The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection goes free on Origin

Earlier this month,EA(Electronic Arts) announced that The Sims 2 was being 'retired' and anyone who owns it would be receiving an email notifying them that their copy will be upgraded to The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection on Origin. 

Fear not, however as EA has decided release the game for free, allowing everyone to download and enjoy the game. This is probably a marketing gimmick to persuade future customers to purchase Sims 4, which is releasing in September.

 Here is the steps to get the game:

1. Install origin if you haven't links (HERE)  if you already have it just skip to step 3

2. Create a free Origin account (HERE) 

3. Launch origin and log into your origin account

4. From the ‘Games’ tab in the Origin menu, select ‘Redeem Product Code’ and enter the code: I-LOVE-THE-SIMS

That's all you have to do, which is simple actually. Now you can live that virtual lives that you were dreaming about. As always, have fun playing and stay tuned for more news here at Potato Gamers!

One million GTR Evolution Steam keys to give away by PC-Gamer and Bundle Star

So this is the last week of the generous giveaway by PC-Gamer and Bundle Stars. For this last journey, they are giving away one million copies of GTR Evolution. This giveaway will also include it's base game, the Race 07 and the Raceroom Racing Experience. 

Just enter your e-mail and like PCGamer Facebook page when you start HERE. Then share it with your friends and family.Without PCGamer and Bundle Star , this giveaway wouldn't be possible, so please do appreciate what they are doing for our community here. They have a vast amount of experience in this game , so prepare for some adrenaline racing.

We have some news about the Battlefield Hardline has been delayed to 2015

Bad news for gamers. Better head for cover. DICE VP Karl Magnus Troedsson announced in a press that Battlefield Hardline has been delayed to early 2015.
Perhaps not wanting to do a "Glitchfield 4", which they made a big mistake by pushing the game to release too early. They now are delaying the release of the game so that they have time to iron out the glitches and maybe add in some new features.

Here are a few of the things delay will allow them to accomplish, according the Battlefield Blog:

1. Multiplayer Innovation: Coming out of our E3 beta, internal focus tests, and work with our community, we have received a lot of great Multiplayer thinking. We’re going to be adding some new feature ideas direct from the community that will evolve the cops and criminals fantasy into a truly unique Battlefield Multiplayer experience.

2. Single Player Story Depth: In order to ensure our Single Player experience delivers on player expectations, we’re spending more time polishing our core features, as well as adding a few new ones that will support a deeper “crime revenge” story experience.

3. Stability: This has been a focus for our team since day one and we’re going to be using the extra time to continue to optimize the game for a stable launch. We have learned a lot from Battlefield 4, are continuing to learn from our Community Test Environment and will learn more from another Hardline beta. More time allows us to surface issues that the team can attempt to fix prior to launch.

Would you have rather the game launched early and fixed the bugs later? Leave a comment below to let us at Potato Gamers know!

Game Developers

According to a survey conducted by Gamesutra in May 2014, it is revealed that the average salary for U.S. based game developers suffered a 2% decrease from 2012 to 2013. 

The average game developer in the U.S. earned just over $83,000 USD in 2013, while Canadian and European based developers averaged a salary of $71,000 USD (up 9 percent from 2012) and $46,000 USD (no change) respectively.

However, those who is in the managerial and business positions earned an average of over $100,000 USD in 2013- the highest of any jobs. Audio personnel followed closely behind at a decent average salary of $90,000 USD. 

Solo indie developers experienced a 49 percent drop in salary, while the average salary for developers belonging to indie teams shot up a staggering 161 percent.
This is well proved by the recent successes of games like LittleBigPlanet and No Man's Sky. Anyone who wants to dig deeper can check Gamesutra here.

Dragon Age: Inquisition will release in November

The third installment in the RPG series will launch on November 18 this year, more than a month later than its planned October 7 date. This, of course, is fairly insignificant compared to its first year-long delay. Dragon Age: Inquisition was originally supposed to launch in Fall 2013.

