Steam Has a Free Weekend Event and a Bunch of Sales Right Now

Those interested in Call of Duty, Paradox Interactive-published games, and shooters have an opportunity to save some money on some great PC games this weekend. Steam has a bunch of discounts on offer, in addition to a free weekend event.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Advanced Warfare are both discounted to $30, while Ghosts, Black Ops II, and Modern Warfare 3 are set at $20. If you're looking for even cheaper games in the series, then Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, World at War, Call of Duty, and Call of Duty 2 are all on sale for $10. There are also various bundles that package many of the games together like the Black Ops Franchise Bundle for $80 and the Modern Warfare Franchise Bundle for $70. The rest of the bundles can be seen here

In addition to the first-person shooter series, games published by Paradox Interactive are on sale including Cities: Skylines for $7.50, Pillars of Eternity for $18, and Stellaris for $32. You can see the rest of the Paradox offers here.

Lastly, Steam's holding a sale on more than 100 shooters such as the excellentEnter the Gungeon for $9, the fantastic Downwell for $1.50, and the great plane combat game Luftrausers for $2.50. Check out the rest of the shoot 'em up deals here.

All of these deals are valid from now until Monday, September 5, at 10 AM PT.

On top of all the sales, Steam announced today that Superfight was available to play for free this weekend, starting now and lasting until Sunday, September 4, at 1 PM PT. If you decide you want to continue playing the game after its free period, you can take advantage of its discounted price of $9 until September 5.

Superfight is based off the card game of the same name. It features players drawing cards of characters who they'll use to face off against their friends. Whoever makes the most compelling argument for their character defeating the other wins the match.

Metal Gear Solid 5’s cancelled Mission 51 ‘definitely not the ending’, says Konami

Metal Gear Solid 5’s cancelled Mission 51 ‘definitely not the ending’, says Konami

Although packing a pretty impressive 50 missions, the ending of Metal Gear Solid 5 remains a point of contention for many of its players. In November, Samuel wrote about why the award-winning stealth ‘em up’s conclusion is one perfect moment in an otherwise bad story (warning: obvious spoilers within), however many players consider it to be incomplete—particularly against the fact the game’s Collector's Edition owners were treated to seemingly work-in-progress storyboards for the now cancelled mission 51.

While promoting the forthcoming Metal Gear Solid 5: Definitive Experience, the official Metal Gear Solid 5 twitter feed was challenged by many users with regards to the perceived ‘unfinished’ game, to which it firmly shut the down the possibility of a 51st mission ever seeing the light of day. 

When asked by one user how long players need to continue asking for a more conclusive ending, the official MGS account responded with this:

When asked the more direct question: “How is [the incoming Ground Zeroes/Phantom Pain collection] definitive if the ending is still missing?”, the official account replied:

The thread in its entirety can be viewed here, however does include significant story spoilers. Nevertheless, this is the first time Konami has officially put the idea of 'finishing' Metal Gear Solid 5's story, as it were, to bed.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Definitive Experience is due October 13. The first Metal Gear game minus series creator Hideo Kojima—Metal Gear Survive—is due at some point next year.

 

Jack Butland: Stoke goalkeeper requires further surgery on damaged ankle

Butland, who has four senior England caps, is set for another operation on his ankle

England and Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland could be out of action for a further two months as he will undergo an operation on his troublesome ankle next week.

Butland, 23, had surgery in March after being injured in England's 3-2 win over Germany in Berlin.

The injury flared up again this summer and he has not played this season.

Stoke signed Derby goalkeeper Lee Grant on deadline day because of concerns over Butland's fitness.

"I'll be having a minor operation on Monday," Butland said in a social media statement.

"Rather than push through and risk damaging further, I'd like to have it sorted for good and be back to the levels I was at last year."

Having trained without trouble during pre-season, Butland suffered a training ground injury on the eve of Stoke City's opening Premier League match against Middlesbrough.

Forty-year-old Shay Given has played in every game so far and is expected to continue for the Potters in Butland's extended absence.

Man City: Yaya Toure left out of Champions League squad

Yaya Toure played in central defence for Barcelona in their Champions League final win against Manchester United in 2009

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has left midfielder Yaya Toure out of his 2016-17 Champions League squad.

