also mentioned a remastered version of Halo: Combat Evolved that will be released presumably for the tenth anniversary of the first Halo game's November 2001 launch.

This may have been a controlled leak to generate buzz for E3, as its keynote is locking horns with that of the Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference: E3's keynote begins at 12:30 pm EDT, just half an hour before the WWDC keynote. We wonder if Halo 4's announcement will accompany that of a new console, or if Microsoft will let Nintendo steal all the hardware thunder with its Wii successor. 

PSN

If you’re an avid gamer, than chances are pretty good that you do own at least one of the three modern day consoles in your living room – be it a Sony PS3, a Microsoft Xbox 360 or a Nintendo Wii. For those who fall under the PS3 category, you would most probably know by now that the PlayStation Network has been down for over 20 hours already, leaving millions of gamers “in the dark” gaming-wise as they are unable to play online where their favorite games are concerned.

So far, users have gotten used to seeing error messages that state the network is “undergoing maintenance” or is “suspended”. Sony is not lost on the situation though, as they have thanked users for their patience, although did warn that the downtime could continue for another day or two. No idea on whether this is in relation to hackers group Anonymous who have been targeting the PlayStation in recent weeks, although the group did come out to say that they didn’t do it.

PlayStation Network has over 70 million users worldwide, but Sony has yet to clarify on the number of players who were affected by this outage. It seems to be a worldwide unsecured loans phenomenon though, as Twitter messages and blog posts that vented their frustrations at the situation have been posted from all over the world.

Playing your games online isn’t the only problem here, as other services which run on the network were also affected. Take for instance, film rental site LoveFilm who recently confirmed with the BBC that their customers are unable to stream films when using the Playstation service at the moment.

Some of the gamers are also unhappy that Sony did not bother to update gamers and the general community for so many hours, that it is more or less unacceptable in this day and age because of the many avenues available. Not only that, since it is Easter weekend this week, many people would want to stay at home and enjoy their favorite games – perhaps this is a blessing in disguise since they will now have to go out and enjoy the sunshine outdoors.

Not only that, high-profile titles such as Valve Software’s Portal 2, bad credit loans Warner Bros. brawler Mortal Kombat and tactical shooter and PlayStation 3 exclusive SOCOM 4 have just arrive at retail stores earlier this week, making it all the more frustrating.

Mass Effect 3, leaked before release

As was not entirely unexpected, hotly anticipated RPG sequel Mass Effect 3 has been leaked to torrent sites a week before it legally goes on sale. Will it hurt sales of BioWare’s hot franchise?

A quick search of popular torrent hangouts (no, we aren’t going to tell you – if you are that determined to rip off BioWare’s intellectual property you can Google it yourself) shows that the latest instalment in the Mass Effect series has been comprehensively leaked. The Xbox 360 version broke cover first, swiftly followed by ports for the PC and even the once uncrackable PS3.

The Xbox and PS3 versions are ready to play but BioWare and distributors Electronic Arts can take a small crumb of comfort from the fact that the PC version currently doesn’t have a crack unsecured loans available for it so will be useless to anyone bad credit loans who has snaffled it. This state of affairs is not expected to last, however. No source of the leak has been identified.

For those who are prepared to wait (and pay) MassEffect 3 goes on sale in the UK on 9 March and is said to be the biggest instalment yet in the sci-fi RPG series. BioWare says that the new episode will act as a closing chapter to Commander Shepherd’s travels through the galaxy in search of duplicitous aliens to take out with well-placed headshots. Events in the game follow on directly from the last Mass Effect 2 DLC Arrival.

Darksiders 2 free upgrade!

THQ today announced that all pre-orders of Darksiders II on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft,  PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC, will receive a complimentary upgrade to the Limited Edition.

The Darksiders II unsecured loans  Limited Edition will include the standard retail game along with a unique code allowing the purchaser the opportunity to download the game’s first single player downloadable content pack, Argul’s Tomb for free once it becomes available. All pre-orders of Darksiders II will receive the Limited Edition version of the game at no additional cost.

Jim Huntley, Vice President of Global Brand Marketing commented:

“We are delighted to be able to reward gamers who pre-order bad credit loans with a free upgrade to the Limited Edition version of the game.”

Darksiders II follows the exploits of DEATH, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, in a weaving tale that runs parallel to the events in the originalDarksiders game. This epic journey propels DEATH through various light and dark realms as he tries to redeem his brother WAR, the horseman who was blamed for prematurely starting the Apocalypse in Darksiders.

