Battlefield 4 multiplayer beta opens October 1

It’s been known for over a year that a multiplayer beta of Battlefield 4 would debut before the game’s public launch. The game is slated for release on October 29 and now thanks to a recent post from EA’s Peter Moore, we know the multiplayer beta will debut on October 1.

What’s more, the beta will be available for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Next generation console hopefuls are out of luck for obvious reasons: the game is launching on other platforms before the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are scheduled to hit stores. EA, however, envisions players buying the game for current generation consoles to learn the maps and whatnot before transitioning to next generation systems once they become available.

Based on information mined from the game’s official FAQ, beta participants will be able to battle it out using Conquest mode on the Siege of Shanghai map.

Those interested in gaining beta access can do so through a few different methods. One way requires users to pre-order Battlefield 4 Digital Deluxe Edition on Origin. Also, Battlefield 3 Premium members will gain access and finally, registered owners of Medal of Honor Warfighter Limited Edition or Digital Deluxe Edition are being allowed in.

Battlefield 4 Digital Deluxe Edition currently sells for $69.99 on Origin. In addition to beta access, the pre-order also includes the China Rising DLC and three gold battlepacks (a bundle of extra items, weapons and the like).

Nvidia's GeForce 304.48 beta offers up to 18% more performance

Nvidia has released new beta drivers offering GeForce 400, 500 and 600 series owners up to 18% more performance depending on the title and settings. In a blog post, Nvidia published some of its own tests in which the GTX 680 saw a 17.6% boost over last month's 301.42 WHQL release in Batman: Arkham City, 12.4% in Dragon Age 2, 9.8% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat and 4% in Lost Planet 2 when running the games on high or max settings. A 5.8% to 15% bump was recorded with a second GTX 680 in SLI.

As a second example, Nvidia shared the GTX 560's results when shifting to the beta drivers, including 14% more performance in Arkham City, 6.7% in Lost Plane 2 and 5.5% in Dragon Age 2. When paired with another GTX 560, the combo delivers 11.9% more frames in Arkham City, 5.2% in Battlefield 3, 6.1% in Dragon Age 2, 4% in Lost Planet 2, 5.3% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat and 7.9% in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Nvidia's article provides more information about how each game was configured.

The beta release also fixes a bug in Shogun 2: Total War that reduced frame rates by up to 60%, another that caused intermittent vsync stuttering with GTX 600 series cards as well as a bug that prevented some overclocked cards from running at their higher clocks. Nvidia has also added or improved a handful of new SLI and 3D Vision profiles for games including Torchlight II, Tribes: Ascend, F1 2011, Planetside 2, Borderlands 2, Mass Effect 3, Max Payne 3, Street Fighter X Tekken, and The Walking Dead.

Download GeForce 304.48 Beta (release notes -- read the download pages, no PDF available)

Desktop: Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Mobile: Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Download GeForce 302.80 WHQL (release notes)

Desktop: Windows 8 32-bit | Windows 8 64-bit

Mobile: Windows 8 32-bit | Windows 8 64-bit

Download GeForce 301.42 WHQL (release notes)

Desktop: Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Mobile: Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Meanwhile, Diablo III, L.A. Noire, Rayman Origins, and The Secret World have gained antialiasing support in the Nvidia Control Panel, and Star Wars: The Old Republic's ambient occlusion can be set in the Nvidia Control Panel. FXAA, Nvidia's antialiasing solution, has been disabled in Windows programs like Media Player and Movie Maker. Although FXAA has been well-received, its effects were being applied to Windows applications when set to run globally, making text difficult or impossible to read.

Chrome 17 beta brings speed and security improvements

Google has pushed a new version of Chrome into the beta channel that's designed around improving two of the browser's key aspects: speed and security. The first major change in version 17 is the ability for pages to start loading in the background before a user has even finished typing a URL into the Omnibox address and search bar.

"If the URL auto-completes to a site you're very likely to visit, Chrome will begin to prerender the page," explained Dominic Hamon, a software engineer at Google, while announcing the browser update. The pre-rendering makes the full site show up almost instantly, according to Google.

