The gaming world is making a dramatic shift towards free to play games. Of course, full price retail titles still make up for a majority of releases on the PC and most other platforms, but playing a quality game without cracking your wallet open is a completely viable option nowadays.

You could argue some free games deserve to be free, as their quality or length is not quite up there with AAA releases, but there are plenty of notable exceptions. In fact, some of them are so good that it’s easy to forget the cost to play is a whopping zero dollars.

Most free video games offer at least some form of in-game purchases, designed to extend the experience and serve as a steady revenue stream for its creators. But a free to play game made right will allow players to enjoy everything it has to offer, while keeping monetary transactions completely optional.

We’ve combed through the Internet to bring you the very best PC games pushing forward the free-to-play model -- and making a good name for it, too. Check them out below:

DOTA 2

855 reviewsThe original DOTA has a rare distinction: it actually gave birth to an entire genre. MOBAs (Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas) did not exist before the first DOTA mod hit the scene in Warcraft 3, and now the genre is absolutely massive. Valve has since stepped in and grabbed the rights to DOTA, releasing a standalone product known as DOTA 2.

DOTA 2 is strikingly similar to its predecessor. And there’s a reason for that. People still playing DOTA years after its release in 2003 were really just looking for an updated version of the game, and that is exactly what Valve delivered.

My favorite thing about DOTA 2, besides the depth of the gameplay, is the fact that everything in the game that costs money is strictly cosmetic. All of the heroes are available without any paywalls, so realistically, there is nothing stopping anyone from enjoying DOTA 2 without ever opening their wallet.

League of Legends

8017 reviewsThe single biggest video game in the world in terms of overall player base is free. Imagine telling someone this during the old NES days and they would have not believed it, but it’s a reality in 2013. Like DOTA 2, League of Legends is a MOBA, and because it did a great deal to modernize the genre before DOTA 2 hit the market, it is substantially more popular PC gaming circles.

I am not going to debate whether League of Legends or DOTA 2 is a better MOBA. All you need to know is these are two of the deepest, most skill intensive games available on PC today, and they are completely free charge. It’s definitely a good time to be a gamer.

Like DOTA 2, League of Legends is the kind of game one can get really hooked on. The learning curve is high, and gamers can expect to have to dedicate some time studying the subtle nuances, but once you figure it out, League of Legends is an incredible experience, one that should be at least tried by all PC players.

TERA

7914 reviewsFree MMOs are not overly uncommon in today's video game landscape. In fact, it seems like World of Warcraft is about the only MMO that can continue to charge customers a subscription with any success. TERA is among those that were forced to go free, and the moment it did, I started playing it. While most MMOs tend to feature a more methodical approach to gameplay, TERA is the closest to an action RPG I've encountered.

For any player who is bored with the MMORPG formula, TERA is worth a look. It still features plenty of fetch quests and simple kill X number of Y creature missions, but the actual fighting is so good that it makes up for it completely.

Another thing that separates TERA from others in the same genre is visuals. While far too many MMOs scrape by with decent graphics, TERA goes out of its way to look as stunning as possible. For anyone bored with the same old MMO, TERA might be the perfect game.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

7914 reviewsThe Old Republic is another example of an MMO attempting to compete with World Of Warcraft in the subscription space and failing to take down the juggernaut. Bioware eventually decided to make it free-to-play, which is awesome for gamers looking to enjoy the game without breaking the bank (at first -- as many readers have pointed out, long term they really go their way to make you pay).

Because this game is from Bioware, players can expect a lot more story than is typically found in the MMO space. While not as cut scene driven as Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age, it still offers a good bit of the story elements that made Bioware such a beloved developer in the game world. In addition, it’s Star Wars, so you really can’t go wrong.

Path of Exile

898 reviewsIsometric action RPGs have made something of a comeback thanks in large part to Blizzard's Diablo III. And when gamers hit a wall with the latter’s always online requirement, Path of Exile was ready to swoop in and try to steal the hearts of angry fans.

In terms of gameplay, Path of Exile is very similar to Diablo III, but it comes with one key difference: it's free. Of course, it has micro transactions, but each of them are very fair, and none break the game in the event that the player chooses not to buy into them.