Bioware announced in a press conference today that the delay was due to the fact that the team needed to polish the game and also ensuring the experience we get is the best that they can accomplish. 

Dragon Age: Inquisition is one of the most anticipated games of the year, with amazing features such as diversity in marriages, and a refined way of telling a story: The world is shaped around your choices.  It is scheduled to launch on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on November 18.

Watch Dogs' TheWorse Mod Version 1.0 released

  
  We talked about Watch Dogs back in May 27 . (Links here) I know that a section of gamers have complained about Ubisoft holding some graphical options from us PC Gamers. This was eventually proven when a user called " The Worse" unlocked the graphic options that were shown at E3 2012. Maybe it's because Ubisoft wanted to show the console gamers that PC version of Watch Dogs and Console Version are the same in terms of graphics fidelity. As of today, the final version of the "TheWorse Mod" has arrived. Time to start cranking up your PC and look at Chicago in it's true atmosphere !

  Also, installing the MalDo texture pack included the TheWorseMod changes the High Settings to also include "Ultra" settings, without any stuttering that anyone might have experienced earlier.

Job Listing at Microsoft surprisingly praises PC Gaming

Microsoft is a company that I believe the majority of the gamers know as a player in the console market. Long gone are the days where PC gamers were regarded as the main audience. We once had games like Halo, Flight Simulator , the first Gears Of Wars all on the PC. 

Sure, sequels to this well loved franchises were developed, but were only published on Xbox Consoles. Since then, Microsoft have been a constant place for PC gamers to criticise. 

But as we can see here , Microsoft has surprisingly stated what they plan to do to enhance their `dominance' in PC Gaming.  It states that "We’ll work with the top games publishers and independent studios in the world to build rich, immersive Windows games that blow away gamers and do great business across multiple form factors."

That sounds extremely pleasing to the ears , given how strong Microsoft's E3 "Game On" conference was.  If games like Sunset Overdrive, Forza Horizon and Quantum Break could make an appearance on the PC, then Microsoft might finally be able to win back the hearts of us hardcore gamers. 

I will not keep my hopes up though, as Microsoft has disappointed us for far too long. What do you think? Do you think it's possible for Microsoft to live up to the hype ? Do leave a comment below ! 

One of the many Xbox exclusive titles from Microsoft, Quantum Break.

The International 2014 championship winner!

Chinese team Newbee has won the Dota 2 Championships crown at the International 4 and went home with a cool $5,028,174 paycheck , followed by Vici gaming and in 3rd place is American team Evil Geniuses.

Vici actually defeated Newbee in the first match , but Newbee bounced back to win 3 matches in a row, effectively ending Vici's hopes of winning the tournament.

We here at Potato Gaming felt that the Grand Finals were mediocre at best, compared to previous finals held. What about you ? Did you enjoy the tournament ? Leave a comment below ! 

We have some news for specifications of Intel 100-Series Chipsets

So Chinese website VR-Zone reported a number of details regarding the 100-Series chipsets from Intel. This series of chipsets is expected to succeed the current 9-series,  and they promise it will bring about some important changes.

Intel next generation of processors will be code named Broadwell,its based on the same architecture as the existing Haswell processors, but they shrinked it to 14nm possibly because of the silicon problem we talked about HERE.The Broadwell processors is expected to release sometime before the end of this year and they are expected to live a rather short life, giving way to the Skylake processors sometime during the second quarter of 2015. The current generation of Haswell processors will have lived an awfully long life.

This is some Chipset I/O information and CPU regarding the article.

Stay tuned for more information about hardware here at Potato Gaming !

A million Steam keys to give away for Gun Monkeys, with Bundle Stars

 Bundle Stars have a whopping 1million copies of Gun Monkeys to give it away! So what you waiting for? Go grab your copy now before it runs out! You can get the link HERE.Just enter your e-mail  and like PC-Gamer facebook page then share it to your friends and family.Without PC-Gamer and Bundle Star, this giveaway wouldn't be possible. 

