Tech Olive

Despite having just announced F1 2010, Codemasters is also working on the next entry into the DiRT series. UK gaming magazine Edge got the scoop during an interview with Codemasters VP Gavin Cheshire. It seems Codemasters is looking to bring something completely new to the racing genre with the installment of DiRT 3:

“There’s an overwhelming arcing vision to all of our racing titles, and Grid is incredibly strong, but we’re lucky enough to be in a position where we’ve got racing games in different areas. Dirt was a complete reboot – we threw away what was going on and redid it completely – and then we rebooted Grid because it wasn’t top gun, and then we rebooted Dirt 2. I’m not saying we’re throwing all the codebase away, but we’re throwing the thoughts away and coming out with something fresh and new. Because if you don’t innovate, you’re dead.”

via [Big Download]

Hello, Earthlings! After we realized that we have a ton of cool stuff just sitting around and collecting dust, we decided to get rid of it the easy way by giving it away to our loyal readers. This cool stuff ranges from stickers to gaming headsets to case fans to gaming mouse pads and more. Some items are brand new in the box, while others have been opened up for review purposes.

Here’s the deal, we’ll be giving away one item through Twitter every week until we run out of stuff to giveaway. On Mondays at 6PM EST, we’ll announce on Twitter the prize that we’re going to give away for that week. Anyone who retweets that tweet will be entered in the drawing for that prize. You’ll have one week to retweet until we announce a winner and then start the next giveaway.

In simple terms, just be sure to join us on Twitter on Mondays at 6PM EST for your chance to get some cool, free stuff!

A few rules:

- You can only win one time (to keep it fair).
- You must be a resident of the United States (sorry, foreigners).
- Winners will be notified via DM in Twitter. They must respond before the next week’s giveaway or else they will forfeit their win.

Current Giveaway:

For this week, we’re giving away four Razer discount codes! We have two free shipping codes and $10 off and $5 off codes. Out of all the participants who retweet this tweet by April 12th, we’ll randomly choose four people who will get one of these codes.

Image Credit: c.j.b

With the approaching release of Just Cause 2 and the anticipation of the upcoming Arkham Asylum sequel, Steam is offering an amazing deal of $22.09 for both games.

Never one to miss a chance to make fun of or otherwise beat Infinity Ward at their own game, DICE has announced that they will be releasing a Bad Company 2 VIP map pack on March 30th free to all gamers (on all platforms) that have entered their VIP Code. Follow the break for DICE’s description of the upcoming maps.

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For those lazy Firefox slackers that still haven’t done themselves a favor and updated to 3.6, Mozilla will send out reminders to those running older versions that they have the option to update to the latest version, which includes many new, useful features.

Since its release back in January, Firefox 3.6 has been downloaded over 130 million times (at the time of this writing) and that’s not including automatic updates.

[Mozilla]

An interesting BSOD graced the screen of a projector at GDC this week (see above). It seemed completely harmless until gamers looked closer. It seems GLaDOS was behind it all and was offering to fill the area with deadly neurotoxins. Upon closer inspection, the BSOD had even more information to offer. When a dedicated gamer over at the Penny Arcade forums got ahold of the image, he had the following light to shed on the mystery:

“The hex converted to decimal: 226 228 226 : 215 197 213 196 228 213 227 ( 201 ) + 211 197 197 197
If it’s ASCII it’s extended ASCII. Could it be EBCDIC (common mainframe encoding)?
Edit: It IS EBCDIC. It spells: S U S : P E N D … U N T ( I ) L … E E E (colon, dots for spacing, and parens added to roughly locate them in the source image.)
Hey, being QSECOFR on an AS/400 many years ago finally pays off!”

So, there you have it. All that work and excitement and we get a simple message: “Suspended until E3.” Perhaps we’ll actually get some real, non-cryptic details come mid June?

via [Steam Forums]

It seems that the stream of free Mass Effect 2 DLC has ended. Bioware announced that the next DLC release pack for the game will come to gamers at a cost. Yes, even us beloved PC gamers. The new DLC, titled “Kasumi’s Stolen Memory,” will release April 6th and bring with it a new Locust SMG, along with adding a new 30-minute mission, new party companion and some other additions. Unfortunately, Bioware is still in discussions on what the final price for the DLC will be. We’ll keep you posted.

via [Joystiq]

Dell’s proudest laptop creation is no more, no longer. The Adamo XPS has been given the axe after only four months of existence. A lot of us our scratching our heads as to why the 0.4-inch thick, flagship notebook from Dell was booted shortly after its launch. It seemed like Dell put a lot of money and energy into marketing this thing. Dell had this to say as to why they ended the notebook’s life:

“It [Adamo XPS] has not been “discontinued” as such, but was meant to be a proof point to Dell’s design and engineer capabilities. Because of this, it was similar to a “limited edition”, and most of the original supply has since been accounted for.”

So, it seems that Dell just wanted to show off their mad skills, but I think I would be more impressed if Dell actually continued with the XPS, showing that they could provide support for the device and continue to improve it.

via [CrunchGear]

Good news for all the bicycle junkies like myself. Google Maps now has added bicycle directions on top of the car, walking, and public transit options. Not only that, but Google Maps also features bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads. Google has partnered with Rails-to-Trails “to provide information on bike trails in more than 150 cities.” Thanks to Google, there won’t be any excuse for you not to bust out that two-wheeled piece of hardware.

[Press Release]

Razer has announced a new product…if you can call it that. The Razer Salmosa Pro-Gaming Edition is a very limited run (50 units total) of a shrunken-down Salmosa. Other than that, it’s exactly the same hardware, color and price; $39.99.

It’s a very confusing and underwhelming announcement considering the Salmosa isn’t a very popular mouse, so wouldn’t it make more sense to give the Diamondback or Lachesis a new, improved and/or limited edition release? At any rate, the new version of the Salmosa is only available to North American buyers while the limited supplies last.

[Announcement]