For gamers who love a Diablo-like experience, and prefer not to drop $60 on it, Path of Exile is a fantastic substitute. Heck, even if you love Diablo III and just want to try something a little different, Path of Exile will most certainly scratch that itch.

Team Fortress 2

9015 reviewsValve gets mentioned twice on our list with its fantastic squad-based shooter Team Fortress 2. The original Team Fortress, another successful mod turned into a super-successful franchise, was a staple of Valve’s lineup, and gamers continued to play it for many years after its initial release. Not many shooters scratch the same itch as Team Fortress, so realistically, the only thing that could pull players away from the original was a sequel.

Team Fortress 2 offers the same quality gameplay as the first, but it does so in a much more visually polished package. A shooter of such a high quality is just not something you see often in the video game industry, especially without the cost of entry.

If there’s one thing Valve is known for, it’s building goodwill from its customers, and free games like DOTA 2 and Team Fortress 2 are glaring examples of why Valve has such a dedicated following. Anyone who’s never tried TF2 really should. The level of refinement rivals anything you’d see from a $60 game, and other than some optional in-app purchases, there’s no part with your hard earned cash to enjoy it.

You Have To Win The Game

Platformers were the most popular genre in the old days, and with the rise of indie games, it has seen a bit of a resurgence. Titles like Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV really brought the genre to the forefront, and since then, plenty of awesome new platformers have exploded onto the scene. Gamers looking for a slick alternative in this space should take a look at You Have To Win The Game.

You Have To Win The Game is an example of a free indie release done right. It offers the challenging old school gameplay of the NES days, with a modern twist. And when I say it is challenging, I mean it's brutal. At the same time, it offers a certain level of satisfaction that most modern games just don't deliver.

PlanetSide 2

865 reviewsMassively-multiplayer first-person shooter PlanetSide 2 is an astonishing accomplishment for a free-to-play game that was meant to be just that from its inception. PlanetSide 2 is highly regarded for its vast environments and level of polish, but most importantly because during its massive scale battles it doesn't make you feel like you're missing out if you're relying on stock equipment.

Bonus Games

Frog Fractions

944 reviewsWhile most of the items listed here are what would be considered more graphically intense, “AAA” type games, Frog Fractions deserves mention, in spite of it being just a simple browser-based flash experience. What appears to be a simple math game that does nothing in the way of actually teaching is really so much more.

I will not spoil how and where Frog Fractions evolves, but I will say when you play this game, think about directions in which you can move the frog. You will discover an entire new world. Don’t be deterred by what Frog Fractions seems to be, instead, take the time to find out what it really is, and you will be thoroughly impressed.

Black Mesa

It's easy to forget Black Mesa is technically a Half-Life mod, however it's so extensive and so good that many (including ourselves) consider it to be a proper full game on its own right. The game reintroduces players as Doctor Gordon Freeman in his journey through the Black Mesa Research Facility, along with the original cast of memorable characters and environments seen in Half-Life.

And... there's a ton more

This list can’t possibly be all encompassing of course, and there are many more free PC games available that deserve mention. Releases like Runescape, Heroes of Newerth, World of Tanks, Tribes: Ascend,Blacklight: Retribution, Warframe and the recently opened Neverwinter, among many others. But they couldn’t all make the cut.

Are there some games you feel we should have mentioned but failed to? What has been your overall experience with free PC games as a whole? Hit the comments section and sound off.

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Former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein has joined Qualcomm’s board of directors. The tech executive, who most recently served as senior vice president of product innovation for HP, brings more than 30 years of experience to the table, Qualcomm said in a press release on the matter.

Rubinstein previously worked with Apple to help create the original iPod and served as senior vice president of hardware engineering. From there, he moved on to Palm as executive chairman in 2007 and took over as CEO in June 2001. While there, he tried to help the company reinvent itself with webOS and the Palm Pre line of smartphones. Unable to get the job done, Palm eventually folded and was picked up by HP in 2010.

It was here that Rubinstein and company tried once again to make webOS successful with the HP TouchPad but it just wasn’t meant to be. The CEO at the time, Leo Apotheker, was dead set on turning HP into a services company and thus, didn’t put enough resources behind the mobile operating system. As such, it was pulled from the market after just a few months. Rubinstein left the company in January 2012.

