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After a long and winding road to release, it seems as though we have a SOLID release date and launch info pertaining to Remedy’s Alan Wake. Launching May 18 in North America and May 21 in Europe, the Xbox 360 exclusive that seeks to establish a new gaming genre (that of the gripping psychological action thriller) is built like a “chilling episodic TV series, where your wits and light are your only allies”. Good thing then that you can pre-order your copy and reserve your Bright Falls Bonus Pack, which includes exclusive content such as avatar gear, an Xbox LIVE theme, and a “making of” video.

Via Gametrailers

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The PC version of Assassin’s Creed 2 is finally going to hit the markets in early March.

But it will only support DirectX 9. some question from the interview taken by PC Games Hardware with 3D Lead Programmer of the game(David Champagne) about the technical background.

PCGH: Do you have to reprogram/alter/add parts of the Anvil/Scimitar engine for Assassin’s Creed 2? If so, can you please describe what technical modification you have made and why they have been necessary?

David Champagne: Several new features have been added to the engine. A lot of them came from the AI and level design but still a lot came from the graphics side. We also had to develop new tools and plug-ins to help artists and designers integrate those new features.

PCGH: Regarding the different release dates for the Console and PC version we assume, that you develop the console and PC version separately to fully take advantage of the technical possibility the PC as a platform has to offer? Is that correct?

David Champagne: Even though it is not obvious at first glance, a lot of small things need to be addressed in order to successfully port a console game to PC. Enough to keep a team working for a couple of months. We worked a lot on improving the PC version to support all the possible hardware and to take advantage of multi-core processors.

PCGH: What are the main differences between the console and the PC version as far as general technical aspects as well as the visuals is concerned? What technical features can only be realized with the PC as platform?

David Champagne: As mentioned, we spent quite some time improving the performances of the PC version by taking advantage of multi-core processors. The PC version also supports much higher resolutions than the console version and multi-sampling modes up to 8X (as opposed to the console version which only supports 2X).

PCGH: Is it correct that Assassin’s Creed 2 will offer improved shadow rendering and lighting as well as a day and night cycle? Do you integrate other new visuals into the game? If yes, what rendering techniques do you apply?

David Champagne: Efforts have particularly been put on improving our lighting system to support day and night cycle. New techniques such as support for spot lights and reflections have also been implemented into the engine.

PCGH: Can you explain why you removed support for DX10.1 in Assassin’s Creed with the patch 1.02 although DX10.1 improved the quality of FSAA as well as the performance on Radeon cards? Is it really true that DX10.1 caused errors when calculating post processing? Will the renderer of Assassin’s Creed 2 support DX10.1 or once again just DX10?

David Champagne: I personally didn’t work on the first Assassin’s Creed PC so it would be hard for me to answer this question. For Assassin’s Creed II, we decided to stick to DX9. This allowed us to focus on a single version of the renderer and helped us to achieve the best possible performances.

Full Interview

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Sherlock Holmes movie Ringtone for your mobile phones

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Here are five things I’d like to see the iPad incorporate, perhaps through the next update to the iPhone OS.

Wireless sync. The iPad is not a Mac. That means it doesn’t run the full iTunes client, so you can’t share music from another computer over your home network. Instead, like an iPod or iPhone, you must physically connect it to the computer on which your music is stored, then wait for the music to travel over the wire. This is, frankly, absurd. If you want me to use the iPad to listen to music in my home, don’t make me walk over to my computer and attach it every time I want to load some new tunes. Wireless sync would also be great for syncing other material like pictures, videos, and apps. How hard can it be? Microsoft’s Zune player has had wireless sync for three iterations and more than two years.

Cloud-based music service. Even if the iPad had wireless sync, the most affordable model has only 16GB of storage. This isn’t enough for most music lovers’ digital collections, especially if they’re going to use the iPad for other functions like electronic books and photos. So how about taking that Lala acquisition and using it? Instead of having to load music onto the iPad itself, I could sync it from my computer to Lala’s online music locker service, then stream it over the Web directly to my device. Bye-bye, storage limits. Best of all, every time I update my music collection, it’s updated everywhere simultaneously. This is such a no-brainer I’d be stunned if Apple doesn’t make it available shortly after the iPad launches.