Darksiders II is scheduled to be available for console and PC on 29^th June 2012

Bioshock Infinite yayer!

If you’re eagerly awaiting Bioshock Infinite as much as we are, this 14-minute feature from GameTrailers doesn’t disappoint. If you’re not sure what all of the fuss is about, now you’ll get a chance to see. GameTrailers went behind the scenes with Bioshock Infinite at E3, and they’ve finally released the gameplay footage captured during their closed-door briefings.

Over the course of the video we’re introduced to your own character, Booker DeWitt, a rough, shady character with some gambling debts on a mercenary mission unsecured loans to rescue Elizabeth, a girl with extraordinary powers to bend and manipulate space around her. You’re dropped into the middle of the action, while you and Elizabeth hunt for supplies and try to make your way to Comstock House, where presumably you’ll find answers and a way out of the floating city of Columbia.

You also get the opportunity to meet Elizabeth’s guardian, the Songbird – the strong and bird-like protector that makes the Big Daddy from Bioshock and Bioshock 2 look like a pushover. You get an idea for exactly how powerful he is, and exactly how dangerous it would be to take him on directly. He also seems to have a complicated relationship with Elizabeth, which we assume we’ll learn more about when the game is released.

The video also introduces us to the Vox Populi, a resistance group that’s directly and violently opposed to the Jeffersonian administration of Columbia. As you fight through the Vox Populi and try to get Elizabeth to safety, there’s a chance to see Elizabeth’s powers in action, check out all of the weapons you’ll pick up as you travel through Columbia, and get a really great view of the game’s Skyline system.

The Skyline system is the mechanic that will help you traverse the open world in Bioshock Infinite. Using a hand-held hook of sorts, you’ll be able to ride the rollercoaster-style bad credit loans cables and lines that connect the floating islands and buildings that make up the massive city.

Explanations aside however, the video is something that has to be seen to be believed. Bioshock Infinite is scheduled for release in 2012, and will land on the PlayStation 3, XBox 360, and the PC.

apple co-founders

Whenever people discuss the the historical aspects of Apple, they often make reference to the fact that the company was founded by Steve Jobs unsecured loans and Steve Wozniak, which is indeed true. However, it is often an overlooked fact that the two Steves took the decision to form the company they called Apple Computer Co. with a third man, Ron Wayne.

In the technology world, Ron Wayne’s story is well known and thanks to a number of newspaper articles; he is often portrayed as the man who took the decision to quit Apple bad credit loans and walk away with $800 for his ten percent stake in the company. A ten percent stake in Apple in the current climate would obviously make Wayne an extremely wealthy individual, but it seems that is not how he looks at the situation. Ronald G. Wayne has decided to take to his Facebook profile to publish a short essay which explains his decision to leave Apple after only twelve days whilst promoting his new book at the same time.

The financial side of things doesn’t seem to be a major regret for Wayne, who admits the whole situation was "character building", but he does concede that if he knew the company would make 300 people millionaires in only four years, he would have rode those four years out but then would’ve still parted with the company. At the time of founding the company with Jobs and Wozniak, Ron was working a full time job at Atari as an International Field Service Engineer, reporting directly to Al Alcorn which made it difficult to continue his role at Apple.

As is always the way with a company start up, the future is totally unknown with no one being able to predict whether the company would be successful or even when that success would come. We are pretty sure many company founders have felt the same hesitation which Ron Wayne expressed in his essay:

Aside from any immediate apprehension in regard to financial risks, I left because I didn’t feel that this new enterprise would be the working environment that I saw for myself, essentially for the rest of my days. I had every belief would be successful but I didn’t know when, what I’d have to give up or sacrifice to get there, or how long it would take to achieve that success.

You get the feeling that the essay was published in an attempt to put right a few mistruths which have been sensationalized in the press in recent time. Media reports generally play on the fact that Wayne has lost out on billions of dollars over the years which is something he doesn’t believe is true, although in his own words he does conceded that he "perhaps lost tens of millions of dollars". Hindsight is a wonderful thing and rather than reflect on what could have been, Wayne has spent the last forty years compiling information through his research which is all packed into his new books, Insolence Of Office.

Whether or not Wayne does have huge regrets about his decision to leave the company is something we may never know and something he may wrestle with on a personal level, but history belongs in the past and with the publication of his book, he truly believes that he has justified his existence. Head on over to his Facebook feed and check out his essay "Why I Left Apple Computer After Only 12 Days, In My Own Words", it makes an interesting read.