Rubinstein currently serves on Amazon’s board but with Qualcomm, he will be adding years of experience in the mobile sector to a company that builds the chips that power them. His expertise will no doubt go a long way to helping mold Qualcomm’s strategy moving forward.

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Google has announced a new trends map for YouTube that will make it a whole lot easier to spot videos that are currently popular on the site. Although only covering the U.S. at the moment, in a blog post announcing the new feature Google asked users to stay tuned for updates, suggesting it might roll out for other areas in the future.

The map can be filtered by gender and age profiles, as well as total number of shares and views, with scrollable bars showing the number of regions in which a video has claimed the top spot. The new feature is actually an extension of Google's existing YouTube Trends dashboard, which also lets users search for popular videos using similar criteria, though not overlaid on a map.

For example, when filtering males aged between 13 and 17, a sketch from Family Guy - The Morgue from "Save The Clam" tops the trending list based on number of shares, while making a similar search for the 55-64 age group shows True Blood's season six teaser trailer is trending. The latter is also currently the most popular video when taking into consideration all age groups and genders.

You can take a look at what videos are trending in your area at the YouTube Trends Map site here.

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A government-owned lab in Los Alamos claims it has been running a "quantum internet" for more than two years, MIT Technology Review reports. Researchers worked around the traditional difficulties of interlinking quantum-based networks by creating something of a classical-quantum network hybrid.

Quantum mechanics exposes the whacky underpinnings upon which our reality appears based. It's a seeminglyunintuitive realm where sub-atomic particles behave like waves, particles simultaneously exist in two or more places and mutually exclusive outcomes can all be proven mathematically true.

Quantum computers have long-been heralded as the ultimate problem solver: a machine capable of solving problems by analyzing many, many, many possibilities at once. Even though quantum computing is likely a ways off, some quantum mechanical phenomena like quantum dots already have to be taken into account when designing a modern microprocessor.

When applied to networking though, quantum principles promise an inherently secure mode of communication, one which (theoretically) cannot be eavesdropped, tampered with or otherwise observed except by its target recipient. Quantum networks exploit naturally-occurring features seemingly baked into the fabric of our universe -- quantum entanglement, probability and observation principles -- to prevent tampering. Any attempts to alter or even observe transmissions sent over a quantum network should alter its contents, tipping off detection mechanisms attuned to such changes.

Above: Infamous double-slit experiment reveals the crazy nature of quantum mechanics

Although this innate inability to observe data during transmission is great in terms of security, it has proved challenging for researchers. Traditional routers must "observe" data packets in order to route the flow of traffic across networks. This act "dirties" the data, either scrambling it or making it insecure before it reaches its final destination.

To work around this issue, researchers developed a method of converting quantum data into classical data... and then back again into its quantum counterpart. By crafting a hub-and-spoke network model, the "spokes" transmit quantum information while a central hub receives it, converts it and re-transmits it once again as packets of the quantum-kind.

The upshot of Los Alamos' design is its relative simplicity. However, there are two glaring limitations.

First, the hub-and-spoke network model itself is a problem. This brand of network topology is not easily scaled, so deploying this solution as a global quantum Internet would be inefficient at best, intractable at worst.

The second shortcoming is diminished security. While the data packets traveling along the network's spokes are protected by the magic of quantum theory, data transcoded at the central hub is not. As a result, the hub's security determines the trustworthiness of the entire network. This detail defeats the "perfect" security promised by a purely quantum network.

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Members of the US Senate approved a bill on Monday that would allow states to charge sales tax on purchases made over the Internet. The Marketplace Fairness Act received 69 votes in favor versus just 27 votes against. Riding a wave of support from President Obama, the bill now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.

The Marketplace Fairness Act aims to overturn a ruling by the Supreme Court in 1996 which said out-of-state retailers typically don’t have to collect sales tax online unless they have a heavy business presence in the state the sale is made in. This is how a number of retailers on the web get away with not charging sales tax – an unfair advantage according to members of the Marketplace Fairness Coalition.

Retailers like Best Buy, Macy’s and Wal-Mart are all in favor of the bill as they feel it would help to level the playing field. Those against the bill see it as little more than a multibillion-dollar tax hike against American consumers.

Others like eBay CEO John Donahoe argue that the proposed changes would create an unreasonable burden for small business owners. Just last month, the executive sent an email to eBay members urging them to contact their representatives to let them know they were against the bill. Donahoe noted in the message that the legislation treats eBay users the same as big multimillion-dollar online retailers like Amazon (a company that supports the bill’s passage).