Music-sharing with third-party apps. There are some surprisingly sophisticated DJ apps for iPhone, like TouchDJ and DJ Mixer, that let you play two songs at the same time and mix them together like a mulitrack DJ set-up. These apps would be much easier to use on the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen. But they all share one big shortcoming: they can’t just play songs that you’ve already loaded onto your device. Instead, you have to re-load songs into the DJ apps, either from a sync application running on your computer or over a Web server. This isn’t the fault of the app designers–it’s a limitation that Apple places on the iPhone and iPod Touch. I hope Apple figures out a way around it soon.

Queuing. I like to play DJ. As one song plays, it sparks associations with other songs. It would be nice to be able to load these other songs into a “now playing” queue. The Zune’s had this feature since its inception, but I can’t do it on the iPod Touch or the iPhone–instead, I have to wait for the current song to end, then start up a new song. (And no, I don’t want to do this with playlists on the computer and then sync those playlists to the device. That misses the entire point of spontaneity.)

Decent speakers (and amp). Naturally, the first thing I did with the iPad was check out its music playback. I could barely hear it, even with the volume maxed out. It’s true that the room was crowded with gadget fans scrambling for their first look at the device, but even so, the speakers sounded no louder than the iPhone’s. But this isn’t a phone. It’s also not a Mac, where music isn’t the primary focus for most users. It’s a consumer electronics device. It would be great if I could set it up in my living room or bedroom without having to attach it to another device. Peripheral makers might complain–iHome does great work creating audio accessories for the iPhone–but if this is truly going to be a new product category.

VIA CNET

Coming 16th of March 2010

Specifications :
Minimum Configuration:

SUPPORTED OS: Windows® XP (32-64 bits) /Windows Vista®(32-64 bits)/Windows 7® (32-64 bits)
Processor: Intel Core® 2 Duo 1.8 GHZ or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4GHZ
RAM: 1.5 GB  Windows® XP / 2 GB Windows Vista® – Windows 7®
Video Card: 256 MB DirectX®  9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list)
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 –compliant sound card
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0
DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
Hard Drive Space: 8 GB
Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller
* This product does not support Windows® 98/ME/2000/NT

Recommended Configuration:

Processor: Intel Core® 2 Duo E6700 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ or better
Video Card: GeForce 8800 GT or ATI Radeon HD 4700  or better
Sound: 5.1 sound card
Peripherals: Keyboard, mouse, joystick optional (Xbox 360® Controller for Windows recommended)

Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
ATI® RADEON®  X1950, HD 2000/3000/4000/5000 series
NVIDIA GeForce® 7/8/9/100/200 series

Editions:

Standard – Main game + Extra sequences Battle of Forli & Bonfire of the Vanities

White Edition – Main game + Extra sequences Battle of Forli & Bonfire of the Vanities + 1 Templar Secret location (Santa Maria Dei Frari)

Black Edition – Main game + Extra sequences Battle of Forli & Bonfire of the Vanities + 3 Templar secret locations (Palazzo Medici, Santa Maria Dei Frari, and the Arsenal Shipyard)

VIA UBISOFT

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The shortage of IPv4 addresses has reached a critical stage, according to the registries that allocate Internet numbers around the world.

The Number Resource Organization (NRO), which represents the registries, said Tuesday that less than 10 percent of all IPv4 addresses remain available, threatening the future network operations of all businesses and organizations unless ISPs and businesses step up their migration to IPv6.

“The limited IPv4 addresses will not allow us enough resources to achieve the ambitions we all hold for global Internet access,” NRO Chairman Axel Pawlik said in a statement Tuesday. “The deployment of IPv6 is a key infrastructure development that will enable the network to support the billions of people and devices that will connect in the coming years.”

Source CNET