Happy early Valentine's Day everybody.  Trion World will be celebrating by attempting to break the Guinness Book world record for virtual marriages in a 24 hour period.  So if you're a Rift player then go get virtual engaged so you can take part.  And if you're not a player, don't worry.  Trion has released Rift Lite so that anyone that plays Rift, has played Rift, or has thought about playing Rift can jump in at no cost and help to try to break the record.  

So if you're not married yet, virtual or otherwise, you better get cracking.  And if you're IRL married, well I'm sure your loving spouse won't consider it cheating*

*Neither Gamingnexus.com nor the author presumes to know whether that's true or not.

I know, I know... even mentioning a “fishing game” in the title is enough to turn people away, but don’t go so fast. Game developer Biart is currently marketing a new type of fishing game, one that I could actually see myself trying out. Say hello to Depth Hunter, a spearfishing game. That is right, think fishing and a first person shooter combined into one!

Currently available for the PC, Depth Hunter is headed to both the mobile, XBLA, and PSN platforms later this year. Judging from the trailer for the game below, this could be something I could get behind. There appears to be more to the game than just catching fish as there is treasure hunting and exploration, all while having the ability to mow things down with a speargun. The game will feature full 3D and motion support via peripherals such as the PlayStation Move and Razer Hydra system(s). I am going to have to keep an eye on this as it could have some interesting potential...

Probably the most information-intensive visit of CES 2012 came with the visit to the Samsung booth to cover their new line of PC equipment, including laptops and monitors.
 
First off, let’s get this rolling with the Series 5 laptop.  The Series 5 is a solid choice for most any consumer that needs great power from their system, yet great portability as well.  Options will include up to a 1 Terabyte Hard Disk Drive with your standard optical disk drive, and a long battery life that will last over six hours, though that will more than likely depend on the power settings that the user has it set on.  While the general specifications are always eye-grabbers right out of the gate, Samsung has put a direct emphasis on mobility.  The Series 5 will be just .82” thick and weigh just a shade over four pounds, which does include the weight of the HDD.  That’s quite impressive for a laptop, even in this day in age.  The layout of the system itself sports a beautiful 14” screen, a large trackpad for mouse usage, and a fast boot that will take no more than 20 seconds.
 
While the Series 5 is a solid system to start at, it only gets better from there.  The Series 7 Chronos builds upon the power and portability of its little brother by bulking up to a whopping 17.3” display, a dual storage system that features a 64GB Solid State Drive to go along with a 1 Terabyte Hard Disk Drive, a powerful nVidia Geforce GT 650M graphics card that boasts 2 Gigabytes dedicated to the card itself.  The Fast Boot takes no longer than 14 seconds (only with systems that have dual storage) along with a start speed of just one second.  There will be no more waiting around for your system to boot up and seemingly take forever to get to the desktop.  On top of these wonderful specifications comes the addition of premium JBL Speakers with a built-in sub-woofer for exceptional sound quality.  The keyboard itself is back lit with a sensor and the battery boasts a life span of 1500 cycles for three years of performance.
 
If we stopped there, it would certainly be a strong showing for Samsung.  However, we aren’t even close to finishing this off.  The Series 9 laptop is arguably the best laptop Samsung has put out for the consumer market.  Measuring in at just half an inch thickness, this notebook got every possible upgrade to assure that its state of the art.  With a fast boot of just 9.8 seconds, the Series 9 laptop is guaranteed to put the competition on notice.  The 13.3” screen boasts a 1600x900 resolution and is incredibly vivid.  Outside of that, we don’t know specifications just yet, so you will have to wait for more information from Samsung before rushing out to make your decision on your next laptop.
 
These three laptops are guaranteed to offer every possible solution for the everyday computer user, but Dan and I had to ask the question that was obvious to us:  What about a laptop for the gamers?  Samsung answered our question quite easily, taking us to the Series 7 Gamer.  This laptop is nothing short of a beast.  I was able to demo this great system with a test run of Battlefield 3 at its peak graphics performance, which is easily switched to by a knob that is on the hinge of the screen and the base.  There are four modes to switch between for whatever type of usage you need out of the laptop, with the gamer mode giving you great eye candy once the system launches it into the heavy graphics intensive mode.  Sporting a powerful AMD Radeon HD6970M Graphics Card and a second generation Intel Quad Core i7 processor, every gamer will want to at least give this a tryout.  The CPU is optimized not only for heavy game use, but is sure to keep the system cool with a turbo cooling system built into the system.
 
Finishing off our tour in Samsung’s PC world, we come to the Series 9 PC monitors for home use.  While we don’t know a lot of the internal specifications of the monitors themselves, we can tell you that these beautiful monitors sport a top resolution of 2560x1440 and offer a 178 degree viewing angle.  Trust me when I tell you that the picture quality on these monitors was absolutely crystal clear.  The amount of space that they take up is limited directly to the monitor size itself, thanks to the sleek design of the base and support for the unit.
 
Samsung has shown us that they are not only a top player in the television market, but are quite serious about becoming a top player in the PC world as well, and their line of laptops and monitors are certain to make an impact in the coming year.

Some days it's all about the quality, not the quantity. Today was one of those days where everything went my way, and while I didn't spend much time on the floor, what I got was uber high quality. We'll have at least one Justin Beiber autograph available as a giveaway prize shortly, and one of the USB fridges will be given away tomorrow. And while this was my last day collecting items on the show floor, we have so much coming in after the show that we'll just have tons of giveaways in the next few weeks. CES 2012 was a phenomenal year for swag and I'm definitely looking forward to 2013.

Especially in Vegas, the day isn’t over when the show floor closes. Tuesday night saw me headed out for another night of working, walking, and fun. First up was a visit to Showstoppers, which is essentially a slightly lesser version of Digital Experience, but with usually better food and has a wider variety of products.
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