Month: March 2014

Ads that talk… irritating jingles… annoying videos… strange beeps. Finding the source of a sound in a sea of tabs is difficult. Luckily, Chrome helps you hunt down that nuisance noise.

Since version 32, Chrome displays the tabs that make noise through the use of a small icon. It’s a telltale sign that points to noisy tabs and, although it’s not very visible, it’s not annoying either. It looks like this:

Finding a noisy tab in Google Chrome

The sound detection works with any source, whether it’s a Flash ad, a full screen video or the beep of a game – if a tab even so much as utters a peep, Chrome tells you via an icon. You can then choose whether you want to close the tab or decrease the volume.

For now, only noisy pages are shown in the tabs; it’s not possible, for example, to see them in the Chrome Task Manager. There are no options associated with this function. What you see is what you get: a speaker icon.

And if you want to stop the noise coming from a tab?

Google Chrome shows you which tab is making the noise, but doesn’t give you the option to block the sound. Luckily, there’s already a great extension called MuteTab, which further identifies noisy tabs, allowing you to block their sound.

MuteTab displays all the noisy Chrome tabs and allows you to selectively silence them

And how about other browsers, like Firefox, IE, and Opera?

This function is currently only available in Google Chrome. In Firefox, there’s been a petition going since 2009 to add something similar, but to date this still hasn’t happened – no one knows why.

People have wanted the same functionality in Firefox since 2009

Internet Explorer doesn’t provide any way of knowing which tab is making the noise. The only way to lower the volume is to go directly to the sound system mixer, but it’s something you can already do with any other application.

Hopefully Opera and Safari, which share code with Chrome, will soon add this useful feature, although their development follows different routes. In the case of Opera, you can install MuteTab, because Opera uses the same extensions as Chrome.

Origin, EA’s PC gaming platform and Steam competitor, has announced there will be no more games released on disc. From April 4th, the whole Origin catalog will be available as digital download only on PC and Mac.

This isn’t a surprising move: while console physical releases are still popular and common, since the rise of Steam and other PC gaming platforms, physical formats have looked more and more like a relic of the past. This announcement pretty much seals the fate of PC physical games.

Digital downloads are easy to manage for users, and it may be easier to control piracy if games are all tied to online services like Origin. All-digital also means less physical waste, which is better for the environment. Another issue is size – as AAA games get bigger and bigger, DVDs are simply not an efficient way to distribute them anymore. Many powerful laptops and ultrabooks don’t even have DVD drives, so the writing has been on the wall for a while.

Not everyone will be happy. Some people do have limited internet access and data plans, and for them a 35GB download might be a problem. Others are attached to the idea of physical purchases, and like the feel of boxed games.

Source: Origin

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Cut the Rope 2 has finally arrived on Android, now available as a free download in both the Google Play and Amazon App stores. The sequel to the popular game has been available for iOS since December, but it wasn’t until just a few days ago that developers from ZeptoLab announced its availability on Android.

The long-awaited sequel comes with new features including power-ups, hints, customization, interactive maps, and new missions for each level.

CEO of ZeptoLab, Misha Lyalin, says they have been “working hard to bring new content and challenges to this free version, while maintaining all of the fun and simplicity that made Cute the Rope 2 great.” They also thanked Android fans for their patience.

ZeptoLab also took the game’s Android launch as an opportunity to announce that Cut the Rope games have now been downloaded more than half a billion times on iOS and Android devices, a number which is sure to see an increase with the newest Android release.

• Download Cut the Rope 2 for Android
• Download Cut the Rope 2 for iOS

Source: Polygon

RELATED ARTICLES:

• Cut The Rope 2: 6 tips and tricks
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I sat down at EGX Rezzed to play Flockers, a new title from Team17, the UK developer most famous for the Worms series. Flockers charges players with guiding a flock of sheep through grizzly, dangerous ‘steampunk’ levels filled with spinning blades, spikes and more lethal machinery.

