Masthead Studios, a leading independent developer of MMOs, announced today that the highly anticipated MMORPG Earthrise will be available through digital distribution on February 4, 2011.

“The Masthead team is thrilled for the fans who have been following Earthrise closely to now be able to play the game that they have been so eagerly awaiting,” said Atanas Atanasov, producer of Earthrise and director of Masthead Studios. “We have worked incredibly hard to make Earthrise the best sandbox MMORPG on the market, and we can’t wait for players to fully experience all of our hard work and become immersed in Enterra.”

Earthrise is a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi MMORPG set in the distant future. Featuring a unique skill-based advancement system and player-driven economy, as well as extensive, meaningful player-vs.-player combat, Earthrise gives players countless options to forge their destiny through its sandbox-style game mechanics. Whether a noble soldier in the raging conflict between the Continoma and the Noir, a criminal hiding from the law, or a world-renowned engineer whose power extends into intricate trade and politics, players’ actions will echo throughout the game world. Visit www.play-earthrise.com to learn more.

Top Earthrise features include :
• Unique sandbox environment, allowing players’ actions to influence the entire game world.
• Distinctive, high-tech post-apocalyptic setting.
• Sophisticated Player vs. Player (PvP) mechanics.
• Dynamic third-person combat featuring dynamic targeting, customizable power armor and hundreds of high-tech weapons.
• Deep crafting mechanics that allow players to design and manufacture unique items from blueprints and raw resources.
• Friendly to casual players, with challenges designed for the hardcore audience.
• Single, massive world. Earthrise will run on one server for players in all regions.

Minimum Requirements:

OS: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7
Free hard drive space: 20 GB
CPU: 2.4+ GHz Single Core Processor
RAM: 2 GB
Video Card: NVIDIA 7800GT+ or ATI Radeon 9800 SE 256-bit
High bandwidth internet connection (DSL, Cable)

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OK, lets start with some specs:

• Serial ATA-300
• 8.9ms Average Seek Time
• 16mb Buffer size
• 7,200 rpm
• 500gb Memory
• 3 year warranty

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The 3 year warranty is also a really nice feature, Western Digital must have been pretty sure they were not selling a product likely to break down. But my favourite feature of all is definitely the price, with which you simply cannot go wrong. Maybe sometime in the near future we will have cheap, reliable 2TB drives, but for now, this is defiantly the Hard Drive of my choice. Be sure to keep checking up on Western Digital as they are a very reliable brand whose products are almost always affordable.

You may also be interested in our article on Defragmenting Your Hard Drive.