Xbox live for cheap chips

It's one thing to splurge on a one-time purchase. When you've been lucky enough to come into a bit of unexpected dough, why not treat yourself to that new Kinect sensor, right? But when you spurge on a subscription service, like XBox LIVE or MobileMe, you're buying the gift that keeps on taking. Before you sign up for that regular monthly credit card charge, consider this idea for getting a cheaper subscription rate. 

If you're dying to get online with XBox LIVE, it's probably because you want to play with friends. So how about this idea: Go in with your buddies on a family  bad credit loans plan.

By signing up for a family plan, you're cutting the subscription cost for everyone (kind of like buying toilet paper in bulk). And, yes, you can each still play from different apartments.

There's plenty of subscription services from all over the tech universe that can let multiple subscribers cut their rates. Here are a few of our favorites, but let us know if you think of unsecured loans any others by leaving a comment!

• XBox LIVE offers a Gold Family Pack, giving you 12-month LIVE subscriptions for 4 different players for just $99.99. All you need to do is move everyone's accounts to one XBox, buy the plan and then specify your "family" members. Once everyone is setup with LIVE, they're free to take their accounts home to their own console anywhere in the United States.

• Apple's MobileMe e-mail and cloud sync subscription service is pricey for one person—$99 per year. But if everyone is willing to sacrifice a bit of e-mail space, you can register up to five people for just $149. The "primary" account gets 20GB of space and each of the four family members get 5GB.

• XM Radio is a bit of a splurge for one person (especially with so many awesome radio apps available for smartphones). But if you get a big group together, you guys can re-coup some of the cost with multi-radio discount plans.

• Now that Netflix features a plan that lets you watch unlimited movies and TV via Netflix Streaming, it's easier than ever to share a subscription with friends. For just $7.99 a month (around $2 per person), four friends on four different computers (or streaming devices like XBox or Wii) can watch all the flicks they want. Want to watch from more than four machines? Well, of course, somebody out there has figured out how to hack the limit.

JTAG your xbox 360 to play copied games

Step 1: Finding out if your Xbox is Exploitable

Your kernel must be kernel 2.0.7371.0 or lower for this to work.  You can do this by opening up the system info tab.  After there is one more step to check if it still is exploitable, but you bad credit loans have to build your cable to dump your nand first.

Step 2: Getting your Parts

Tools
Soldering iron
Solder
Computer with LPT port.

Parts
1x 25 pin d-sub connector (male or female depending on which kind of cable you have)
Digikey # 225FE-ND

1x 25 pin d-sub cable (lpt cable) You can actually skip the cable if you buy a male connector and make your wires long enough to extend from your xbox to the computer
Digikey # AE9863-ND

3x 330 ohm resistors (only for Xenon motherboards)
Digikey # P330BBCT-ND

1x 1n4148 switching diode (if you have Zephyr, Falcon, Opus or a Jasper get 3x of these)

Refer to the image below to tell what kind of 360 you have.

There has been a new update to the standard wiring you should use for the JTAG wiring on Xenon's which requires just 2x 1n4148 diodes.  I've never used this method before so I can't really unsecured loans help as much if you have problems.  But I would suggest going with it instead since it is supposed to be electrically superior and uses less parts so less room for failure I guess.

Step 3: Soldering the Cable

Soldering is generally pretty straight forward.  You actually don't need any solder for the motherboard end, as the holes all have solder in them.  So you just need need to heat it up and slide the wire through.  I suggest using at least a 30w iron as a 15w will have trouble getting the lead free solder hot enough.  All resistors on the connector are optional, it's just to prevent damage as some ports are 5v and the motherboard is 3.3v.

Here are some bigger pictures
Xenon
All others

Recently there has been a new way to wire Xenons that is supposed  to be better, I have never tried it but I have included the diagram on how to wire it.

New Xenon

Step 4: Dumping the NAND

Download the files here (I forgot to include nandpro get that here )
Extract the rar, and open up the nandpro folder
install port95nt.exe (if running vista or 7 set it for compatibility mode for xp.)
Plug your Xbox 360 in, but don't power it on.
Plug the lpt cable in
Pop open cmd and change directories to your nandpro folder
type nandpro lpt: -r16 nand.bin
It will start to dump, this will take 35 minutes
Type nandpro lpt: -r16 nand2.bin and dump it a second time.

If during the dump it has trouble reading blocks, don't worry.  You only have a problem if can't read block after block, which means something went wrong in the middle of the dump and you have to restart it again.

