It seems like only yesterday we were updating to Firefox 5 (for those hazy on the details, version 5 was officially released June 20), but already it’s time to move on. The latest iteration of Mozilla’s Firefox web browser, Firefox 6, is now here and ready for consumption.
So, what can you expect Firefox 6 to bring? Well, don’t hold your breath for a lot of visual differences. The Firefox UI has remained the same for the most part as the bulk of the changes for this release are happening behind the scenes. The most noticeable cosmetic change is that the address bar now highlights the domain of the website you’re visiting. Under the hood there’s added support for the latest version of WebSocket as well as stream-lined performance when it comes to start times and opening large numbers of tabs at once. There’s also the addition of a new permissions tool that will allow the end-user better control of which websites are storing what information (cookies, passwords, location, etc.).
The International is right around the corner, and in order to get you hyped up for the global public debut of DotA 2, Valve has a question for you: “What does a hero truly need?”
If you listen to the gorgeously animated wizard/wiseman in the trailer above, a hero’s needs depend on their circumstances. Archers may need speed, warriors may need strength, and floaty lightning people obviously need floaty lightning. If you listen to the millions of people anxiously awaiting the start of Gamescom, however, the answer is “immediate, total and unending access to this game.”
It’s impossible to keep something this big under wraps, the deep, dark bowels of the internet have regurgitated these purported in-game screenshots. It’s important to note that the veracity of these screens is still uncertain, and that we won’t truly know how the game looks until later this week. Click after the jump to see the leaked shots of DotA 2.
The latest Mass Effect 3 trailer bills itself as “Part 1″ of the game’s combat reveal and, as such, it shows off some of Shepard’s new combat mechanics, notably the melee attack and some new squad leadership abilities. “Behind the boxes, right flank,” Generi-Shep orders. Of course, we can imagine ourselves barking these same commands into our Kinect at home. Later, a huge mechsuit presents a larger challenge, but it’s not clear if Garrus’ Overload attack, which removed the mech’s shields, was ordered by Shepard. If so, was that a voice command?
While this reveal definitely has gameplay in it, it’s so edited it’s difficult to glean much about the game’s new combat mechanics. Here’s what we can tell: Mass Effect 3 definitely has combat and there are some new moves to take advantage of. Gotta save something for “Part 2,” we guess.
Valve Software revealed the existence of the newest Counter-Strike today, but the company seemed a bit shy on specifics, saying that next year’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive would bring new weapons, gameplay modes and maps to the extremely popular competitive shooter.
Thankfully, some of Counter-Strike‘s most dedicated players, the professionally competitive type, are going hands-on with CS: GO this week at Valve HQ, giving us an early look at some of the game’s big changes.
ESEA News‘ Craig “Torbull” Levine offered up the game’s first in-depth hands-on report from a “pre-beta” build of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, writing that Valve is “keen on hearing the input from top [Counter-Strike Source] players to make CS GO an e-sports title.”
Chatter over Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) first began this week over on Reddit thanks to a few gamers who personally tested the unannounced title while spending a day at Valve’s headquarters in Seattle.
“We didn’t have to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, but they did ask us to not give out any pictures or videos from there before it is released,” reads one testimony. The post in itself verified previous reports that Valve was shuttling top Counter-Strike players to Valve’s HQ in order to “discuss the future” of Counter-Strike.
After the Reddit post, the E-Sports Entertainment’s official Facebook page was updated with a message reading “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive… More info in the morning” along with a picture of Craig Levine turning the gigantic valve in Valve’s lobby. A Valve employee dubbed “Cliffe” also posted “Global Offensive” on a Steam forum thread, essentially backing up the unofficial news.
An Assassin’s Creed: Revelations multiplayer beta will kick off on September 3 exclusively on the PS3, available in the first week only to PlayStation Plus and UPlay members. According to Ubisoft, nine characters will be available in the beta across three maps, with four gameplay modes each. You’ll find them all listed after the break and depicted visually in the gallery below.
With Assassin’s Creed: Revelations just a few months away from launch, now’s also the time to refresh your memory of the franchise’s many outings thus far. Check out the stylish little recap clip above if you don’t know your Ezios from your Altairs.
Characters: The Sentinel, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Vizier, The Thespian, The Deacon, The Bombardier, The Trickster and The Champion
Maps: Knight’s Hospital, Antioch, Constantinople
Modes: Wanted, Manhunt, Deathmatch, and Artifact Assault
Dice have released some stunning new Battlefield 3 screenshots on the Battlefield blog. They’re taken from the Operation Metro map that alpha testers have been playing on recently, and the E3 demo level, Thunder Run, which is a roaming tank battle, set in the desert.
Legit PC gamers sometimes have it pretty rough when games publishers decide to lace their products with DRM schemes that are quite strict.
Gamers who have purchased Ubisoft games Settlers 7, Silent Hunter V, Assassin’s Creed 2 and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood know that a constant and reliable internet connection is required in order to play.
While this does make things harder for pirates, legit gamers who have a flakey internet connection or wish to play their games on a gaming laptop when away from a Wi-Fi hotspot are totally out of luck. Conversely, if Ubisoft’s servers go down, that’s also game over for players.
Despite all that, Ubisoft still sees its DRM scheme a success, and will be implementing it in its Driver: San Francisco that releases on August 30 in the US, and September 2 in Europe.
An Ubisoft representative told PC Gamer that the DRM scheme head led to “a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection, and from that point of view the requirement is a success.”
Previews of Diablo 3 released earlier this week revealed that the upcoming action-RPG PC game will require a constant Internet connection even when playing the single-player campaign. While the news isn’t unexpected, it means that gamers won’t be able to hack their way through dungeons on their laptops while the home network is down or if they’re on the road where connections aren’t available.
According to prior reports, this Internet requirement possibly serves as a means to curb piracy. But it also prevents the user from having to generate a separate character — a separate “path” –in order to play multiplayer games on Battle.net.
“We thought about this quite a bit,” said executive producer Rob Pardo earlier this week. “One of the things that we felt was really import was that if you did play offline, if we allowed for that experience, you’d start a character, you’d get him all the way to level 20 or level 30 or level 40 or what have you, and then at that point you might decide to want to venture onto Battle.net. But you’d have to start a character from scratch, because there’d be no way for us to guarantee no cheats were involved, if we let you play on the client and then take that character online.”
It seems like only yesterday we were updating to Firefox 5 (for those hazy on the details, version 5 was officially released June 20), but already it’s time to move on. The latest iteration of Mozilla’s Firefox web browser, Firefox 6, is now here and ready for consumption.
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