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News Search Results for: games Corsair Vengeance M90 Mouse @ hardwaresecrets.com [May-04-12] (0 Comments) We tested this mouse with 15 programmable buttons for RPGs and strategy games. Check it out. Corsair Vengeance K90 Gaming Keyboard @ hardwaresecrets.com [Apr-27-12] (0 Comments) Corsair releases a mechanical keyboard for RPGs and strategy games within the new Vengeance brand. Check out our test. Corsair Vengeance M60 Mouse @ hardwaresecrets.com [Apr-11-12] (0 Comments) We tested this new mouse with a special button for precision shooting in FPS games. Check it out. Corsair Vengeance M90 Gaming Mouse @ techwarelabs.com [Apr-09-12] (0 Comments) The M90 is a good first product geared toward MMO and RTS gaming. T hey also have a sister product the M60 geared toward FPS games. The M90 has an aluminum metal framease that gives it solid feel without a lot of wei ght. The brushed aluminum also is a nice contrast to the rugged black plast ic. The mouse has a nice ergonomic shape that makes using the mouse for lon g periods of time comfortable. Corsair Vengeance K60 Gaming Keyboard @ hardwaresecrets.com [Apr-04-12] (0 Comments) Corsair releases a mechanical keyboard for FPS games within the new Vengeance brand. Check out our test. XBOX720 and PS4 Consoles Revive PC Gaming @ benchmarkreviews.com [Mar-15-12] (0 Comments) Electronic video games became a trillion dollar industry once they made the leap from quarter-gobbling cabinets to console and later PC. Reply-To:To:Date:Message-ID:List-Unsubscribe:Sender:Content-Type:MIME-Version; i=enigma5=thinkcomputers.org @ thinkcomputers.org [Feb-29-12] (0 Comments) Portable electronics, we all have them and they all have one thing in common they are subject to battery life. When the battery dies on these devices we no longer can play games, do work, or communicate with our friends. No one wants to be sitting around doing nothing, that is what these portable electronics are for. MiPow has a really cool protective case for the iPad 2 that also has a built in battery. It is called the Juice Cover and we are taking a look at it today. What to expect in 2012 @ eteknix.com [Feb-13-12] (0 Comments) A round-up of some of the best games coming in 2012 on PS3,Xbox 360 & digital download. ASUS VG278H LCD Monitor 3D Vision-2 Kit @ benchmarkreviews.com [Feb-09-12] (0 Comments) We live in a three-dimensional world, and display technology is finally catching up to how we see things. Games, movies, multimedia What to expect in 2012 @ eteknix.com [Feb-02-12] (0 Comments) Taking a look at some of the best games coming to PC in 2012and why we think there the games you should be playing this year. ASUS VG278H LCD Monitor 3D Vision-2 Kit @ benchmarkreviews.com [Jan-31-12] (0 Comments) We live in a three-dimensional world, and display technology is finally catching up to how we see things. Games, movies, multimedia Club3D Radeon HD 6950 Battlefield 3 Edition Graphics Card @ eteknix.com [Dec-23-11] (0 Comments) Dubbed one of the most highly anticipated games of the year,Battlefield 3 saw pre-orders galore and when it finally arrived, a lotof consumers were sadly let down by their systems, with the intensegame needing a lot more juice than first expected. Razer Imperator Battlefield 3 Edition Gaming Mouse @ rbmods.com [Dec-13-11] (0 Comments) With the release of both Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 a variety of accessories for the computers have came up on the market with these 2 games as themes. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core Limited Edition Graphics Card @ pcper.com [Nov-29-11] (0 Comments) In my testing, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti with 448 cores isabout as close as you can get to being as fast as the GTX 570 withoutembarrassing it. In a couple of our lower resolution tests, the newcard was in fact just barely faster, but usually within a margin oferror we were comfortable with. Most of the time, especially in gamesthat we know are super GPU dependent like Battlefield 3, the 448-corevariant was reliably about 3-5% slower than the 480-core part. Sapphire Radeon HD6990 @ technic3d.com [Oct-31-11] (0 Comments) The Sapphire HD 6990 Graphic Card arrived Technic3D. Technic3D will check the AMD 6990 Series in the following Review with a Resolut ion from 2560x1600, 1920x1200, 1680x1050, the real Power Consumption, loudness, temperature, Overclocking and many more in new Games against other Graphic Cards. Ineo I-NA309D Pro USB 3.0 to SATA Dual Bay RAID Enclosure @ bigbruin.com [Oct-26-11] (0 