If you are having issues having nandpro detecting it, go over and double check all of your soldering. If you skipped out on the diode, try adding one, and just restarting your computer has fixed the issue quite a few times for me. You also want to make sure your cable is short as possible.

Step 5: Testing if it's Exploitable

You're going to want to open up degraded included in the file pack.  Go to settings and under 1BL key make sure it says DD88AD0C9ED669E7B56794FB68563EFA and is checked.  You are also going to want to change file system start to 39.

Open up your nand dump and look at the CB version

If your CB is the following you're in luck!

Xenon: 888, 1902, 1903, 1920,1921, 8192
Zephyr: 4558, 4580
Falcon: 5761, 5766, 5770
Jasper: 6712, 6723
Jasper Arcade (256/512): 6723 or lower is Exploitable

If you are unsure if yours is exploitable, you can also check if CD = 8453, if it does you're out of luck.

Step 6: Extracting the Keyvault, Injecting and Flashing XBR

Select the proper XBR for your motherboard included in the rar file and put it in your nandpro folder.  Rename it to xbr.bin to make things easier.

Open up cmd, navigate to your nandpro folder and type

nandpro nand.bin: -r16 kv.bin 1 1
nandpro nand.bin: -r16 config.bin 3de 2

Then typenandpro xbr.bin: -w16 kv.bin 1 1
nandpro xbr.bin: -w16 config.bin 3de 2

Now for the flashing!

Just type and wait 35 minutes
nandpro lpt: -w16 xbr.bin

Step 7: Getting your CPU Key

Reassemble your 360, and boot your 360 with the DVD drive ejected.  Or if you don't have a DVD drive you can plug in a wired controller into the back usb port.

You should see a blue screen pop up and whole bunch of things fly by.  When it says CPU fuses, your either going to want to write really fast or snap a picture.

fuseset 3 and 5 or 4 and 6 is your cpu key.

So if it said
fuseset 03: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
fuseset 05: yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

My CPU key would be xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

It should 32 characters.

Step 8: Extras

I included quite a few extra programs in the .rar file.  A lot of them will come in handy with your Xbox 360 homebrew experience.  I'll be going over what each program is good for.

360 Flash Tool
This tool allows you to view all the files in your nand and your keyvault.  You need your CPU key for this.

KeyVault Modder
This allows you to modify the region code, or what your DVD drive key is.  If your Xbox 360 DVD drive is missing or you burned yours out, this is the tool you need to recover it!  You can either change the key to someone simple as just 1's or what it originally was.

X360GameHack
Since you can run any code now, you can patch .xex game files.  With this tool you can remove region coding from games and many other things.

XBLA Unlocker
This will allow you to unlock any DLC, or XBLA games you may have that are demos and that are signed to a certain console.  You can download game demos on the Xbox marketplace and unlock it with this tool.

Xbox Image Browser
This tool allows you to view the content of an Xbox 360 Iso image.  What I use this tool for is extracting the files from the iso then putting them on my xbox instead of the iso.  Xbox 360 iso's are zeroed out to 7 gb or so no matter how big the game is.  A game with 1gb of files could be wasting 6gb of space.

YarisSwap
This program allows you to modify the console ID on DLC, and XBLA games to run on any console.

Xbins
This is a xbins autoconnect tool.  Use this to download the latest files.

Freestyle Dash
This is my favorite Xbox 360 custom dashboard.  It includes DVD ripping and FTP support.  It is one of the most progressing dashboards that is constantly being updated with new features.

Quickboot
This tool creates containers from xex files that can be launched from the dashboard.

Xexloader
This allows you to navigate your hdd on your xbox and launch .xex files directly.  It also has an ftp server running in the background also.  I included 2 versions, one is the ISO which you just burn to a CD and put in your xbox, the other is a XBLA file that you put in your content folder on your hard drive and launch.

Step 9: Installing a 3.5 in desktop HDD

This requires you to cut the end off a sata cable and solder it under the HDD connector. 

Wiring goes as follows
Pin 1: SATA Signal GND
Pin 2: SATA Signal A+
Pin 3: SATA Signal A-
Pin 4: SATA Signal GND
Pin 5: SATA Signal B+
Pin 6: SATA Signal B-
Pin 7: SATA Signal GND

The side of the sate cable with the writing goes up, and you start left from right.  You only have to solder the white shielded cables inside as these are the data cables.  Just wire the rest of the ground wires some where else.

