PC

How to View FPS in Heroes of the Storm

In order to monitor your FPS, Network Spikes and GPU temperature in Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm, simply press Ctrl+Alt+F for both Mac and PC. The information will be displayed in the top left corner of the screen.

Showing the FPS, Network Spike and GPU temperature information in Heroes of the Storm can help you diagnose many issues. After certain patches you may find that your game performance isn’t quite what it used to be. Make sure you check your graphics settings closely as Blizzard has a tendency to reset everything to their default values after an update.

If you are looking for solutions to performance issues or just any other problems related to Heroes of the Storm, you can always check Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm forum for more information.

Winamp Will Soon Be Gone Forever

by Richard Vincenti Jr 1 Comment

Oh how the memories just start to roll on in when I think about all of the great music I played with Winamp over the years, but now it’s all coming to an end as Winamp will soon shutdown forever.

I have to admit that it’s been quite a while since I last used Winamp, and that’s mostly thanks to the introduction of iTunes and Spotify, but Winamp has held on strong over the years and it’s still a great media player. Winamp had everything you could want in an mp3 player and by far it was my top choice ever since I downloaded it in the late 90’s when it was used to play an entire library of music downloaded from Napster.

Winamp was originally released in 1997 and was then bought by AOL in 1999, ever since then a steady flow of updates have continued to improve upon the original. The latest version allows you to stream music to your Android mobile device and also creates a seamless link to your iTunes library.

The good news is if you want to download Winamp you still have some time to do so. The Winamp site will officially go off-line on December 20, 2013, but until then you can still download the latest version for Mac, PC, and Android from winamp.com.

Here is the official notice that appears on the website:

Winamp.com and associated web services will no longer be available past December 20, 2013. Additionally, Winamp Media players will no longer be available for download. Please download the latest version before that date. See release notes for latest improvements to this last release.
Thanks for supporting the Winamp community for over 15 years.”

Thanks Winamp for being the perfect mp3 player for so long, we will miss you!

Windows XP Users, It’s Time To Move On

by Richard Vincenti Jr Leave a Comment

Windows XP has stood the test of time quite well and has remained one of the most popular versions of Windows for over a decade. Many personal users and businesses are still using Windows XP right now, but that needs to change, and soon.

Why? Microsoft will be killing ALL support for XP on April 8th 2014. How does that affect you? The main reason is security or lack thereof. If Microsoft isn’t providing routine security patches to the operating system then it can quickly become vulnerable to attack. There’s no doubt that once the deadline passes, Windows XP will likely become a breeding ground for malicious code like viruses and spyware since XP will basically have a target on it’s back for not having official support. For this reason alone it’s worth it to upgrade to Windows 7 or 8.1 and unfortunately for some users that may mean buying a new PC.

Of course there are other reasons to upgrade as well including driver support, live technical support from Microsoft, newer applications that won’t run on XP, website compatibility, and not to mention the fact that a newer PC running Windows 7 or 8 will likely be many times faster. Although Windows 8 got off to a rocky start because of criticism over it’s user interface design, it’s probably one of Microsoft’s fastest versions of Windows.

So don’t wait till after the deadline to make your changes, start the upgrade now or at least put together a game plan, especially if you’re a business.

Blizzard Announces Heroes of the Storm With Awesome Cinematic

by Richard Vincenti Jr 1 Comment

In what is personally my favorite announcement from Blizzcon 2013, Heroes of the Storm is on it’s way! Heroes of the Storm is the final name for the DOTA project that Blizzard has been hard at work on. The project was originally going to be a part of StarCraft II as an add-on but has now become a standalone game that looks like it’s going to pack quite a punch.

Heroes of the Storm will be a free-to-play digital download and is essentially Blizzard’s take on the “Team Brawler” / Action RTS or League of Legends style game. You will get to fight your battles with your favorite Blizzard characters including Diablo, Kerrigan, Malfurion, Jim Raynor, The Lich King and possibly even the Lost Vikings! You can get complete game details from Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm site.

Heroes of the Storm™ is a raucous online team brawler starring your favorite Blizzard characters. Build and customize heroes from across every Blizzard universe to suit your play style. Team up with your friends and engage in fast-paced mayhem across varied battlegrounds that impact strategy and change the way you play the game.” -Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Announces World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor

by Richard Vincenti Jr Leave a Comment

Day one at Blizzcon 2013 has brought with it some awesome announcements including the reveal of a new World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor, which will dive deep into Warcraft history and allow players to relive the past. We will get to see the world of Draenor as it was long ago and before the orcs first invaded Azeroth.

With the new expansion comes many new features including a new world to explore, Draenor. For those who don’t know much about World of Warcraft lore, Draenor is essentially Outland before the orc invasion.

Players will also get a chance to level up to level 100, but don’t worry if you haven’t even made it to level 90 yet as Blizzard has decided to allow you to instantly take a character to level 90 to catch up and play the new content.

Other features include:

New Character models.
New Battlegrounds.
New class talents and permanent ability bonuses.
New Heroic versions of classic dungeons.
New Raids and a more refined questing system.

The heroes of Azeroth are on the verge of a war that will reforge the fate of two worlds. Announced today at BlizzCon® 2013, World of Warcraft®: Warlords of Draenor™,the fifth expansion to Blizzard Entertainment’s acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game, sends players to the world of Draenor at a pivotal moment in history to fight against and alongside legends from Warcraft’s brutal past.” – Blizzard Entertainment

To get complete details on the new World of Warcraft Expansion head over to Blizzard’s Warlords of Draenor site now.

PC