\r\n\r\nEA EXPANDS SALT LAKE STUDIO TO BEGIN NEW PROJECT\r\n\r\n

\r\nStudio behind The Sims Looking to Hire Key Leadership Roles for New Project\r\n

\r\nElectronic Arts and the studio behind the bestselling PC franchise of all time, The Sims, is expanding and creating a new development team in its Salt Lake City, Utah location. This team will work on a groundbreaking new project that has yet to be announced.\r\n

\r\n\u201CWe\u2019re truly thrilled to expand into Salt Lake City and what is becoming a growing and dynamic video game development scene,\u201D said Ben Bell, Executive Producer at EA. \u201CWe\u2019re looking to fill several critical leadership positions on an exciting new project.\u201D\r\n

\r\nAlready home to the development teams behind the successful LITTLEST PET SHOP and NERF franchises, EA is moving into a new larger space in downtown Salt Lake City. As evidenced by the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, the city attracts the young and active with its variable climate. Winters belong to some of the world\u2019s best ski and snowboard resorts like Snowbird, Alta, Park City and Deer Valley. Mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking and the annual International marathon are activities to be enjoyed during the spring and summer months. Additionally, popular destinations such as Yellowstone, Canyon lands or the Grand Canyon are only a day trip away.\r\n

\r\nCulturally rich and diverse, the city also has a thriving nightlife with a vibrant music, film and sports scene. Home to the NBA Utah Jazz and MLS Real Salt Lake, the city boasts several major and minor league sports teams. Residents of Salt Lake City can also catch a Broadway or off-Broadway show or see a concert as many roll through this popular destination.\r\n

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\r\nFeatures of the MSI GE600 include, according to the press release:\r\n

\r\n\"ATI Radeon HD5730 Discrete Graphics Card (with built-in 1GB DDR3 VRAM): To attain the best video/audio performance for consumers, GE600 is embedded with ATI Radeon HD5730 discrete graphics card including 1GB DDR3 display memory to increase the display efficiency and reduce power consumption. The supported DirectX 11 can offer the most superior 3D graphic effect to achieve the best vivid and smooth 3D visual experiences in any game for the players.\r\n

\r\nAdvanced 2010 Intel\u00AE Core\u2122 Processor: MSI GE600 introduces Intel Core i5 processor with lower power consumption and higher performance, which utilizes Intel\u2019s Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading technologies to dynamically adjust the processor efficiency and handle more data at the same time. The system performance is thus boosted substantially as a whole!\"\r\n

\r\nThe complete details of the press release can be read at the following link:\r\n

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\r\nThe Microsoft Surface is a multi-touch tabletop PC - a table in a very literal sense - which allows the user to manipulate digital content via hand gestures. This computing device is not unlike a giant iPhone or iPod Touch in terms of functionality. Originally intended for the hospitality business when launched a few years back, it has since then garnered the interest of other people - including Wizards of the Coast, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons RPG products.\r\n

\r\nThe D&D publisher has teamed up with a Carnegie Mellon University group to help commercialize the concept of D&D tabletop gaming on the device, and the two of them have been demonstrating to journalists before a fully playable game version makes its debut at the PAX East convention later this year. CNET is among the first to bring tantalizing details:\r\n

\r\n\"The figurines--optional in regular D&D but great tools here--are \"tagged\" with dot codes on the bottom. The Surface is able to use its tiny cameras to view these unique codes and determine which character is where on the game grid. This means the game can automatically determine line-of-fire angles and keep track of enemy health. \r\n

\r\nThis really speeds things up. A combat round in traditional D&D can take awhile. Initiative, roll-to-hit, damage, movement, and everything else has to be calculated. The program on the Surface automates all of this. Instead of several minutes, the combat round we tried (in which we killed a couple of weak orcs) took only a minute or two. And it was more fun.\"\r\n

\r\nTo read more you can check out the full article at the following link:\r\n