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Fans of mech games can rejoice, as news on Hawken, the first-person multiplayer mech game, has surfaced. Adhesive Games will make Hawken, its debut game, free-to-play when it launches, in a move likely to compete against similar F2P game MechWarrior Online. This means there will be two different F2P mech games for you to sink your teeth into, and should provide gamers everywhere a chance to battle it out without having to drop a ton of cash. What's more, is that Adhesive is opening the beta signups for Hawken, giving you an early shot to try out the game before it launches in full. Hawken is expected to launch on December 12th, 2012, so the beta should be running for quite some time before the full game is ready.

Even though graphene may one day replace silicon in electronics, when they work together interesting things can happen. From Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) comes a proof-of-concept experiment that has made an atomic antenna. This device has the ability to receive an optical signal, convert it to an electrical signal for transmission, and then back to an optical signal.

The researchers took a piece of graphene and made point defects in it; single carbon atoms were replaced with single silicon atoms. These impurities cause a plasmonic reaction that converts optical and electronic signals.

This experiment is only a proof-of-concept test though, but it still shows promise for the future of optoelectronics. After all, a compact and reliable means to use combine optics and electronics could greatly speed up computers while also reducing energy requirements.

Who says only youngsters can be hardcore PC gamers? Not Marthazon, a 70-year-old grandmother who spends dozens of hours playing World of Warcraft as a level 85 Gnome Mage and as the guild master of her raiding guild Spartans. A constant WoW player since her daughter introduced it to her in 2005, Martha is also an avid Lord of the Rings fan, and she's a tech nerd, too. "I've always been fascinated by technology. My last job before retiring was computer tracking a large fleet of commercial trucks and their deliveries. I helped design the in-house program to track the data we needed to maintain, and I acted as the office IT."

But Marthazon isn't the oldest player in her guild, as her 72-year-old husband provides support in repair gold as their AH "king". With a fixed monthly income, WoW has proven to be a cost-effective way for the elderly couple to be active and keep up with the times. "WoW is an excellent and inexpensive recreational outlet for us old codgers. A lot less expensive than golf," adds Martha. Further proof that 50 years from now, most of us will still be happily gaming away the hours playing PC games - and if we're lucky enough, perhaps even our wrinkled spouses, too. 

Intel has released a new series of solid state drives which pairs the LSI SandForce 2281 NAND controller with 25nm NAND flash memory. The drives are slated to be released in capacities ranging from 60GB to 480GB. The drive is designed for reliability and performance with a MTBF of 1.2 million hours and 550 megabytes-per-second (MB/s) sequential reads and up to 520MB/s sequential writes. Prices start at $149 for the 60GB version with the 480GB coming in just below the $1,000 mark. The 240GB version reviewed here by OCC will set you back about $509.

Intel 520 Series 240GB @ OCC
Intel SSD 520 240GB @ Bjorn3D
Intel 520 Series SSD Full Review - SandForce on Steroids? @ PC Perspective
Intel's 520 Series solid-state drive @ Tech Report
Intel SSD 520 Series Solid State Drive @ Benchmark Reviews
Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB @ TechSpot

Welcome back to another week of reviews from around the web as we have a nice collection of articles today to get things started. We have something different in the speaker section with the Scott Luminor Sound and Light Wireless System that combines speakers with LED light bulbs and pairs them with an iPod docking station. Interesting. There are several storage-related items for you to examine today with a Kingston DataTraveler USB drive, Corsair's Force Series 3 and Force Series GT solid state drive and another Kingston product in the form of the 16GB Wi-Drive wireless storage device. We have plenty more in our Monday roundup and you can check out all the reviews by following the links below.

Cooling
Cooler Master GeminII M4 CPU Cooler @ Madshrimps

Gadgets
Cooler Master Choiix Power Fort 5600 @ LanOC Reviews

Input Devices
Steelseries Ikari Gaming Mouse @ Computer Ed

Memory
Kingston HyperX Limited Edition DDR3-1600 4GB Dual Channel Memory Kit @ ThinkComputers

Power Supplies
Kingwin Lazer Platinum 1000W Power Supply @ ThinkComputers

Speakers/Headphones
Scott Luminor Sound and Light Wireless System (i-DXS 10 L Luminor) @ TweakTown

Storage/Hard Drives
Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 Thumb Drive @ TweakTown
Corsair Force Series 3 and Force Series GT SSD @ PC Perspective
Unboxing the Kingston Wi-Drive @ ThinkComputers

Video
Galaxy MDT GeForce GT 520 Graphics Card @ PC Perspective

Miscellany
Five Years With Blu-ray - Part Two @ TweakTown
End of the Internet or the beginning of a new-style Internet? @ TweakTown
The TR Podcast 105: Eye candy and SSD scaling @ Tech Report

Courtesy of Kia Motors.

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BioWare has stated that when you finish Mass Effect 3, Commander Shepard's tale will come to an end. The Mass Effect trilogy has been all about Shepard, and any future games in the universe will focus on new characters. However, BioWare has suggested it may be a good idea to keep the Mass Effect 3 saves around once you finish the game, but did not elaborate further. What this means could be anyone's guess, but it is likely future Mass Effect games could pull some elements from the end of Mass Effect 3. BioWare still has not said there will be future Mass Effect games, but has not ruled out the possibility either. With the studio saying "it wouldn't be a bad idea" to keep the Mass Effect 3 saves, one can speculate BioWare is thinking of new ideas set in the universe.

Mass Effect 3 launches on March 6th for the PC, PS3, and 360. BioWare wants gamers to be satisified with the ending of it, and all the choices we have made in the first two games will have an impact in the third.

Distracted driving is a big issue as it causes a very large number of accidents, and fatalities, every year. The problem is especially evident in teenage drivers who have been exposed to cellphones for a large portion of their life, compared to older divers.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have created a game to educate teenage drivers to the dangers of distracted driving. The belief is some people simply do not understand how important it is to maintain focus while driving, which then makes using a cellphone, changing the radio station, eating, putting on makeup, reading, and any other activity seem less of an issue.

The game, named Distraction Dodger, has the player drive a pizza delivery truck. At first there are almost no distractions or congestion, but as the player advances, the difficulty increases as well. While driving to the next customer you have to watch out for other cars, road construction, jay-walkers, stop signs, etc. Every time you make a mistake, it is recorded and displayed to you in a graph at the end of the level. The graphics and plot may not be even close to Skyrim, but it may still be worth seeing how well you do.