Comments) I ran a couple of runs of Crystal Disk Mark on a 300GB Raptor, andthe Ineo Technology I-NA309 D Pro Super Speed USB 3.0 enclosure on the fastsetting was roughly 10 Mbps faster on the read and write than the Raptor. Iwas blown away by this, and I am now going to use this drive enclosure andthe two drives as my main storage for all of my games and music. Video Perspective:AVADirect $1000 Gaming System @ pcper.com [Oct-07-11] (0 Comments) Recently AVADirect approached me with an interesting reviewidea:build a custom system for just around $1000 made for gaming andsee if it could stand up to our testing. The result is a rig based onthe P67 platform (though since our system shipped you can get Z68motherboards for the same price) and the Core i5 Sandy Bridgeprocessor, coupled with a Radeon HD 6950 that provides enough gamingpower to tackle the best PC games. Acer AC700-1099 Chromebook :Cut to the Bone @ pcper.com [Aug-16-11] (0 Comments) Subjectively, my experience agrees with the Peacekeeperbenchmark results. While web browsing was reasonably enjoyable, therewere noticeable delays at times, particularly when opening web pages.I also found that many web apps and games, felt slow. The Entanglementpuzzle game, which came pre-baked in our review unit, was virtuallyunplayable because of its haphazard, stuttering performance. Gainward GTX590 @ technic3d.com [Jul-29-11] (0 Comments) The Gainward GeForce GTX 590 Graphic Card arrived Technic3D. T echnic3D will check the NVIDIA Geforce GTX 590 Series in the following Review with a Resolution from 2560x1600, 1920x1200, 1680x1050, 3D Vis ion, the real Power Consumption, loudness, temperature, Overclocking a nd many more in new Games against other Graphic Cards. Better than two GTX 580? Video Perspective:AMD A-series APU Overclocking and Gaming @ pcper.com [Jul-07-11] (0 Comments) We tested 3DMark11, Bad Company 2, Lost Planet 2, Left 4 Dead2 and Dirt 3 to give us a quick overall view of performance increases. We ran the games at 1680x1050 resolutions and Duke Nukem Forever 3D Vision Experience @ benchmarkreviews.com [Jun-23-11] (0 Comments) After a 14 year gestation, Duke Nukem Forever has finally arrived. Those of us who played the original Duke Nukem games after weaning AMD Catalyst 11.6 Driver Analysis @ eteknix.com [Jun-16-11] (0 Comments) The olden days saw drivers being released every so often but stepping forward into the current times and the likes of AMD, Nvidia and other manufacturers are releasing drivers much more frequently. AMD have been bang on the money every month with fresh, new drivers that claim to bring improved performance and stability to a variety of platforms. Today sees us looking at the newest set of drivers from AMD; Catalyst 11.6. This set of drivers is said to improve performance on certain games, give image stabilization to YouTube as well as other new video features that have been incorporated. Among these, we also find extra bug fixes and improved stability on Windows XP, Vista and 7. Sapphire Radeon HD 6770 fleX 1GB Graphics Card @ eteknix.com [Jun-07-11] (0 Comments) Video Cards are an expensive part of the system building process and/or can be a large expense in the upgrade budget. With E3 2011 going on this weekend a lot of earth shattering titles are being shown and most computer enthusiasts want to be able to play the games in their full technological glory, including AMD’s immersive Eyefinity technology, however the largest part of the video card consumers will simply be ecstatic if they can even get the game to run on their machine. HIS 6790 IceQ X Turbo Graphics Card @ viperlair.com [May-16-11] (0 Comments) This makes it a good base for the HIS 6790 IceQ X Turbo Graphics Ca rd which expands on this with uprated Core and Memory clocks. A default car d comes clocked at 840/1050 while the HIS 6790 IceQ X Turbo Graphics Card c omes out-of-the-box at 900/1100. We also managed to squeeze a little extra from the Core and took our sample to 920. Not a particularly large increase , but the memory jumped all the way to 1200MHz without issue. In games, the HIS 6790 IceQ X Turbo Graphics Card does very nicely, and would suit a sin gle 1080p monitor well. Despite this, the HIS 6790 IceQ X Turbo Graphics Ca rd does have all the ports and features needed for some Eyefinity action, a lthough I would expect to see a need to run at reduced detail settings for the higher resolution. [Affiliates News] Thermaltake Armor A30 Computer Case @ aphnetworks.com [May-14-11] (0 Comments) Final Fantasy -- a well-known series of role-playing games developed