Stay tuned here at Potato Gaming for next week's giveaway. Until then , enjoy fighting with monkeys ! :D

AMD new processors, GCN update features, R9 390X Allegedly Leaked?

AMD will soon update Graphics Core Next architecture with three processors: Iceland, Tonga and Hawaii XTX. The release date is not yet  announced.

Iceland

When we first heard about Iceland, we thought it was a new Hawaii successor. However, Iceland is something completely different, a mid-class processor. Most importantly Iceland is mobile GPU, however it will launch as desktop card in later date. Iceland will finally send Cape Verde to retirement. For such reason, Iceland might be the actual Maxwell GM107 competitor.

Tonga

Tonga is basically a Tahiti core with 256b memory bus interface. Tonga is going to be launched as new SKU, not as a Tahiti replacement. It should serve as solution until AMD finally announces the much anticipated Radeon 300 series.

Hawaii XTX

Hawaii XTX is basically a higher-clocked Hawaii XT, nothing more and nothing else. From what we’ve gathered so far, XTX will be launched with Radeon R9 295X.

GCN update features

Now, we are going to tell you about the new features of GCN. Unfortunately we are unable to confirm whether Hawaii XTX will support them too.

UAV Ordering (Unordered Access View Ordering)

UAVs cannot guarantee that each frame will access pixels in the same order. In order to avoid artifacts, some sorting is required. AMD’s UAV Ordering is basically an alternative to Intel’s PixelSync. It’s a special algorithm to solve three problems: order-independent transparency, complex scenes anti-aliasing (for example hair or fences) and shadows from transparent effects.

This technology will dramatically improve the quality of video games.

A good example of such algorithm being used is shown below.

Guess what Developer claims that Star Citizen can't run on PS4/XBone.

According to Eric 'Wingman' Peterson , a developer at Cloud Imperium Games , believes that the current crop of game consoles aren't powerful enough to run Star Citizen.


In an interview with PC-Gaming , Peterson was asked why Star Citizen was only getting a release for PC, rather than on consoles.He responded by saying "first and foremost, consoles couldn’t possibly handale a game like Star Citizen".Before he elaborating that  he said "Gaming PCs right now are formidable, with powerful CPUs and GPUs. Even next-generation consoles cannot be compared, their internal components are already older than what I could add to a gaming PC today."


But don't worry our fellow Potato Gamers running Star Citizen won't require a high-end PC to run. Peterson said that the game will still run well on mid-range gaming rigs. 

Peterson also said in the interview that the game will probably support a maximum of 50 to 70 players simultaneously in order to avoid causing problems for players with less-than-cutting-edge hardware. But gamers who have high-end systems will be able to take enjoy viewing the stars with the best graphics fidelity.


But his pro PC only stance seems to be working for him: The Star Citizen crowd funding campaign now has already accumulated $48 million

PC Emerges As Winner of Gaming Hardware Sales

Brace yourselves. Who says Next Gen Consoles are the end of PC Gaming ? If anything should be said about Next Gen Consoles, it should be that they are on par only with mid end computers, making it inevitable that the best graphics will still be on the PC. 

According to a recent study by John Peddie Research, the estimated value of the PC gaming market is at a whopping 21.5 billion dollars. That's over twice the size of Sony and Microsoft's console hardware markets combined !

It is also noted that due to the powerful capabilities of PC hardware, such as playable games at 4K (3840 x 2160) at decent frame rates makes PC gaming a better overall experience, thus explaining why it is currently leading the market. With the addition of mods, games that had decent graphics suddenly had the capability to look like a next gen game, most notably GTA IV's IceEnhancer mod. 

With this news, we Potato Gamers certainly wouldn't want to make the switch to consoles anytime soon. Hopefully, this research serves as the catalyst for the dominance of PC in gaming. We would certainly love that.

IBM invests $3B into post silicon world ? LOL !

Chip giant company, IBM hopes to get rid of the silicon chips in our computers, and they are pretty determined about it too- IBM recently announced a $3 billion investment dedicated to improve our electronics with or without silicon. 

