Join Darren and Sean on an epic journey of dragons, shouts and quests. Watch out for rogue controllers in QOTPA’s first review back!

- Darren “FUS RO DAH!” Fotheringham

- Sean ‘I prefer the term “Artificial Person” myself‘ McCarter

In 2010, some wonderful physics types discovered the wonderful conductivity of the micro-sheet metal Graphene, and the world was abuzz with excitement. This wonderful material is literally only one carbon atom thick, making it incredibly thin but very durable and conductive. What they rightly thought was this would make a brilliant material to build computer circuits, circuits that would by theoretically beyond any speed possible right now by modern PC’s. Electrons are able to pass very, very easily through Graphene, and this is what would allow such tremendous speeds in computing.

However it is this ease with which the Electrons move that causes a significant problem.

To perform calculations and function, computers need to turn the flow of electricity on and off in their circuits. The gates that open and close to regulate the flow are called transistors. Making graphene-based transistors has proven difficult because it is such a good conductor. The transistor literally cannot go to the “off” state due to Electron Overflow! Previous attempts have involved electrons confined to a single layer of graphene, but these still suffer from a leakage of electrons when the transistor is in its “off” state.

However, the rather wonderful physicist Konstantin Novoselov and his team have hit upon an idea to enable this binary flow problem, and it’s one that uses the wonders of genuine Quantum Mechanics!

By sandwiching a layer of molybdenum disulfide between two layers of graphene, the researchers hope to emulate an “off” state. The molybdenum acts as an insulator, preventing electrons from flowing in the normal way from one graphene layer to the other. This would constitute an “off” state, allowing the computer to function.

The quantum mechanical effect I mentioned means a small number of electrons can “tunnel” through the molybdenum. This normally happens very rarely but applying a voltage across the barrier boosts the energy of the electrons, making tunnelling much more probable – a sizable current starts to flow. This is the “on” state. By varying the voltage, the researchers could turn the flow on and off, making the device a transistor. Wonderful!

This is but the first steps into the realms of genuine Quantum Computing, but I can easily imagine one day we’ll all be playing on PC’s with amazing Graphene chips!

- Sean ‘Particle Physics gives me such a Hadron!‘ McCarter

I can only imagine the global outrage that will be expressed on Valentines Day this year. Why? Well…

When the Mass Effect 3 demo docks on the 14th of Febuary, men (and women!) world wide will shun their partners on this day of annual romancing for something that promises to be truy awesome!

The demo will allow players to not only experience a portion of the universe spanning epic story we have come to expect of the Mass Effect series, but, it also includes a playable multi-player.

When the demo goes live, all Microsoft Silver accounts will be upgraded to Gold to allow them to experience the online aspect of the game, something rarely done and certainly not for as long as suggested my Microsoft as they say the temporary change will last “for the time leading to launch.” on March 6th on PC, PS3 and XBox 360.

It’s just as well the demo is coming along to ruin our relations with the other half now. I mean how annoyed would you be if someone cut into your time with the full game!

- Darren ” I’m in SSPPAAAACCCCCCCCEEEEE!” Fotheringham

- Sean ‘I <3 Jennifer Hale‘ McCarter

Trion Worlds, makers of the expansive and regularly updated RIFT have announced that the games is due to go Free-To-Play.

Following the same model Blizzard announced for World of Warcraft last summer, all you need to do is sign up for a free Trion account online and then you can play and explore for as long as you like, in what has been dubbed RIFT Lite, until level 20 when your progress is halted until a subscription is taken out to allow you to progress you characters.

RIFT is the latest in an ever growing list of games to go, or introduce some form of Free-To-Play.

- Darren “loves savin them monies” Fotheringham

The problem GAME Group is currently facing is linked to it’s credit insurance. This allows the company to bring in new games on credit and pay for them as sold. However, the company has failed to keep up the required payments for the insurance and thus must pay for it’s titles up front.

In the wake of this GAME Group has done some damage limitation and stated that consumers will find new releases in store this week but Neverdead and the MGS Collection have both been pulled from the company’s online store.

“We are continuing to work closely with our industry partners and have big plans for further exciting launches.”

While we could sit here and argue about how GAME operates but it would be a sad state of affairs if GAME were to go under. The presence of a retailer catering specifically to our needs gives the medium some form of legitimacy, would we still feel so great about our hobby having to go into a supermarket to get new hardware?

Headset Abuse: 01/02/12

Sean joins us for his first podcast appearance of of the year, where we talk Resident Evil 4 HD, Gotham City Imposters and what we’re looking forward to in the coming months. You’re Captain America!!

(Right-Click and ‘Save Target As’)

Questions? Comments? Hit us up at podcast@qotpa.com

Pretty pathetic when you think about it, however this will have a performance leap of up to 10x the existing 360 hardware, and an additional 20% performance gap against the Nintendo WiiU. Additionally this type of chip should be much easier to cool with passive technologies due to a lower power draw allowing them theoretically to use silent passive cooling technology rather than the turbine that was bundled with the 360.

For PC users this news may not be the best. The relative gap between PC power and the power of a brand new console will be the largest we have ever seen, and could mean the hold up of developing new technologies. I know this sounds like a U-Turn from an article I previously posted about the WiiU, and how the DirectX10 compatibility would allow for better PC ports from consoles, but when Microsoft announced their intention to make a successor to the Xbox360 I expect something with much more advanced technology than the WiiU considering the previous technological gaps between Microsoft and Nintendo.

With the upcoming sales of new APUs, which combine graphical and computational processing on one die, we are basically looking at the technological equal between the graphical power (in terms of GFLOPS) of the new Xbox and next year’s run of CHEAP laptops. However one of the main rumours of the next generation console is that it could support multiple displays and even stereoscopic 3D, whether either of these will turn out to be useful or even a selling point remains to be seen.

On the other hand this could see a migration of programming from console based creation with PC ports to PC based creation with console ports as PCs look to offer a much better platform for large budget mainstream releases. Some analysts are thinking that the next generation of consoles may be staring down the barrel of their own demise.

~Stewart “GTX480, now THERE would be a next gen console that would sound like a hovercraft!” Loudon

The coop mode is titled “Glaxay at War” and offers 4 player multiplayer missions that can effect the outcome of the main single player campaign. None of the single player characters will be available in the multiplayer mode, however players will be able to use all the classes with original characters they can create based on some of the species seen in game. Every race will have abilities and powers unique to them that can be powered up via the use of the same leveling and skill branch system seen in the single player.

Without further adieu, its trailer time:-

This is without a doubt my most anticipated game of the year, and without a doubt the inclusion of multiplayer is just going to make it that much better an experience.

Mass Effect 3 is due out on the 9th of March 2012 ON XBOX 360, Playstation 3 and PC.

Dave “The epic finale draws near” Rose