Where to get my 12v?
There are many spots on the Xbox motherboard where you can get 12v of power from, I picked the power connector on the bottom of the board as I'm not soldering onto any other connectors or anything.

How to wire up the sata power connector
Yellow: 12v
Red: 5v
Black: GND

Hard drives have been tested up to 2tb and worked successfully.

Step 10: My Avatar is Only a Silhouette!

Usually your avatar will be a blank silhouette and it will tell you, you need to install an update to use them.  All you need to do is download this update file, and place it on a USB flash drive, and plug it into the back usb port of your xbox.  Your 360 should detect it and install it.  Make sure you extract it first and the root of the drive is the $SystemUpdate folder.  You can also burn it to a CD to update.

If you're paranoid you will brick your console because microsoft is out to get you and ruin your homebrew, you can look at the picture about removing the r6t3 resistor to keep from having your fuses blown.

I also provided a mediafire mirror in case the microsoft one goes down.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/nmzmtegxnyt/$SystemUpdate_Fall09_8955.zip

Dead of Alive.....Alive!

Team Ninja and Tecmo Koei have revealed some new information about Dead or Alive 5 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, including the revelation that Ryu unsecured loans Hayabusa and Hayate will be playable characters, as will favorite female fighters Ayane and Hitomi.

Dead or Alive 5 promises to marry its signature fighting style with a wide variety of martial arts fighting techniques to create an even stronger direction for the popular franchise. No longer content to be eye candy with a deadly kick the female fighters will prove that they possess even more character in the game. Doing so adds to their unique styles which will accentuate their individual personalities as they fight it out with their opponents with a new look and feel only befit for a new generation of intense DOA combat.

Ayane is a female ninja or kunoichi who first made her appearance in the original Dead or Alive. The leader of the Hajin Mon ninja, she is the half-sister and cousin to Hayate and Kasumi. bad credit loans Nicknamed the “Female Tengu” for her lethal Hajin Mon fighting style, she has also appeared in the Ninja Gaiden series.

The German karate fighter Hitomi first entered the game’s pantheon in DEAD OR ALIVE 3 when she entered the tournament to prove her abilities to her karate master father. Somewhat gullible but with a noble and honorable character, she has formidable martial arts skills.

In Dead or Alive 5, players will once again take on the roles of the cast of DOA fighters in an intense, action-packed brawler set in visually striking locations from around the world. The famed DOA hand-to-hand combat returns supported by completely new 3D stages that maintain their incredibly characteristic style but with a fresh look and feel. In Dead or Alive 5, stages are more than spectacular visual backdrops, instead playing to a fighter’s strengths. As a fight progresses, the backdrop will change and interact with players. Skilled fighters will be able to utilize these dynamic stages to execute hard-hitting blows, pitting their opponents against fresh obstacles to create a breathtaking new fighting experience.

Hack xbox slim

Its seems the fellas over at Team Xecuter have done it again.  They just posted a video showing off an Xbox 360 Slim playing a “backed-up” game.  From their post they say they have been working for weeks now alongside other hacking teams, Team Jungle  bad credit loans & C4E, to create this “DVD Rom patch”.New Xbox 360 Slim  Hacked To Run Writable Discs......

 

Modding the Xbox 360 firmware has been around for quite some time now which enables you to download images of games from different sources, burn them onto a DVD and run them on your console. Of course this is useful if you want to backup your discs but this is something Microsoft doesn’t want you to do for obvious reasons. The all new Xbox 360 Slim (or S) which was released in June 2010 at E3 had a new protection installed on the drive which made all the previous mods useless. But if this video is to be believed, hackers have managed to hack Xbox 360 S / Slim to run writable discs. Video after the break.

The team which has pulled off this feat call themselves Team Xecuter bad credit loans and with a little collaboration from Team Jungle and commodore4eva. They claim to have hacked the DVD drive of the new Xbox 360 to play writable discs as seen in the video below. According to the team, it will be released soon.

Team Xecuter also plans to reales the hack in the near future to the public, but are finishing up the work.  Now don’t forget copy right infringement isn’t exactly legal.Some things still remain unanswered;  Does this patch require a moded box?  And the video doesn’t show them logging into Xbox Live.

Keep one thing in mind though, Microsoft doesn’t allow running writable disc content on Xbox 360 because of piracy, and we wouldn’t recommend it either. Even though new DRM regulations may allow you to create backup discs (for educational purposes), but that is ONLY and ONLY for your private use. So be careful with what you are doing.