City could not include more than 17 overseas players in their squad.

And Guardiola still has 18 on his books, despite letting four foreign internationals leave before Wednesday's transfer deadline.

Clubs can change three players after the group stage but Toure, 33, will not be able to play against Borussia Monchengladbach, Celtic and Barcelona.

The Ivory Coast international has played a major part in all City's trophy wins since he was bought from Barcelona, then managed by Guardiola, for £24m in 2010.

He has only played once this season, in the second leg of the Champions League play-off against Steaua Bucharest, when City were already 5-0 up from the first game.

It was rumoured Toure might leave the club following Guardiola's arrival, with Inter Milan one of the clubs who were interested.

However, the player never had any desire to leave City and intends to see out his contract, which expires in 2017.

The 17 overseas players Guardiola has chosen include new signings Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan, who are yet to play for the club, skipper Vincent Kompany, who is recovering from groin and thigh operations which kept him out of Euro 2016, and 19-year-old forward Kelechi Iheanacho.

Sam Allardyce reveals England team to face Slovakia in World Cup qualifier

Sam Allardyce has included John Stones in his first England team

Sam Allardyce has made only three changes to the England team that lost 2-1 to Iceland at Euro 2016 for his first match against Slovakia on Sunday.

John Stones, Jordan Henderson and Adam Lallana are included in Allardyce's first starting line-up as England manager, with Chris Smalling, Daniel Sturridge and Dele Alli dropped from the side that were defeated by Iceland in June. 

Joe Hart, who left Manchester City on Deadline Day to join Serie A side Torino on a season-long loan, keeps his place in goal for England's opening 2018 World Cup qualifier and will win his 64th cap in Trnava.

New Torino goalkeeper Joe Hart retains his place in goal for England

Stones will partner Gary Cahill in central defence, with Kyle Walker and Danny Rose retaining their places at right-back and left-back respectively. 

Eric Dier anchors the England midfield alongside Henderson at the Stadion Antona Malatinskeho, with captain Wayne Rooney, who will become the Three Lions' most capped outfield player, deployed in an attacking role behind lone forward Harry Kane. 

Jordan Henderson will start in midfield for England against Slovakia

Raheem Sterling and Lallana complete Allardyce's first XI, and will be tasked with providing width against Slovakia.

Ahead of the match, Lallana said: "We definitely need to win on Sunday. We put the most pressure on ourselves to win games. 

Allardyce has deployed captain Wayne Rooney (centre) in an attacking role behind Harry Kane (right)

"We know we are a very talented group of lads and it's been important to get some good training in this week."

Dier added: "It will be a completely different game to the one at the Euros. We'll be a different team with a different manager. You can't compare the two games."

England team to face Slovakia (4-2-3-1): Hart; Walker, Cahill, Stones, Rose; Dier, Henderson; Lallana, Rooney, Sterling; Kane.

How to create Adsense account on Google

Newbies who have just joined the blogging platform and are looking for ways to monetize their blogs must have come across AdSense, which is a contextual advertisement program from Google. This blog will help you know how to create AdSense account on Google and enable you to earn that extra income. If you possess some marketing skills, you can also opt for Affiliate marketing, which is an alternate way to earn income. You can also try other programs that are similar to AdSense, but you will realise that AdSense works better than most of the programs available in the market today.

For those who have just started blogging, AdSense is an advertisement program established by Google for bloggers and publishers, which involves the placement of contextual / display ads on your blog, and works on the Pay per Click (PPC) mechanism. This means that you get paid, every time someone clicks on the advertisement.

Before getting registered for AdSense, you would need:

• A blog or a website you own
• To be 18 or above, if not, you can apply using your guardian or parent’s name after taking their permission.

First let’s explain the process in brief followed by a detailed step-by-step guide for easier understanding. There have been some changes to the account approval process to include the following:

1. Register for AdSense
2. Place AdSense ads on your blog/site
3. Account review procedure begins and you will be informed if your account is approved or not.
4. Receive AdSense Pin
5. Submit Tax information
6. Receive payments

The new approval process is to ensure that the quality of accounts is maintained and hence it’s advisable to be patient as the procedure may take some time.
Check your blog/site to see if it is in sync with the AdSense policies before signing up.  Read the terms and conditions to know more about AdSense and to avoid any issues later.