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It was Adobe; in the billiard room, with the candlestick... In a single blow, the software-makerdispatched new sales of "perpetual" Creative Suite licenses and announced the languishing demise of Fireworks. The company today said it will no longer sell Creative Suite bundles (or its individual components) as retail products. In place of CS will be Adobe's Creative Cloud -- a subscription-only service. 

"We have no current plans to release another perpetual release of the CS tools and suites. Creative Cloud is going to be our sole focus moving forward," Adobe said.

Meanwhile, Fireworks development has been halted except for discretionary security and bug fixes. However, Adobe was kind enough to promise that Fireworks would remain part of Creative Cloud for an undisclosed period of time and be updated to support the "next versions" of Mac OS X and Windows.

The company claims an "overwhelming" number of customers actually prefer the switch to a $50/month (or $600 annually) plan when compared to purchasing the software à la carte for thousands of dollars. At present, "Creative Cloud" is essentially a digitally-distributed version of Adobe's CS: Master Collection, but requires a monthly subscription validation check. Gone are the days of perpetual licenses which could be used for as long as the owner saw fit.

Existing Creative Suite owners can score special Creative Cloud pricing: $30/month for qualified licensees of previous CS versions (CS3 or new). Meanwhile, CS6 owners (and educational customers) enjoy deeper discounts at just $20/month -- coincidentally the same price new customers can pay to access just a single application (e.g. Photoshop).

Adobe has been working toward a subscription-based model for years; however, no one could be entirely certain when that day would arrive. In March though, the famed Photoshop maker announced its imminent shift to a completely digital distribution system, canning retail sales of Creative Suite discs.

"We expected it to be a couple years before this happened. But we were surprised by how successful Creative Cloud has been," said Adobe. "We know that's going to be a difficult transition for some customers, but we think it's going to be the best move in the long haul."

Photoshop has long-been a piratical favorite, no doubt due to its prohibitive price tag and unique standing as the de facto world-class tool for graphics editing. This factoid has likely fueled Adobe's ongoing desire to move its products to the cloud as less-exploitable services.

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Bethesda Softworks today revealed a reimagined, action-adventure version of the classic first-person shooter Wolfenstein. Known officially as Wolfenstein: The New Order, the “what if?” title puts players in control of an American war hero named B.J. Blazkowicz in a world where the Nazis won World War II.

The game is said to be set in the 1960s which has given the Nazis plenty of time to take over the entire planet. As the protagonist, you are tasked with launching what is described as an impossible counter-offensive that includes infiltrating Nazi camps and bringing the fight to them – using their “super weapons,” of course.

The game is being developed by Machine Games which itself was founded by former members of Starbreez (think The Darkness, Chronicles of Riddick) in 2009. It’s slated to hit the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and next generation consoles during the fourth quarter of this year – just in time for the holidays.

Interestingly enough, Bethesda VP of Marketing Peter Hines noted they are intentionally being secretive about next generation console availability. This likely just means he doesn’t want to name the next Xbox specifically but it could also mean that one of the two consoles could receive exclusive rights to the game.

We’ll keep an eye on Microsoft’s pending Xbox reveal to see if the game is demoed. If not, it’ll probably show up somewhere during E3. Until then, enjoy the trailer embedded above!

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Update: Microsoft's Julie Larson-Green further confirmed the news about Windows 'Blue' today, narrowing down a date for the OS' next milestone. A public preview of the next Windows is scheduled for release at this year's Build, Microsoft's annual conference scheduled to take place from June 26th to the 28th. The final release of Windows 8.1 is expected by the end of this year.

Rumors about what exactly Windows Blue will be have flown around the Internet for months and we already have a few ideas of what to expect. Now, thanks to a blog post from Microsoft interviewing Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller, we finally have official confirmation that the codename refers to the next major update to Windows 8 shipping later this year.

Microsoft's ultimate goal with Windows Blue is getting the OS to run on a wider range of devices, which makes a great deal of sense with all of the rumors we've been hearing of the company planning to release a smaller version of Surface tablets. Reller specifically cites a "broad array of form factors of all sizes, display, battery life and performance" when she is referring to the changes in Windows Blue.