by Square Enix. The atomic bomb -- the infamous bomb developed in the United States and contributed to the end of World War II. Are you catching on now? Will it be better if I got a bit more specific? Razer -- a well known company in the computer market for developing peripherals geared towards gamers. Noctua -- an well recognized company renowned for their superb quietness in quality computing components. Thermaltake -- what exactly do we know about Thermaltake? Well, from what we have seen so far on APH Networks, we know that they produce pretty decent keyboards and mice by their sub-brand, Tt eSPORTS. We also know Thermaltake cases are decently priced for the features and quality it gives. If you are new around here, what I am really talking about is the Thermaltake Armor A60 reviewed by yours truly, and the Thermaltake Armor A90 reviewed by my colleague Jonathan quite some time back. However, what we have here today is much different than these two chassis that I have just mentioned. Although it may be the smallest of the three, it is actually priced at approximately $30 USD more at press time. Presenting to you the Thermaltake Armor A30, the first question you may be asking is whether or not it is an overrated chassis with some Roccat Vire ROC-14-200 Mobile Communication Gaming Headset @ eteknix.com [Feb-03-11] (0 Comments) Roccat are a reasonably new entry to the PC peripheral market. The German company is hoping to take on the likes of Logitech and Creative with its modern styling and aggressive games focused marketing. They produce a range of accessories, one of which we will be looking at today, the Roccat Vire TechwareLabs :Cooler Master Inferno Gaming Mouse @ TechwareLabs News [Jan-13-11] (0 Comments) Cooler Master has recently seen fit to branch out their product line with their new Inferno mouse, joining the Sentinel Advance in the lineup for those who, according to Cooler Master, prefer games like World of Warcraft, and other button-hungry, macro-requiring RTS and MMO games. Speedlink Ferret Gaming Mouse @ rbmods.com [Dec-31-10] (0 Comments) On the move a lot? Miss the gaming setup at home? Speedlink has released a gaming mouse for when you are on the move. This means that mouse is mobile and a bit smaller than the standard gaming mouse on the market. My question is how well does a small mobile mouse work together with games? Asus GTX 580 Card @ technic3d.com [Dec-17-10] (0 Comments) The Asus GTX 580 Graphic Card arrived Technic3D. Technic3D wi ll check the GTX 580 in the following Review with a Resolution from 25 60x1600, 1920x1200, 1680x1050, 1280x1024, the real Power Consumption, loudness, temperature and many more in new Games against other Graphic Cards. Portal 2 finally has a release date @ eteknix.com [Nov-19-10] (0 Comments) Valve has announced the launch date of the highly anticipated, upcoming sequel to Portal. Portal is an award winning title that has won over 30 game of the year awards and is one of the most successful games to be downloaded from Steam. HIS Radeon 6870 Turbo @ viperlair.com [Nov-09-10] (0 Comments) Performance wise, the HIS Radeon 6870 Turbo easily beat the NVIDIA GTX 460 1GB, and the 6850 and 6870 cards we compared it with too. In some g ames, the default clocked 6870 and the HIS Radeon 6870 Turbo were too close to tell apart, but in many games it was enough of a difference to be notic eable. Price wise, the HIS Radeon 6870 non-Turbo is $239.99 at Newegg at ti me of writing, while the HIS Radeon 6870 Turbo that we have here is ... wel l, not listed. It should be about $15-$20 extra which is quite reasonable. What Games Am I Currently Playing? @ eteknix.com [Nov-07-10] (0 Comments) What Games Am I Currently Playing? I received this question asking what games am I currently playing. This video shows you the answer. MD Radeon HD 6870 1GB Graphics Card Video @ eteknix.com [Nov-01-10] (0 Comments) Today we are looking at the AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB Graphics Card. This is one of the latest graphics cards from AMD is is aimed at the mid to high range market. It was launched to take over from the successful HD 5770 and gives a slight performance boost as well as featuring improved AMD Eyefinity with support upto 6 monitors, an improved renamed version of ATI Stream Technology to balance your CPU/GPU power and also 2nd generation DirectX11 for support with the latest games whilst giving show-stopping quality graphics. Medal of Honor @ techgage.com [Oct-20-10] (0 Comments) The market may befilled to the brim with war-based games, but few come from a