With silicon hardware unable to catch up with silicon technology, and also the inability for silicon to shrink further in size without hampering production and performance , IBM is now trying to seek a game changer- one that will change the way computer run. "IBM is the only major company investing in carbon chip research. As demand grows for faster speeds, the investment could put it miles ahead of competitors like Oracle and HP,"   Richard Doherty told the Guardian.  

I would certainly be excited at what the future holds for us.  Substances such as graphene are already known to be 10 times faster than silicon. The possibilities would be endless, eg. faster processing power, smaller chips while also conserving energy. This might lead to the birth of Artificial Intelligence, as seen in movies such as Star Wars and games like Mass Effect.  

We have news of the GTA V release date

Sony announced that the PC version of GTA V will release before the end of 2014 ,but the big question remains unanswered by Rockstar Games.Whether it'll release before or after the November games flood, when most of the big titles launch.  
But here we have some news : According to Danish retailer Coolshop  we'll be able to visit Los Santos in 1080p, 60 FPS exactly during November 17, 2014. This however, might cause a few problems. November currently has Far Cry 4, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and The Crew among the biggest titles, while October is an embarassment of riches with Evolve, Battlefield Hardline, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Alien: Isolation and tonnes more. I'm doubtful that Rockstar will care about all this however, given that GTA V has managed to earn more than $1 Billion within 3 days.

Part of me wants to see it released during November, as I would be free of any assignments during that period. The other part of me wants it to release now, because we PC Gamers have waited for centuries for it. How about you readers out there ? Would you want it released earlier or later than November 14? Let us know in the comments below!

The Humble Bundle Experience

I came home after a long Friday. It was raining badly. Gaming news this week was slow apart from some news about GTA V. Maybe the gaming god heard me and gave me this : in one of the biggest and baddest Humble Bundles to date, 2K games is offering you 3 games for the price of only $1 . That's even cheaper than my breakfast ! 

I gave my $1 all to charity ( Yes I'm a poor kid living in the streets ) I waited for Humble Bundle to send me my keys via email. After what feels like an eternity , I finally managed to redeem all three games : Bioshock, The Darkness 2 and XCOM Declassified. Just one of this three games alone is already worth a lot more than 1 dollar. 

Of course, now you would want to hear my feedback regarding this games. Are they good ? Is the story too short? Well, I can safely say that it would be impossible to hate any of this three games. All are well polished, has a decent enough story and the gameplay doesn't feel weird. I mean, you can keep replaying XCOM just to try out different tactics. Outsmarting the enemy never gets old. 

Well, here are the brief impressions of the games :

Bioshock
  What's  not to like? An awesome story, overall good gameplay. If you loved the latest Bioshock installment, Bioshock Infinite, then you must try the first one. It's a perfect game, one that manages to capture your attention while constantly being terrifying enough. Just don't turn off the lights.

The Darkness 2
  Being a Mafia boss is cool. Having bodyguards by your side is cool. Heck you even live in a big, BIG house. I almost got lost exploring the property. The NPC chatter while you're exploring certainly lightens the atmosphere. But what's important is the gameplay, right? You don't have to worry about that - Jake has Demon heads which can destory mortals within seconds. Oh did I mention you can wield dual weapons in addition to the Demon heads? Even the Hulk would run away from that.

XCOM Declassified
  Offering a FPS experience plus managing a team of alien hunters isn't a easy task. Fortunately, this game has managed to hit the balance in XCOM : Declassified. Gamers who have played XCOM: Enemy Unknown would instantly love this game, as it manages to retain it's strategy features while also allowing you to personally shoot those aliens back where they came from. This game is the best of the bunch, with an array of weapons and also a good storyline. 

This is it for this Weekend's Spotlight folks, be sure to check in next week. Have a great weekend gaming ! Oh and before I forget, here's the link to the Humble Bundle page :  https://www.humblebundle.com/

Goat Simulator, 40% Off (Steam)

Here's the deal guys and girls : save 40% on Goat Simulator as part of Steam's Weekend Deal!