Windows Blue will also address some of the complaints from critics of the OS. Reller did not specifically talk about which criticisms the update would address, but simply said, "the Windows Blue update [is] an opportunity for us to respond to the customer feedback that we’ve been closely listening to since the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT."

The interview also discussed Windows 8 apps, which Reller says have grown in number six-fold since the OS launched, noting that they have "already passed what iOS had in store, in its first year of app development." 

Speaking about Windows 8 adoption, Tami Reller revealed they've surpassed 100 million licenses sold, including licenses that ship on a new tablet or PC, as well as upgrades to Windows 8. In spite of it not being the boom Microsoft was expecting, the company is still happy with the performance overall. Reller rejects any notion of the PC being past its prime arguing it is "very much alive and increasingly mobile." 

At this point, it's difficult to say exactly what changes will come as part of Windows Blue. While Reller confirmed it will address customer feedback, she remained very vague about the specifics, particularly on the rumored return of the Start Button and a boot straight to desktop option. Other details including pricing, packaging and go-to-market details about Blue are expected to be revealed in the next couple of weeks.

The latest iteration in the Angry Birds franchise is now available for download. Angry Birds Friends doesn’t deviate far from its roots although this time around, gameplay is centered around competing with friends and family on Facebook.

Rovio first announced the Facebook-connected title a few weeks ago. With Friends, you’ll be able to take part in weekly tournaments with new levels, challenges, gifts and daily rewards. Gamers can earn gold, silver and bronze trophies as part of the competition. Anyone that competes will receive a single power-up as a consolation prize, we’re told.

The tournament is scheduled to kick off on May 6. Rovio suggested in a recent blog post that gamers go ahead and download the title now to get some practice in before the tourney starts. New tournaments brgin each Monday with a different set of challenges to take part in.

The game is available free of charge for Android version 2.2 and up as well as iOS users on an iPhone 3GS or newer, iPod touch third generation or later and the iPad. Alternately, you can play on your computer using theFacebook app. The game uses your Facebook login credentials so your progress will be maintained regardless of how often you change devices.

What’s more, gamers will earn 200 bird coins just for logging in the first time. These coins can be used in-game to achieve special power-ups like the King Sling, Super Seeds, Birdquake or the Wingman.

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The world wide web turned 20 this week. Though I haven’t been online for that long, it got me reminiscing about the first time I heard my computer make that choreographed sequence of noises that allowed it to piggyback on a phone line and access the series of tubes known as the internet.

It was around 1996 or 97 and it was quite new in my country. I hadn’t even heard of it before my brother had it installed on our computer -- a Macintosh at the time -- and told me this thing connected us to the whole world. “You can even go to Playboy if you want!”, he exclaimed. I don’t remember exactly what I did the first time I got online, probably look up Playboy if I’m honest (don’t judge), but I do remember reading a lot and having fun chatting on an early IRC client as it quickly became popular among people from various local schools.

So yeah.. that was my first online experience of many that followed the next few years, including long C&C gaming sessions as well as building an mp3 download website on Word gathering working links from around the web. How long have you been online and what are your first memories of it?

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Apple’s next big digital sales milestone is coming up quick: 50 billion app downloads. To celebrate the occasion, Apple is hosting a giveaway where one lucky winner (the person who downloads the 50 billionth app) will walk away with a $10,000 App Store credit. What’s more, the next 50 people after the grand prize winner will also earn a $500 gift card.

When Apple announced the giveaway, there were roughly 793 million downloads to go. For reference, it took about 15 days for people to download 700 million apps. Of course, the number of apps and the number of iOS devices have increased over the course of the past year which means we could see Apple announce winners within the next two weeks.

In announcing the giveaway, Apple also revealed their top 25 all-time free and paid apps for the iPhone and the iPad. Topping the paid charts for the iPhone was Rovio’s Angry Birds while Apple’s Pages app got the nod on the iPad. In the free app category, Facebook was the most downloaded app on the iPhone and Microsoft’s Skype was the top freebie for the iPad.

This isn’t the first time that Apple has handed out prizes in celebration of specific milestones. Earlier this year Cupertino gave away a 10,000 Euro iTunes gift card to the lucky recipient that downloaded the 25 billionth song on iTunes. Last March, Chunli Fu from Qingdao, China, received a $10,000 gift card and a trip to an Apple Store to pick it up for downloading the 25 billionth app from the App Store.