series asreputable as Medal of Honor. After a bit of a break, the latest iterationhas finally been released, and it prefaces some hyped competition, Call ofDuty:Black Ops. Did EA do enough to make you forget all about that How to Hack the Playstation 3 With Video Demonstration @ techwarelabs.com [Aug-24-10] (0 Comments) The Playstation 3 has remained largely unhacked since its release in 2006. That is until now. We now have a working method for backing up games and playing them off the hard drive. Read on to find out more about this new hack. Motorcycle stuntman @ rbmods.com [Aug-03-10] (0 Comments) Let your imagination to fulfill its thirst of mayhem. Do you love playing motor- bike games? Well this one is different from all other racing games, it is an imaginative game. It gives you a feeling of real life thrill and excitement. PowerColor HD5670 PCS+ @ technic3d.com [Jul-01-10] (0 Comments) The PowerColor AMD-ATI Radeon HD5670 PCS+ arrived Technic3D. Technic3D will check the overclocked HD 5670 in the following Review w ith a Resolution from 2560x1600, 1920x1200, 1680x1050 and many more in Games, against other Graphic Cards. Better with more Performance and new Heatsink? Speedlink Pro USB Joystick + 99 best of C64 Classix® @ rbmods.com [Jun-27-10] (0 Comments) Remember that old machine you used to play alot on in the mid 80´s to late 80´s? Commondre 64 was the big deal then with alot of famous games with superb gameplay and feeling in the games. Speedlink has taken advantage of this and reawaken the Commondore 64 games by creating a joystick similar to the Tac2 joystick in the past that was the most wanted joystick on the market. Included with this they have bundled 99 Commondore 64 classic games for you to play with this Tac2 The Games I Keep Going Back To @ techgage.com [Jun-07-10] (0 Comments) Heading into a summer full of blockbuster titles that seem to all end up as Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Hard Drive @ techwarelabs.com [May-31-10] (0 Comments) The only SSD drives that are affordable to most end users are mearly 80GB SSDs which is pretty small and doesn’t leave much room for applications and/or games. There is a new option on the market provided by Seagate called Momentus XT which is a hybrid drive which has the storage of a SATA and SSD-like performance PowerColor HD5830 PCS+ @ technic3d.com [May-10-10] (0 Comments) The PowerColor AMD-ATI Radeon HD5830 PCS+ arrived Technic3D. Technic3D will check the overclocked HD 5830 in the following Review w ith a Resolution from 2560x1600, 1920x1200, 1680x1050 and many more in Games, against other Graphic Cards. Better with more Performance and new Heatsink? Reply-To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Message-Id: @ techpowerup.com [Apr-22-10] (0 Comments) The HIS HD 5850 iCooler V Turbo is a fully customized HD 5870 that uses a non-reference PCB and heatsink. Instead of the standard clocks it comes at frequencies of 765 MHz core and 1125 MHz memory. Another highlight is the included Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2 game which is clearly one of the top games of the last months. Mount and Blade Warband @ alltern8.com [Apr-19-10] (0 Comments) Sincequite a few people were saying that Warband wasn’t much of a changeover the original game, I did my research into the series by playingaround ¾ of a year of Mount & Blade senior, checking out thedifferent features, learning the combat model and just getting a feelfor the franchise. Now I could go completely in depth with this reviewand describe every facet of Mount & Blade Warband and ispredecessor but that would take forever; really it’s a huge game. Soinstead I’ll focus on a few key points of the game, giving some prosand some cons and ultimately conclude it to see whether it’s worth itsprice tag. PowerColor HD5750 PCS @ technic3d.com [Apr-02-10] (0 Comments) The PowerColor AMD-ATI Radeon HD5750 PCS arrived Technic3D. T echnic3D will check the HD 5750 in the following Review with a Resolut ion from 1920x1200, 1680x1050 and many more in Games, against other Gr aphic Cards. Better with another Heatsink? SanDisk 8GB Gaming Memory Stick Micro (M2) for Sony PSP Go @ legitreviews.com [Jan-23-10] (0 Comments) Today, we look at the 8GB version of the SanDisk Memory Stick Micro (M2) designed specifically for Sony’s PlayStation Portable Go or PSPGo handheld electronic gaming system. The SanDisk M2 is not only an ultra-small IC recording media designed for the PSPGo, but it is also designed to work for the growing storage needs of highly compact, multifunctional mobile phones and