Goat Simulator is the latest in goat simulation technology, where you play as a next-gen awesome goat.

Gameplay-wise, Goat Simulator is all about causing as much destruction as you possibly can as a goat.  You can do a backflip , break through mirrors, run over people and more, just like a real goat. How awesome is that?? You can also go through the Steam workshop to check other people's content for more goatee action!

Deal ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time*

Payday 2 Developer Posted a Countdown and Some Strange Audio on Its Site

Overkill Software, developer of first-person heist game Payday 2, posted a countdown on its website with some interesting sounds to accompany it. The timer says "Day 01" and is set to expire 34 days from now. Notably, that date is the anniversary of the release of Payday 2.

There's an animated image behind the countdown timer, which shows a wall and some sunlight shining through blinds. A radiator stands in the bottom corner. There's a light switch and a door to the right. A vent is visible on the top left of the screen. Occasionally, something passes through the light source and the sunlight flickers.

When you load into the page, the sound of a ticking clock starts playing, then a record or radio program begins. Two people then talk about a personal trainer, a gym, and oxymorons. At the end, you can hear footsteps and a door opening and closing. There doesn't seem to be any meaning behind it.

Other than that, all that appears on the page are buttons that lead to the developer's Facebook and Twitter accounts.

It's not known if the countdown timer has anything to do with Payday 2. Overkill recently announced Xbox One and PlayStation 4 enhanced versions of the game last month, but the developer hasn't said anything about how far along in the development cycle it is. Payday 2 DLC also launched in June, so Overkill could be teasing new content coming in August. Of course, the developer could be working on something completely different. Keep an eye on GameSpot for more news as it emerges.Click Here to view the countdown 

Can you make anything of the timer or the audio? What do you want Overkill to do next? Let us know in the comments! source gamespot.com

A million Steam keys for Really Big Sky to give away, with Bundle Stars

Psychedelic twin-stick shooter fans rejoice! This week we're giving away a million Steam keys for Really Big Sky, a quirky, sparkly shooter that pits your lone ship against the universe. You'll battle aliens, planets armed with laser batteries, black holes, wormholes and more, but there's a twist—every level is procedurally generated, from the swarming enemy waves to the appearance of intervening planets, which require you to activate your ship's drill so you can tunnel right through them at a thousand miles per hour. Grab your key below.

This is week three of our ongoing multi-million Steam key giveaway, which we're running in association with Bundle Stars, a digital store that specialises in creating game bundles at discounts of up to 97%. They also sell games individually, and you'll regularly find discounts of up to 95% on their front page.

Really Big Sky was created by Boss Baddie, the team who last year released sinking ship escape adventure, Wake, and are currently working on a new game called Stratonauts. It's published by Ripstone and was released in 2012. It's received many updates since then, so you're getting a lot of space war for your click. Pick up your free Steam Here.source pcgamer.com

GTA V will support Mantle report says

                                         

  A list published by VideoCardz.com lists GTA V with unconfirmed AMD Mantle support. 

VideoCardz.com, which is often the starting point of rumors, has released a new list. The list is their March post of 2014-2015 Mantle supporting games, which includes existing games with Mantle support, announced games which will have Mantle support, and announced games with pending Mantle support.

Within this list is one particularly notable entry: GTA V. It was determined a couple of weeks ago that GTA V would be getting a second launch when it comes to the PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. The list shows that Mantle support is still pending for the game. This does not mean that the game will definitely have Mantle support, but rather that there is a good chance it might, as Rockstar has been granted access to the Private Beta of Mantle.

The list also mentions two other notable entries such as Lara Croft and Sleeping Dogs.  With so much expectations on this two games, Mantle support is very much welcomed by the Potato Gamers. 

Hopefully, there will soon be an official announcement from AMD to confirm this. Until then, this is still a rumor, and despite hoping that there is truth in it, we should all still take it with a grain of salt. VideoCardz.com is known to get stuff right on a regular basis though, so there may be some merit to this rumor.   -tomshardware.com