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Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt recently proclaimed YouTube victorious in the battle against traditional television – if such a battle ever even existed. During a recent presentation to advertisers, the chairman said Internet video has already displaced television watching and the future for YouTube is now.

But according to Schmidt, Internet video is not a replacement for television. Instead, he said, it’s a new thing that we have to think about, to program, to curate and build new platforms for.

YouTube’s global head of content Robert Kyncl said he initially thought that YouTube was like television, but he was wrong. The executive pointed out that television is one-way; YouTube talks back. Said another way, television means reach while YouTube means engagement.

True enough, the web’s go-to video destination is riding a wave of success, what with one billion unique usersvisiting the site every month. It’s a major milestone that YouTube surpassed back in March but it’s just the beginning, Schmidt suggested. When you factor in Third World nations (most of which don’t have readily-available access to the web), YouTube could easily reach the six to seven billion mark.

Original content will likely be key to the continued success of Internet video. DreamWorks Animation is seemingly in touch with that notion, having just purchased the teen-focused YouTube network Awesomeness TV for a cool $33 million. DreamWorks CEO Jeffery Katzenberg said this is a whole new form of content, content delivery and content consumption. It’s the medium of the future, he said, and the future has already arrived.

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Don’t want to wait another year for Google Glass to drop? Or perhaps you didn’t have $1,500 to spare when the Explorer edition kits were available for pre-order last year? Apparently neither did an Australian techie so he did the next best thing – made his own. Meet Flass, Google Glass’ Australian brother.

Ok, so it’s nowhere nearly as refined as the real thing but that doesn’t mean it’s any less impressive. OCAU forum member Ash_Williams designed Flass from the ground up to be a clone of Google Glass. The name, if you hadn’t already figured out, is a play on the words “fake” and “glass.”

The device is powered by a Samsung Galaxy S i9000 which feeds the display using TV-out to a MyVu Crystal 701. There’s also a Bluetooth keyboard and a Bluetooth earpiece – all mounted on a pair of standard looking glasses. The designer said he hopes to ultimately use a Raspberry Pi to power the unit instead of the phone so screen power isn’t an issue.

The kit will soon be receiving an upgrade, however, as he has a 3D-printed Google Glass frame on the way to use for reference to build an everyday version. The most recent post in the thread (dated May 2) noted that the thread would be updated sometime next week once the Glass replica is in. Additional plans for a future revision include integrating a camera into the system and refining the user interface a bit.

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Researchers toiling away in a Harvard University lab have developed what is said to be the world's most miniscule, guided, flying robot. Weighing just under three thousandths of an ounce, RoboBee with its 3cm wingspan borrows heavily from real flying insects -- particularly flies -- to become airborne.

One of the primary enigmas RoboBee posed to researchers was how to build electromechanical components both truly tiny and capable of sustaining flight. The device required parts that were too fine for traditional mechanisms like gears and pistons; RoboBee was also too small for most common silicon-based components, as well.

Instead, the team developed its own techniques to produce teensy weensy electromechanical components. Harvard researchers coined these parts as SCMs, or smart composite microstructures and they are derived from strong and ultra-light carbon composites. 

"It's really only because of this lab's recent breakthroughs in manufacturing, materials, and design, that we have even been able to try this." one researcher noted. He later added, "This is what I have been trying to do for literally the last 12 years".

RoboBee's ethereally-thin wings beat an astonishing 120 times per second. To achieve this feat, a specially designed ceramic-based piezoelectric material was used. The substance expands and contracts when voltage is applied and removed, mimicking how a real muscle might work. As an added bonus, the system provides the pint-sized insectdroid with astonishing maneuverability -- it can hover and make sudden changes in its position.

Before readers succumb to horrifying visions of a dystopian future where weaponized insect armies are saddled with high-tech surveillance equipment, it's important to know that this insect-inspired robot is still tethered to a wire for power. RoboBee is so small and so light, it likely can't support the weight of both a useful camera and battery pack. This also suggests we won't see laser cannons mounted on RoboBee in the immediate future. But with promising battery technologies lurking around the corner, its certainly not an impossibility. 