cameras. The M2 card that we have today is designed to offer an easy way of storing downloadable games, movies, TV shows, pictures, comics, and music. Our package included a Memory Stick Micro M2 to Memory Stick PRO Duo adapter which allows gamers to go back and forth between Memory Stick M2 and Memory Stick Duo compatible slots... AMD gets back in the development game with OpenCL tools and drivers @ tweaktown.com [Dec-17-09] (0 Comments) This article is going back to the same two articles where I talked about how both AMD and NV approach the same item; gaming. In both I talked about the way the most current GPU from AMD (the 58xx series), while very fast, is still lacking due to fundamental design issues. While it will not affect many games, it does hinder it when it comes to processing anything other than graphical information.This article is going back to the same two articles where I talked about how both AMD and NV approach the same item; gaming. In both I talked about the way the most current GPU from AMD (the 58xx series), while very fast, is still lacking due to fundamental design issues. While it will not affect many games, it does hinder it when it comes to processing anything other than graphical information. Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Nov-20-09] (0 Comments) Thegraphics solution world is constantly evolving with visual qualitybeing stepped up at an ever-growing exponential rate. The launch ofWindows 7 and with it the tantalising prospect of DirectX 11 games isperhaps not so much just a single step up but a whole flight of stairsdesigned to deliver unparalleled graphics quality. With nVidia sliding by the way side, ATI is setting about monopolisingthe market rolling out numerous members of its 5 series cards, each ofwhich offers a different price/performance ratio, following the mainlaunch of the 5870 – a card which packed some serious performance andcertainly turned heads at the beginning of the DirectX 11 era.However, with DirectX 11 games still very much on the horizon and priceof the 5870 way over budget for many enthusiasts, the inevitableintroduction of the 5850 followed shortly. Based on the same RV870core, codenamed Cypress, but located inside the $250 price bracket, the5850 should consolidate the performance achieved by its bigger brotherplacing it in the upper mid-range section so as to push all the buttonsfor DX11 enthusiasts. NVIDIA GeForce GT 240 Video Card P @ legitreviews.com [Nov-17-09] (0 Comments) The GeForce GT 240 is NVIDIA’s latest performance-class GPU that enables the mainstream PC to become vastly more functional and enjoyable. Compared to PCs using integrated graphics that struggle with today’s increasingly graphical and GPU-computing workloads, systems outfitted with GT 240 offer great general gaming performance, Power Gaming (PhysX acceleration + 3D Vision), and GPU Computing at under $99. With the addition of a GeForce GT240, a PC can also provide smooth HD video playback from Bluray, DivX, and Flash 10.1 sources, while also facilitating seamless HD video creation and editing. The concept of Power Gaming is more than just high performance graphics. Gamers using a GeForce GT 240 can enjoy the latest games with PhysX and 3D Vision for a truly immersive gaming experience... Technic3D/XFX Radeon HD5870 @ technic3d.com [Nov-13-09] (0 Comments) The AMD Radeon HD5870 from XFX arrived Technic3D. Technic3D w ill check the HD 5870 in the following Review with a Resolution from 2 560x1600, 1920x1200, 1680x1050, the real Power Consumption and many mo re in new Games, against other Graphic Cards. You wait of the NVIDIA G T300 Chip? Lucid HYDRA 200 Multi-GPU Technology Performance P @ pcper.com [Nov-11-09] (0 Comments) Lucid pointed out some newer games that did not yet have any SLI orCrossFire scaling with the latest WHQL drivers from NVIDIA and ATI – wehave seen this over the years where it takes time for the GPU vendors torelease updated drivers and profiles to get GPU scaling working. In thosecases, because Lucid’s software doesn’t require profiles in that sense, theHYDRA solution provided scaling when native options could not. If Lucid’ssoftware team lives up to its claims it could mean day-of-release scalingfor any PC title on HYDRA-enabled systems. Shattered Horizon PC Game and Interview With Maingear @ legitreviews.com [Nov-04-09] (0 Comments) Shattered Horizon is the highly anticipated first game from Futuremark Games Studio that immerses you in the cold reality of combat in space like no other game before. This multiplayer first-person shooter is played