Assassin's Creed 2 set during French Revolution?

What we heard: One of the highlights of Assassin's Creed was its medieval setting. After starting with a futuristic flourish, the well-reviewed and wildly popular platformer transported players to the Holy Land in the 12th century.

As the hooded killer Altair, players leaped from rooftops in Jerusalem, strolled through souks in Damascus, and slit throats in Acre.

All of Assassin's Creed's locations were re-created via detailed graphics based on an all-new engine crafted at Ubisoft Montreal. Thanks to the aforementioned sci-fi twist, the game's recently revealed sequel could be set in virtually any time period, opening near-limitless possibilities for an all-new locale.

But while such places as ancient China and feudal Japan would seem likely suspects for Assassin's Creed 2's setting, a dark horse candidate appears to have merged. While taping an upcoming episode of Gametrailers' show Bonus Round, Giant Bomb co-founder (and ex-GameSpot editor) Ryan Davis chatted with fellow guest and analyst par excellence Michael Pachter.

During the course of the show, the Wedbush Morgan game-industry soothsayer said that Assassin's Creed would be set "several hundred years" after the original game "sometime in the 1700s." Not content with a timeframe, Pachter went on to "speculate that the French Revolution could be a potential setting." Said revolt, which began in 1789 with the storming of the Parisian fort-cum-prison the Bastille, was amongst the bloodiest changes of government in history. During the subsequent Great Terror, led by proto-Stalinist strongman Maximilien Robespierre, thousands of nobles and political opponents were sent to the guillotine en masse. Eventually, the ranks of the beheaded included Robespierre himself, who got the chop in 1794.

The official story: When asked to elaborate, Pachter politely declined to comment. Ubisoft had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Too little to go on. With so much bloodletting and urban chaos, the French Revolution would be an interesting setting for Assassin's Creed 2. The subject is also close to Ubisoft's collective heart, given that the cash-flush francophonic publisher is itself based in Paris.

That said, keep in mind that even by Davis' account, Pachter was "speculating" about a "potential setting." Also, the breeches-and-powdered-wig era would likely be much less appealing to 21set century gamers than the original's medieval environs.

Source : gamespot.com

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Get a one-year license for USB Safely Remove 4.0 for free!

Stopping devices menuUSB Safely Remove is a convenient and safe replacement for the standard "Safely Remove Hardware" tool. The program has many features designed for effortless working with hotplug devices (USB, SATA and FireWire).

In order to promote upcoming version 4.0 we kindly give you a chance to get a one-year license for the program for free. You may use all the features of the program and get upgrades for one year for free.

Safely remove in one click

The program is an original and convenient tool for safe removing a device. It also detects all connected devices and can be used to view their drive contents. Just move the mouse pointer over the tray icon of the program and you will see a multi-featured 'quick stop' menu with a list of devices

Stopping devices menu

One mouse click on the device and it is safely removed!

Get rid of unnecessary devices!

Are you afraid of accidentally stopping the card reader built into your laptop or dongle? Annoyed by a SATA hard drive or ADSL modem in the device list? Now you can hide any device from the stop menu in one simple step.

Hide a device from the menu

Global keyboard shortcuts

Do you like to do everything using the keyboard? Now you can stop and view devices by using just ONE hotkey! No need to remember keyboard shortcuts for each device. If you are in any application, press the key combination (Win+S by default) and you will see the stop menu. Use the Up\Down arrow keys to select the device you need and either press 'Enter' to stop it or 'Ctrl+B' to view the contents of any storage device.

One stop hotkey

Correct and clear device names

With USB Safely Remove, you will easily find the device you need to stop because the program detects the actual names of devices - the names the manufacturer gave them. If you wish, you can assign your own custom name and image for a device or choose from one of the pre-installed images.
Compare the following and you will see what solution will allow you to safely remove a flash disk without wasting your time.

... standard Windows menu...