A "fully flying wireless robot" is a just "few more years" away, researchers project.

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Interested in a fancy new 3D printer but don’t know where to start? Just hit the easy button – as in, Staples. That’s because the company today became the first major US retailer to start selling a 3D printer. You can now order The Cube by 3D Systems on Staples.com for around $1,300 or if you’d rather see it in person first, head to your local Staples retail store starting next month.

The Cube is one of a number of 3D printers designed with traditional consumers in mind. Specifically, this unit can print items up to 5.5 inches tall, wide and long in one of 16 different colors. The retail bundle includes 25 free design templates to get users started but the real fun is designing and building something all your own.

Perhaps the most widely known 3D printer is the Replicator 2x from MakerBot. This piece of machinery made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year and has since earned a reputation as the go-to device for home 3D printing.

The company recently partnered with open-source Android gaming console maker Ouya to let gamers print custom 3D console cases at home. The $2,800 price tag, however, may be a bit too much for some to stomach which gives products like The Cube an excellent inroad into the market.

Share value in 3D Systems was up four percent following the announcement while Staples stock was up three percent.

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In an age where the search for deeper meaning in our interactive entertainment pursuits begins after the first trailer — where more thought goes into post-game critical analysis than development — a game that bears its shallow soul for all to see is a blessing. "The game is stupid," Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon creative director Dean Evans proudly proclaimed during a recent press event — not foolish pride, but pride in foolishness.

"Dare to be stupid," sang parody artist Weird Al Yankovick in a song appearing in the 1986 animated Transformers movie, a contemporary to the late 80s, early 90s action films from which this day-glo Far Cry 3 spin-off takes much of its inspiration. As a young teen I enjoyed the tune in the same way I enjoyed movies like Terminator and Aliens (both featuring Michael Biehn, the voice of Blood Dragon's protagonist) — mindless fun.

The game casts players as Sergeant Rex 'Power' Colt, a name we wouldn't have blinked an eye at back in 86. He's a special forces cyborg with a man to kill, but first he's going to have to kill all of the things standing between him and that man. The game's loosely about saving the world. Heck, if we were in the 80s it might have been heralded as a commentary on the Cold War. We were pretty ridiculous in the 80s.

The story unfolds through a series of 2D cutscenes that wouldn't be out-of-place in an NES-era adventure (well, except for the foul language and... other things). And when those scenes end, it's into a day-glo nightmare from the early days of MTV.

If a black light poster broke open a neon bar sign and inhaled its contents, this would be what the puddle of vomit around its corpse would look like when the police found him. It was nice and novel for the first couple of hours, but I soon found myself yearning for the cloudy blue skies of Far Cry 3 proper.

Ubisoft has done great and terrible things with the game engine, transforming it into a nightmare world, where wild boars roam the purple plains, backs covered with neon graffiti. Where mutated gila monsters — the eponymous blood dragons — prowl the tiny island, seeking to make a meal of whatever flesh your cyborg body still possesses.

As outlandish and garish as this tiny island is, there is always something there to remind me of Far Cry 3. There's the sweet-spot shooting (not too loose, not too tight) that helped push me to nominate an FPS — not my normal go-to genre — for game of the year last year. There are outposts to conquer, side-missions to complete for weapon upgrades, money to collect and animals to hunt. The crafting system is gone (and good riddance), and the leveling system has swapped tattoo-based branching trees for straightforward level-based power upgrades. Oh, and the developers couldn't resist the opportunity to scare the living shit out of me with an alligator. They get me every damn time.

But alligator attacks are few and far between — Blood Dragon would much rather make you laugh than make you scream, and it's damn good at it. Michael Biehn sighs gruffly through the opening tutorials, eager to get with the killing and catchphrases. The dialogue sounds as if it were written by a thirteen year-old me, more concerned with how cool it sounds than how much sense it makes. "Tell them I died for my country," one of Rex's compatriots tells him during a moment of tension. "You'll tell them that yourself!" he responds.

That's the power of overt, honest stupidity. I just described two things I despise in a game attempting to be taken seriously. Bad dialogue and repetitive voice clips would completely kill most games for me, but there is no pretension here at all. There is no other expectation. It's the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker of first-person shooters, delivering ridiculous with a straight face, Airplane! style.

