AMD now offers Catalyst version 14.1 beta drivers for
Windows and
Linux, a bit of a delay from the most recent plan to have these out by
Friday. Among other things, the new beta drivers offer support for AMD's new
Mantle API through the
just-released patch for
Battlefield 4. Here's word on the Mantle beta:
- Mantle Beta driver support
- AMD’s Mantle is a groundbreaking graphics API
that promises to transform the world of game development to help bring
better, faster games to the PC
- Performance gains of up to 45%(versus the
DirectX version) for Battlefield 4 on the R9 290 Series
- Performance gains of up to 200% (versus the
DirectX version) for Star Swarm on the R9 290 Series
- AMD Catalyst 14.1 Beta must be used in
conjunction with versions of these applications that support Mantle
- It is expected that these applications
will have future updates to support additional AMD Mantle features
- AMD Mantle Beta driver is currently supported
on:
- AMD Radeon™ R9 Series GPUs
- AMD Radeon™ R7 Series GPUs
- AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series GPUs
- AMD Radeon™ HD 8000 Series GPUs
- AMD A10-7000 Series and AMD A8-7000 Series
APUs
Here are the 10 bestselling games on
Steam last week according to Valve:
- DayZ
- Rust
- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Collection
- Starbound
- Insurgency
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist
- Octodad: Dadliest Catch
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Broken Age
- Strike Vector
The
Stellar Jockeys website reveals
development of
Matador, an isometric single-player, real-time tactical
combat game coming to Windows, OS X, and Linux this summer, with early access
expected to begin within the next couple of months.
This reveal trailer
offers a look at gameplay, and here's an explanation:
The game is called
Matador (PC Mac Linux), and it's a single player real time tactical combat game.
The game takes around an hour or so to beat, and like FTL / Binding of Isaac
when you die you start over again, possibly with new unlocks. Play centers
around combat in a single city over the course of a single night, against
multiple different factions with different fighting styles. The player has a
wide variety of vehicles and weapons to choose from when starting a run-- we
want to encourage a broad variety of playstyles, from more cautious, stealthy
types to people who like to Kool-Aid straight through walls. Speaking of which,
while the maps are all flat 2D, the environments are completely destructible, so
the battlefield is very dynamic. In short, tense but thoughtful iterative
gameplay with a large variety of options.
Continue here to read the full story.
The
Minecraft website reveals that Mojang's
sandbox blocks game has now sold over 14 million units for Windows/OS X, saying:
"So far 14,023,678 people bought the PC/Mac version of the game. Phew." Phew
indeed! Thanks
GameSpot.
Happy Groundhog Day, as today marks the convergence of two of the Blue Tower's
favorite occasions, with it also being Super Bowl Sunday. Word is our local
Staten Island Chuck and nearby
Punxsutawaney Phil each saw their shadows, scientific proof we should expect
six more weeks of wintery weather, though
Shipoke Sheena contradictorily says to expect an early spring, and she's not
phar phrom Phil, if you'll phorgive the phorced alliteration. I hope she turns
out to be right, because the six or so weeks of winter we've gotten so far
around these parts have been pretty rough, and some warmth and sunshine will be
welcome. Speaking of welcome, yes, the Super Bowl is tonight, and I certainly am
looking forward to that, as always. This year's game holds a lot of promise,
too, as it embodies so many classic conflicts: The AFC's one seed versus the one
seed from the NFC, offense versus defense, the old QB versus the kid, the run
versus the pass, good versus evil, orange orange versus lime green ... this one
has it all.
R.I.P.:
Oscar-winning actor Maximilian Schell dies at 83.
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