Detailed guide on how to create AdSense account on Google:

• Registration: Register for the AdSense account, by filling in the relevant details on the sign up pagefor AdSense. You can register using an existing Google account or create a fresh one, although it is preferable to sign up using a domain specific email address. Experience shows that signing up with a domain-specific email address leads to faster approval than using an existing g-mail address.

• Next step is to enter your website address and the select the content language. Enter your blog address without the “http://”.

• The next step is to fill out the information carefully to avoid any mistakes that cannot be rectified later. Be sure to insert the correct payee name under which you hold a bank account as this is the name which will be used by Google to send you a check or for direct transfer. Changing the payee details after registration might be problematic in a few countries including India. Few countries are not permitted to make any changes to the payee details after the registration process. So make sure that the payee name is the same as your bank account name. This is a very essential step to create adsense account

• Accept AdSense Program Policies – You can then select the three boxes appearing on this page once you have read the AdSense Program Policies.  Click “submit” and you will be directed to the next page where you can review all your details. Check to see if all details are correct and up-to-date.

• Next step would be to incorporate AdSense codes in your blog /site after the registration procedure is over. The AdSense team will then review the application and send you an AdSense Pin and activate your account. The entire procedure usually takes time depending upon your geographical location. You will need to enter your pin and provide your tax information once you receive your AdSense pin. Also, you would need to fill out a tax form depending on the position you are in to do the business. For Indian AdSense publishers certifying the “No U.S. activity” clause, select the options as shown below:

• AdSense Pin – You need to reach a required target of 10$ with your AdSense Account to make you eligible to receive an AdSense pin. You then need to add this to your account. You will then start receiving payments once you reach the threshold of 100$.

Hope this helps you in creating an AdSense account successfully. If you encounter any problems, feel free to let us know.

See Google Adsense earnings from clicks on Smartphones and Tablets

If you are using Google Adsense to monetize the content on your blog or website, it is very important to know how the ads are performing on small devices including Smartphones and Tablets. With millions of Smartphone users all over the world, it is very important to analyse the ad performance separately. You may have customized and placed the ads on proper location for desktops, but have you placed the ads properly for visitors opening your site on Smartphones and Tablets? You should know how much you earned through clicks on Smartphones and Tablets and that is where the Google Adsense Platform specific reporting plays an important role. Google Adsense is having a special report to let you see how the Adsense ads are performing on such devices.

Login to your Adsense account and navigate to the ‘Performance reports‘ menu. In left panel, click on ‘Platforms‘ sub-menu. Now you see a pie-chart or graph displaying Adsense performance (including clicks, views, CTR, CPC etc.) for all devices. Click on ‘High-end mobile devices’ link available under ‘Platforms’. This report will show you the performance of Adsense ads on Smartphones and Phablets.

Adsense report for High-end Smartphone and Tablets

Similarly, click on ‘Tablets’ to get the performance report of Adsense ads on different tablets like Apple iPad, Android tablets.

Adsense report for different eco-systems

How to improve the performance on Smartphones?

We all agree that this is the time of multiple eco-systems where we have to serve our website on devices with different screen sizes. There are millions of Smartphone users browsing Internet on mobile phones and tablets. Thanks to thehigh-speed wireless Internet connections, sites load in no time. This is why I see a huge opportunity for Adsense users to monetize the site really good-by doing mobile or device specific placement. Just building a site with one layout is not sufficient these days as the real estate we get on a desktop with resolution of 1920 x 1080 px or even more is very huge in comparison with the real estate we get on Smartphone screens. This is where responsive design comes into picture.

A responsive designed blog or website opens on different screen sizes in different layout. In the style-sheet of the website, you specify which component to load and how much to adjust on the width of the component.

To get the best out of Google Adsense or other ad network, I would suggest you to make your site responsive and place the ads according to that design. You can use a service like Resposinator to see how your site looks on different devices and there you can analyse the reason behind your site not performing well on such devices. For WordPress users, there are so many responsive theme templates available for free or paid. Recently, we placed the latest Twenty Thirteen WordPress theme with few customization on our blog and I see an improvement in CTR for mobile devices. Looking forward to get your thoughts about this post, feel free to post comments and share your views.