There are people who consider Far Cry 3 to be the wrong kind of stupid — a senseless story masquerading as something deep and meaningful. There are many games that do just that, and sometimes they succeed. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon isn't trying to fool anyone, and that's why I loved every minute.

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Intel has disclosed new information about its up and coming Haswell processors, detailing the graphics specs and potential performance improvements versus today's integrated HD graphics. Intel is giving the new graphics engine a brand name: "Iris", touting 2x to 3x the performance of HD 4000 graphics.

In the past few months we've come to learn a lot about Haswell. As with Ivy Bridge, efficiency and power consumption have taken priority over raw processing power, and thus Haswell it's expected to be only marginally faster than the current generation of Intel Core CPUs. On the graphics front, however, it's a different story.

There will be five different graphics configurations, in order of performance: Iris Pro 5200, Iris 5100, HD 5000, HD 4600/4400/4200 and HD graphics. This may become even more confusing that the current line-up, although for the very most part performance-oriented desktop and laptop CPUs simply ship with HD 4000 (the fastest integrated graphics from Intel), while smaller ultrabooks and tablets get the more specialized configurations.

Here's what Intel is expecting from Iris (don't miss our extended note about performance further down below):

Three times the performance of HD 4000 sounds like an amazing feat for a single generational jump. As before, this has the potential to keep eating on the budget discrete GPU market. It's no coincidence AMD and Nvidia have nearly retired the sub $100 graphics cards, since integrated graphics have been able to cope with different kinds of typical workloads (HD video playback, etc.), usually only falling short when it comes to gaming.

When we reviewed Ivy Bridge about a year ago, we tested the Core i7-3770K's on-die GPU performance. The results were disappointing to say the least, but if Intel is able to double or even triple performance, it's going to be a very interesting landscape for PC gaming moving forward.

Starcraft 2 running at 1280x800 (medium quality) on HD 4000. More games here.

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Microsoft today announced it has completed moving its Hotmail.com users over to Outlook.com, roughly nine months after first taking the wraps off its revamped email service at the end of July 2012. According to the company, there are currently 400 million active Outlook.com accounts, noting that the growing organic excitement over the service helped pushed that number up from “over 300 million” at Hotmail’s peak.

That’s also up from 60 million active accounts when Outlook.com came out of preview in February, and out of the total number of users, there are 125 million that are accessing email, calendar and contacts on a mobile device via Exchange ActiveSync. All in all, 150 petabyes of email data were migrated over the past six weeks.

To celebrate the milestone Microsoft is also rolling out two significant upgrades to the service: SMTP Send and deeper SkyDrive integration. The former streamlines the process of sending email from an alias, including non-Outlook addresses, without recipients seeing a message saying “Sent on behalf of…”.

As for the improved SkyDrive integration, it specifically centers on the message composer, which now allows users to select SkyDrive photos and files from the cloud storage service and automatically turn those into the right thumbnails with links that have the right permissions tied to people that receive the email.

Both new features are rolling out today. Microsoft says SMTP should be available immediately to all users worldwide, while the SkyDrive integration is being rolled out gradually over the next few weeks.

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If you’ve got a cool million or two lying around and you want the ultimate in home theater entertainment, look no further than IMAX. The company recently announced plans to offer a select few the opportunity to bring the IMAX experience right to the comforts of their own home via a custom-designed, private home theater.

It’s unclear if the “select few” is in reference to a limited number of installs available or the fact that few could afford to own what IMAX describes as the world’s most immersive and luxurious entertainment experience.

IMAX will design every aspect of the private theater – from their renowned projection and sound technology to the room acoustics and theater geometry – to work as a fully integrated solution optimized specifically for each install. The team works directly with your architects, developers, interior designers and custom installers to ensure everything is built to IMAX’s exacting performance standards while catering to your specific design preferences.

Once the system is installed, there won’t be any further work required on your part. That’s because the system is connected to their Commercial Service Center with 24/7/365 remote monitoring. If something does go down, IMAX promises a response time of less than five minutes. There’s also preventative maintenance, performance tuning and on-the-ground support – all free of charge, of course.

Outside of Hollywood A-listers, we can’t imagine there are too many people that would be willing to throw down this kind of dough for a home theater system. Either way, however, it’s nice to see something like this finally being offered in the home.

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