Native stopping menu

... convenient USB Safely Remove stop menu.
Stopping menu

The device cannot be stopped right now. Why?

Ever encountered the situation when Windows does not allow you to remove a device? Now this problem is solved once and for all. USB Safely Remove will show you what programs are not allowing you to stop the device and you can stop or disable them in one step.

The device cannot be stopped

More Info : safelyremove.com

Download : safelyremove.com

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Download Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Community Technology Preview (CTP)


Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 mark the next generation of developer tools from Microsoft. Designed to address the latest needs of developers, Visual Studio delivers key innovations in the following pillars:

Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) crosses many roles within an organization and traditionally not every one of the roles has been an equal player in the process. Visual Studio Team System 2010 continues to build the platform for functional equality and shared commitment across an organization’s ALM process.

Enabling emerging trends
Every year the industry develops new technologies and new trends. With Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0, Microsoft delivers tooling and framework support for the latest innovations in application architecture, development and deployment.

Inspiring developer delight
Ever since the first release of Visual Studio, Microsoft has set the bar for developer productivity and flexibility. Visual Studio 2010 continues to deliver on the core developer experience by significantly improving upon it for roles involved with the software development process. .NET Framework 4.0 contains numerous improvements that make it easier to develop powerful and compelling applications.

Riding the next generation platform wave
Microsoft continues to invest in the market leading operating system, productivity application and server platforms to deliver increased customer value in these offerings. With Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 customers will have the tooling support and the platform support needed to create amazing solutions around these technologies.

For more information on Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2008/products/cc948977.aspx

This CTP release is available in English only as a Virtual PC image. To download Virtual PC 2007 please visit http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=28C97D22-6EB8-4A09-A7F7-F6C7A1F000B5&displaylang=en
The CTP is designed to enable users to experience Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0, and to provide feature design feedback on a limited set of features. These features are exposed through a set of walkthroughs that are included in the VPC itself. Many common development scenarios may not work in this CTP as it is designed to support the above walkthroughs.

Download : microsoft.com


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Momentum for Microsoft® DirectX® 10.1 Grows with Major Game Titles, Next-Generation 3D Game Engines, and Windows® 7 API

Today, Microsoft® DirectX® 10.1 graphics leader AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced expanded support for DirectX 10.1 from a number of developers, demonstrating growing momentum for the most advanced Microsoft graphics API Layer to date. GSC Game World released a DirectX 10.1 patch for their newest game title, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, bringing with it frame rate improvements of up to 10 percent while at the same time enhancing the visual experience of the game1.

On the heels of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky announcement, game engine developer Unigine Corp. announced the availability of Tropics, a downloadable demonstration of its Unigine game engine that showcases the ability to deliver photorealistic virtual environments utilizing the power of DirectX 10.1. Lastly, Microsoft announced at the Professional Developers Conference the use of the DirectX 10.1 API in the Windows® 7 Windows Desktop Manager.

In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, benchmarks of DirectX 10.1 performance versus DirectX 10 have demonstrated frame rate improvements of as much as 10 percent, while delivering an improved visual experience.

"With S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, we set a very high standard for visual realism, and our efforts were rewarded with over two million copies sold,” said GSC Game World CEO Sergiy Grygorovych. "By using DirectX 10.1, we once again raise the bar with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, delivering to fans of the first person shooter genre an exhilarating exploration of a post-apocalyptic world.”

Unigine Corp., developers of Unigine cross-platform middleware for virtual 3D worlds, rolled out a DirectX 10.1 implementation in their recently announced Tropics demonstration. Using the Unigine 3D engine, Tropics delivers a stunning virtual island paradise. By drawing upon DirectX 10.1, Unigine has been able to take a step closer to their goal of delivering photo realistic virtual worlds.