Chrome 17 Beta: Windows | Mac OS X | Linux

Chrome 16 Stable: Windows | Mac OS X | Linux

Google also introduced an extension to its Safe Browsing technology that protects users against malicious downloads by analysing executable files, including Windows .exe and .msi files, for known malware. Chrome will issue a warning if a certain file appears to be malicious and will also alert the user if a file is downloaded from a website with a poor reputation for hosting malware-infected files.

This protection targets the "social engineering" type of threat, such as the common fake anti-virus product being offered online, but it's still up to the user to proceed with the download or discard it. The database of known malware is relatively small for now but should grow rapidly as the feature moves into the stable release.

A number of other  minor changes and the usual slew of bug fixes are also included in Chrome 17 beta. Additionally, Google updated the browser's Stable channel to version 16.0.912.75, closing three high risk security holes. Hit the links below to download the latest stable or beta versions of Chrome.

Microsoft details Windows 8 app store, confirms February beta

Microsoft hosted a special event in San Francisco yesterday to discuss details about its upcoming application store for Windows. The company shared details on everything from registration fees to the approval process, revenue model, as well as advertisements and in-app purchases. It also confirmed that a beta of its app store, named the Windows Store, will launch as part of the Windows 8 beta in late February.

Built using HTML5 and JavaScript, the Windows Store will feature the same touch-friendly UI that’s familiar to Windows Phone 7 users, except it will be full screen and available on your computer. As Microsoft indicated earlier, it's intended to be the single source of Metro-style apps to allow better discoverability and facilitate in-app purchases. The store will offer support for both x86 and ARM-based hardware.

During the initial trial period, the Windows Store will feature free apps only and app submissions will be by invitation. However, once Microsoft opens submissions to the wider developer community, they will be able to price their creations from  between $1.49 to $999.99 or offer them for free. Microsoft will take a 30% cut on sales, but that will drop to 20% as soon an app makes $25,000 from sales and in-app purchases.

That's a better deal than what Apple or Google offer with their respective app stores, which charge a 30% commission indefinitely. Also unlike its rivals, Microsoft will allow time-based and feature-based trial versions of apps in its store, which can be upgraded later to the full version if the developer supports it.

In order to submit apps individual users will need to pay a one-time registration fee of $49 while companies are charged $99. Windows 8 will be a curated platform, at least as far as Metro apps are concerned, so developers will need to go through the approval process. Microsoft has already laid out its criteria for app approval here. There will be status updates throughout the entire process, and developers whose apps are rejected will be given feedback on what changes they'll need to make to get approved.

During the presentation, Microsoft’s VP of Windows Web Services Antoine Leblond emphasized the potential reach of the Windows Store, pointing out that some 400 million x86-based PCs are expected to ship over the next 12 months. That's on top of the 1.25 billion Windows PCs already on the planet.

The software giant will make the Windows Store and the apps in it available in more than 100 languages with availability in 231 markets around the world. To encourage developers to get working, Microsoft will be running a competition for eight winning apps to be featured on the Windows Store when it opens.

It should be noted that traditional desktop applications on Windows 8 will continue to be available through the usual channels, such as the developer's website, a downloads portal, physical media and so on.

Battlefield 3 alpha Review

DICE's highly anticipated shooter Battlefield 3 will open up for testing in the coming weeks, the series' community manager Daniel Matros recently explained. There will be two trials: a "highly tech focused", invite-only alpha trial, and a more open beta trial for those who purchased a special-labeled copy of Medal of Honor Limited Edition.

The closed Alpha test is already underway and available only to a lucky few. DICE says it won't be distributing download codes on social networks at this stage, but those who want to improve their chances of being called upon, can sign up to the Battle field newsletter here and make sure that their 'Veteran status' is up to date -- for this you need to login to your EA account and link at least two previously purchased Battlefield games to your account.

The Beta phase will begin in September, and as mentioned above, access is guaranteed to anyone who purchased a copy of Medal of Honor Limited Edition with the "Battlefield 3 - Early Access Included" sticker on the box. Owners of that version will receive an invitation via a newsletter so be sure to opt in on your EA Profile.

The full game will be released for the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, and Windows on October 25, 2011 in North America and October 28, 2011 in Europe. There's been a bit of a controversy with news that the gamemight not be available for purchase on Valve's popular Steam platform, but that hasn't slowed down interest in the game. According to EA, Battlefield 3 pre-orders are currently at 10 times those of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 at the same time prior to release