The sheep are trying to escape the grip of ‘the tyrannical worms’, and you have to help them by changing their formation and giving them special powers like jumping, exploding and wall climbing. The gameplay is similar to Lemmings, but the tone is altogether more gruesome. Sheep fall victim to the steampunk killing machines in showers of gore accompanied by blood curdling screams. It’s dark, macabre fun.

The demo at Rezzed had three levels, and while Senior PR executive Bethany Aston explained to me that is was possible to complete them while saving all the sheep, not saving a few does seem to be part of the fun. It’s the first non-Worms game from Team17 for some years, and they are clearly very enthusiastic to be launching a new IP.

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Aston explained to me how keen they are to get community feedback on the game, and Flockers will be available for everyone to play on PC via Steam Early Access sometime in Q2 this year, with a full release sometime later.

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Backstabbing is a big risk for any character in Dark Souls II because it almost instantly results in death. Here, we’ll give you a few tips on how you can protect yourself, turn the tables, and become the assassin, without leaving your back vulnerable to attack.

Avoid attacks from behind

Out of nowhere, a sword can fly into your back, sending your life bar plummeting to zero. It’s not uncommon to find yourself in this situation at one time or another in Dark Souls II; even a seemingly harmless opponent can master the technique if you turn your back on them.

If you don’t want them to come in for the kill, you need to move cautiously without turning a blind eye to any enemies. A lifeless skeleton, for example, can quickly get up, track you, and hit you with a deadly blow–usually from behind–as soon as you pass it.

Mark your enemies, so that the camera automatically focuses on them.

If you see a potential enemy, mark them by clicking the right analog stick of your controller. A small circle will appear on the center of your enemy. The advantage is that the camera automatically aligns itself with the selected enemy. As a result, they can’t get behind you, but that doesn’t mean that the enemy is alone, and you still need to be careful.

Inflicting a deathblow

To perform a backstabbing attack yourself, mark your enemies (as described above). Observe their movements. If the enemy attempts a heavy blow, roll under the attack; this quickly puts you behind them.

Unlike in Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, this immediately sets you up in the right position to launch a backstab attack. First, start with a normal blow. This gives the opponent a fraction of a second to escape the mortal blow. From there, you can inflict a subsequent blow which will literally impale your enemy and cause considerable damage.

Backstabs work with most simple enemies, as well as with most weapons, particularly handy, fast weapons like daggers. Large enemies or bosses, however, are usually unimpressed by these sorts of attacks. Against these enemies, you have to find other methods, and we’ve attempted to do just that with our 8 tips for surviving Dark Souls II.

Dark Souls II backstabs can easily make or break you

Backstabs are a basic element of Dark Souls II. Whoever can master them has a great advantage. Those who neglect this serious danger will die more often than not. This applies not only against computer-operated enemies, but also in the PvP (player-versus-player) battles. Be on guard and faster than your opponent if you want to survive these deadly blows.

RELATED ARTICLES:

• Review of Dark Souls 2
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Developer The Creative Assembly has announced Alien Isolation, the latest game in the Alien franchise, will be released on October 7th. It’s coming out on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The announcement was made during a developer session at EGX Rezzed in Birmingham, UK, where publisher Sega has also been showing an early demo of the game. Creative Assembly explained at the presentation how they are making ‘the Alien game they always wanted to play’. The team did a lot of research on 1970s science fiction, and worked closely with Fox to make sure the game has the same ‘low-fi sci-fi’ feel of the original 1979 movie.

The demo we saw at Rezzed is absolutely terrifying. It’s very much survival horror, and the sense of dread and fear in the game is palpable. Creative Assembly announced that the game will feature crafting, to allow you to create tools and weapons to fight the alien. The alien itself will have an advanced artificial intelligence, enabling it to learn from your play style, and will be unpredictable so players can’t learn where the alien will appear or how it will react.

We’ll follow the development of Alien Isolation over the next few months.