"The new Tropics Demo 1.1, based on the latest Unigine technologies, pushes visual realism to new heights,” said Denis Shergin, CEO, Unigine Corp. "Our recent collaboration with the AMD team means that we’ve been able to quickly and easily add some of the killer features of DirectX 10.1 to enhance performance and raise image quality. That’s given us our first-ever chance to get perfect anti-aliasing on foliage, something that has been on our wish list for a long time. It has been a huge pleasure to see AMD’s ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series arrive this year, as the entire line showcases the benefits of our new DirectX 10.1 technology."

Adding further momentum to DirectX 10.1, Microsoft used their Professional Developers Conference to announce the use of the DirectX 10.1 API in the Windows Desktop Manager of their next operating system, Windows 7.

"Game developers are realizing that supporting DirectX 10.1 is an investment in their future,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD. "Microsoft has announced that the forthcoming DirectX 11 API in Windows 7 will be a superset of DirectX 10.1, making it a stepping stone in preparing for Windows 7.”

For more information about ATI Radeon graphics, please visit http://ati.amd.com/products/home-office.html.

Source : newsticker.welt.de

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Download Safari 3.2.1 web browser

Experience the web, Apple style, with Safari: the fastest, easiest-to-use web browser in the world. With its simple, elegant interface, Safari gets out of your way and lets you enjoy the web faster than any browser. Safari is free for Mac + PC.

The speed of Safari combined with its intuitive user interface lets users spend more time surfing the web and less time waiting for pages to load. Other Safari features now available to Windows users include SnapBack, one-click access to an initial search query, resizable text fields, and private browsing to ensure that information about an individual’s browsing history isn’t stored.

What’s New in this Version - This update includes stability improvements and is recommended for all Safari users.

A fix for a problem that sometimes allowed form field information to be stored in the page cache, even if the autocomplete function was disabled, was especially noteworthy. Apple learned that this would disclose sensitive information to a local console user, and delivered the fix.

Download Safari 3.2.1 for Windows XP / Vista (Free)


Download Safari 3.2.1 for Leopard (Free)
Download Safari 3.2.1 for Tiger (Free)
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Youtube Goes Widescreen!

Over the years we've heard a lot of feedback from you about what you'd like to change about YouTube, and the size of our video player is always top of mind. That's why today we're excited to announce a bigger YouTube player.

We're expanding the width of the page to 960 pixels to better reflect the quality of the videos you create and the screens that you use to watch them. This new, wider player is in a widescreen aspect ratio which we hope will provide you with a cleaner, more powerful viewing experience. And don't worry, your 4:3 aspect ratio videos will play just fine in this new player.

As always, we welcome your feedback and encourage you to share your thoughts with us on this exciting, new change happening for all videos on YouTube.

source : youtube.com

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Kingston 64GB DataTraveler 150 USB Flash Drive

DataTraveler 150 USB Flash drive is big news in mobile storage. With a capacity of 32GB & 64GB, it lets you store more digital files than ever before on one drive. DataTraveler® 150 from Kingston® helps budget-conscious users break storage barriers, allowing them to easily store and move files in a 32GB & 64GB device no bigger than a pocketknife. As easy as click and drag, DataTraveler 150 can hold just about any file you can think of — term papers, theses, digital images, spreadsheets or other important documents.

Backed by legendary Kingston reliability plus a five-year warranty and 24/7 tech support, DataTraveler 150 is a reliable, inexpensive solution for carrying digital files with you anywhere you go.

Features/Specifications:

  • Capacities* – 32GB, 64GB
  • Dimensions – 3.06" x 0.9" x 0.47" (77.9 mm x 22 mm x 12.05 mm)
  • Operating Temperatures – 32º F to 140º F (0º C to 60º C)
  • Storage Temperatures – -4º F to 185º F (-20º C to 85º C)
  • Convenient – Pocket-sized for easy transportability
  • Simple – Just plug into a USB port
  • Practical – Stores cap securely on end of device to prevent loss of cap
  • Guaranteed – Five-year warranty

Source : kingston.com

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