Dota 2 will have LAN mode

Some exciting news for change in the PC gaming field! In an interview with joinDOTA.com, Valve's Erik Johnson confirmed that Dota 2 will indeed have a LAN mode.

This comes to me as a kind of surprise, really. I was fully waiting Dota 2 to be a freemium game with matchmaking and such, ala League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth. Instead, Valve has showed that they really listen to their fans and implement changes that get requested. This is big news in some cases, like Offline Tournaments and net cafes. I can only applaud to Valve on this issue, excellent work on their part.

There's also other interesting tidbits in the interview, like that the next international they will be helding, will have bigger than last time's $1.6 Million USD prize pool. Alas, but still no answer about the pricing model and in-game store.

Are you guys excited of this game? Got the beta key already?

Mass Effect 3 gone gold

Alright, looks like it is official! Casey Hudson, the Executive Producer of Mass Effect, just tweeted that ME3 has gone gold.

For those of you who don't know, when a game goes gold, it means that the developers have finished the game and they have started copying the master disc. This disc used to gold-plated, hence the name.

So, we shouldn't wait for long for the edition of the ME series! Are you guys excited? I am, I really enjoyed the previous ones. I gotta find my save somewhere...

11 random facts about me

Oh dear. I just got tagged by Dani, so looks I am going to have to do this :S

The rules are:

• Put the rules of this Tag on your blog
• Everyone tagged should tell 11 things about themselves, answer the 11 questions asked by the person that tagged you, tag 11 other people and ask them 11 different questions.
• Let the people whom you tagged know you've done so.
• Don't tag anyone who's bee tagged before.
• Really do tag 11 others, and don't go all 'If you want to, take this tag'.

So, 11 random things:

1. One of my guilty pleasures is 80's synthpop
2. I am a web developer by profession
3. I can't draw AT ALL
4. My last name means knee in italian (although I am not italian)
5. I've got one tattoo, and not planning on getting another
6. I am 190cm
7. I used to play football
8. Jesus, four more... I can speak little bit Mandarin Chinese
9. I pretty much dislike 99% of metal, which my friends find odd
10. I am pretty anal about schedules :P
11. I organize lanparties

Phew! Alright, her questions:

If you could have one day with someone, (dead or alive) who would it be?

Hard one, I am going to have to say Bill Gates. Interested in his financial decisions and charity.

What's the strangest talent you have?

Umm... I can move my nostrils!
Who would you like to be tied to for 24 hours?

Nobody, that doesn't sound pleasant at all :S
Big or Small?

I am going to have to say.... big.
Weirdest place you've had sex?

I don't really have these, gotta admit! Probably in some hotel in a city I have no clue about.
Porn?

Yeah, why not?
Would you like to go to space?

Oh absolutely!
Ferrari or Lambo?

Lambo, much more stylish
What are you wearing right now?

Jogging pants and sweater, just came from running
What would you rather have in a partner . . . Youth & Vitality or Age & experience?

Youth and Vitality ;)
Describe yourself in 3 words

Quiet, Determined. Extraordinary :P

My 11 people:

• Dave Natan 
• Dreadnaught
• InfinitePlans
• Kristjan
• SUCEN
• Anthony
• neatfit
• Cranky and Difficult
• Atley
• Taker
• McBama

And 11 questions:

1. Would you rather have one million dollars now, or thousand dollars each two weeks for the rest of your life?
2. Which country would you like to live in?
3. Have you ever tried drugs?
4. What is your guilty pleasure?
5. If there was one city you could visit for free, for two weeks, which would it be?
6. Coca-Cola or Pepsi?
7. Do you consider yourself wealthy?
8. What kind of phone do you have?
9. Name of the things you regret doing/not doing
10. Tea or Coffee?
11. What's your IQ?

Apple worth more than Microsoft and Google combined?

So today I read on Apple Insider that Apple stock has raised to all-time high, thus making the company's market capitalization $456 billion. That is a lot of billions! For comparison, that is more than Sweden's GDP.

Currently, Microsoft's market capitalization is around $256 billion and Google's $199 billion. That makes Apple worth more than the two companies combined!

What goes up, must come down. I believe that Apple's rise will soon decline. Maybe not in a year, maybe not in two years, but soon. Soon.

FoV in PC Games

Couldn't have said it any better. TotalBiscuit uploaded a new video today, about Field of View in PC games.

The problem with FoV is that most modern PC games only allow up to 60, which is certainly not enough! Maybe for consoles, but definitely not for PC. Most developers dismiss user-configurable as being technically challenging, but many utilities exist where the scripters have enabled different FoV in PC games that do not support it. I think the real reason is just the laziness of developers and lack of respect of PC as a gaming platform...

Raspberry Pi to start shipping on February 20th

The long-awaited first model of Raspberry Pi Foundation's Linux computer called "Raspberry Pi Model A" will start shipping, on schedule, on 20th of February 2012.

What is this little machine? Raspberry Pi is a small (about credit card sized) ARM computer. Model A is the first model ever manufactured, and the technical specs for is:

• 128MB RAM
• 700Mhz ARM CPU
• Videocore 4 GPU
• 1x USB Port
• 1x HDMI Port
• 1x Audio Jack
• 1x RCA Video
• 1x SD Card Slot

The later model, Model B, will feature 256MB RAM and an Ethernet port.

The price of Model A will be USD 35$. This is incredible price in my opinion! The specs might not sound that good, but the PC is quite powerful. With the GPU, it can play 1080p Video via the HDMI port. Also it is two times more powerful than iPhone 4S, so expect to see some pretty looking games on it. XBMC has been already ported to it, so it can act as a full featured Media Center PC.

I, for one, can't wait to get my hands on this machine! What would you tinker with this kind of PC?

OnLive: It actually works!

Hey guys!

First of all, sorry for being late on the posts, been really busy lately. Had a business trip and was away for 6 days. But, now I am back and starting the daily posts again!

Alright, so something I tried last week was OnLive. Those who don't know, OnLive is a web service, where the games are streamed on remote machines by OnLive and you can play those almost lag-free. So all the computing and graphics is done at OnLive HQ. That means that your computer does not have to be powerful to play latest games, so a netbook is okay, and they even have a iPad app.

The biggest concern what I had with it was the lag. I heard that the nearest HQ to me would be in UK (I am in Finland), so I was bit worried of the lag. But surprisingly, the lag was not a issue! Sure, there is a slight input lag, but otherwise, I played it for several hours and got no serious lag.

There are couple of things I like about the service. One of them is that you can "demo" almost all of the games. What this means is that you can play 30 minutes of the game (the real deal!). In 30 minutes you get a pretty good view of the game in my opinion. Also what I like is the Arena. There, you can jump in on anybody playing a game on the service and almost instantly can start streaming. Awesome!

The resolution of all games is 720p, which is not that good honestly. Also the stream is a bit compressed, so you get some artifacts.

In the end, I would recommend this service to anybody not that serious to gaming. You can play some fun games here and there and you don't need the latest machine for that. But don't play competitively on this service, oh no.

Anybody got experience on this service?