entirely in zero gravity. A catastrophic explosion on the Moon has filled near-Earth space with billions of tons of rocky debris. You and your friends will join intense 32 player battles to control hollowed-out asteroids, huge fragments of Moon rock and the ruined remains of the International Space Station... Technic3D/Zotac GTX275 @ technic3d.com [Oct-23-09] (0 Comments) The NVIDIA GTX 275 from Zotac arrived Technic3D. Technic3D wi ll check the GTX275 in the following Review with a Resolution from 256 0x1600, 1920x1200, 1680x1050, the real Power Consumption and many more in new Games, against other Graphic Cards. You wait of the NVIDIA GT3 00 Chip or the new AMD HD5870? Win a NZXT M59 Case @ bigbruin.com [Oct-21-09] (0 Comments) Up for grabs is a brand new M59 case from NZXT. Get your picks in for the NFL week 7 games for your chance to win! Eagle Arion 2.1 Speaker System @ legitreviews.com [Oct-17-09] (0 Comments) The Eagle Arion 2.1 Soundstage speakers with subwoofer look to deliver excellent sound with a $49.99 price tag. While it is easy to splurge on high speed CPUs and fancy looking cases, often sound is last on the list of things we spend money on. Once you plug in a good pair of speakers and you hear your games and movies come to life, the reason why it is good to spend money on a good pair of speakers suddenly becomes apparent... AMD Radeon HD 5870 Triple CrossFireX Performance Testing @ pcper.com [Oct-17-09] (0 Comments) Getting past the pure joy of seeing these games run this fast, weneed to decide how valuable all of this scaling is to gamers in terms ofcost, etc. In all of my testing (with one exception) the benefits ofmoving from single Radeon HD 5870 to a pair of cards in CrossFireoutweighed the move from two cards to three in terms of price/performanceresults. In other words, the value of the second card was higher than thethird in terms of increasing the performance of the gaming system as awhole. Take HAWX as an example:at 2560x1600 the 1->2 card scaling wasover 70% while the 2->3 card scaling was about 53%. While that is still anice bump in performance (in many cases seeing 50% scaling on any multi-GPUconfiguration would be good news) obviously the third card follows the lawsof diminishing returns. Teufel Concept E 300 5.1 - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Oct-07-09] (0 Comments) Surroundsound and the home cinematic experience is a market that hasbeen on the rise with users looking for crystal clear sound to give thefull-fat experience whether it is with movies, games or music. TheGerman speaker specialist, Teufel, may not be that well known in theUK, but in other European countries it appears to be building up astrong reputation for its high quality speaker sets. The home cinema now features a number of different ranges from theMotiv and Columa series up to the more expensive LT sets. Whilst interms of sound quality and performance, these sets have been impressingusers alike, with many of the systems stretching past the £1000, theycan’t be considered particularly affordable.With this in mind, Teufel created the Concept PC/multimedia speakers ofwhich we will be taking a look at the E300 version offering a 300W sub,5.1 surround and a price tag within budget of a larger proportion ofenthusiasts. Let’s get stuck in. XFX Radeon HD 4850 1GB Video Card @ legitreviews.com [Sep-21-09] (0 Comments) In our performance testing the XFX Radeon HD 4850 1GB was up against some stiff competition, namely it’s faster and more expensive 4000 series brothers. To say that the 4850 1GB is a bad card would be incorrect. At just $124.99 it is an extremely capable gaming card and the best bang for the buck in our testing today. A few years ago, buying a sub $150 video card meant that you had to keep the resolution low and turn down or off certain in-game features in order to get playable results. That is not the case today, the XFX Radeon HD 4850 1GB is able to play the latest games with all the eye candy on, though the compromise will be keeping it 1680x1050 or lower in most cases... Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ 120Hz Gaming LCD Monitor @ tweaknews.net [Sep-18-09] (0 Comments) Till now, most monitor releases have been carbon copy releases of technology that has been out for over three years. An image quality tweak here, a design tweak there was all the consumer could expect. But this monitor is different in a big way. The technology difference contained within this rather standard monitor screams out loud in a crowd of your average everyday LCD computer monitor. No longer does the gamer have to settle in order to enjoy their games and no longer do they have to wait. The 120hz technology is here and I hope it is here to stay. ECS A785GM-M 785G AM3 Micro ATX Motherboard @ pcper.com [Aug-31-09] (0 Comments) The main features that will really draw consumer attention to theA785GM-M is the integration of ATI's HD 4200 graphics on the motherboard.While we weren't able to play some of the top FPS games on the market atdecent resolutions, we were able to play games like Quake Live and F.E.A.R.at relatively high resolutions. The addition of HDMI and high-quality audiooptions makes this board ideal for those upgrading their HTPCs to handlehigh-definition content. Mid-range GPU comparison:Gigabyte GTS 250 1GB and 9600GT 512MB Graphics Cards @ pcper.com [Aug-20-09] (0 Comments) After spending more than two weeks with both of these video cards, Ireally can't do much but smile at how much performance is available on themarket at this price point. The 9600GT is an excellent solution for userslooking to build portable, silent gaming rigs and this card evenaccommodates multimedia users looking to for their next HTPC graphicsupgrade. The Gigabyte GTS 250 was also no underdog in our performancetesting. It beat the HD 4770 in several of our gaming benchmarks and alsorecorded most of the highest scores in our GPGPU testing. This card alsohandled gaming at 1920x1200 with some of the most GPU-intensive gamescurrently available. EVGA Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card @ hardwaresecrets.com [Aug-09-09] (0 Comments) Killer Xeno Pro is a gaming network card with a dedicated processor developed by Bigfoot Networks and sold by EVGA to improve performance from on-line games. Is it worthwhile paying USD 130 to have one? Let's see. GeForce GTX 275 Versus Radeon HD 4890 Video Card Battle @ legitreviews.com [Jul-30-09] (0 Comments) This article included the performance analysis of the video games Velvet Assassin and Wall-E, along with the OpenGL benchmark FurMark on the GeForce GTX 275 and the Radeon HD 4890. I feel it's always good to switch things up and to go out and buy a couple games every now and again to see how video card performance is on games that the driver team really hasn't spent much time on optimizing. The results of the three new benchmarks showed that the... TechwareLabs s the GeIL Evo One 12GB DDR3-1600 Hexa kit @ techwarelabs.com [Jul-23-09] (0 Comments) There's only so much a CPU can do. With today's games and software as demanding as they are, wouldn't you like to have an UNGODLY amount of RAM? Join Jason as TechwareLabs investigates the GeIL Evo One 12GB DDR3-1600 Hexa kit. contains G.a.p.p.y-T.e.x.t @ testfreaks.com [Jun-08-09] (0 Comments) When you hear the name Tom Clancy, you think of his books first and then avery close second, the games that bear his name. The majority of his games,like the Rainbow Six collection are all about teamwork, stealth and tactics .The game I have for review today veers a bit off from the norm of his games ,it's called H.A.W.X. and it's a flying game, not a flight simulator, mo re ofan arcade style combat flight game. H.A.W.X. is set in the near future wher ecorporations have basically replaced government run military in manycountries, they're mercenaries essentially. Opening Day Coverage @ legitreviews.com [Jun-04-09] (0 Comments) It’s that time of year where all the major computer and video game manufacturers to show off their upcoming projects to a slew of industry insiders at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3. When most people think of E3, they think of the games (and sometimes the booth babes). For the most part this is correct, but as we attended this year’s event, we found some pretty nice hardware on display... =?windows-1252?Q?Sapphire_Radeon_HD4770_512MB_Graphics_Card__ @ bigbruin.com [May-29-09] (0 Comments) In use the Sapphire Radeon HD4770 512MB graphics card performed admirably. It is not the ultimate gaming solution (and doesn't claim to be), but for about $100 it is definitely impressive. It can put up solid numbers in games with the settings turned up and it won't make your electric meter spin out of control in the process. ATI Radeon HD 4770 Video Card Overclocking Guide @ legitreviews.com [May-01-09] (0 Comments) The ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB video card is no slouch when it comes to overclocking performance, but the trick is that you will need to use RivaTuner in order to get great overclocks as Catalyst Control Center really limits how high you can reach. The 931MHz overclock that we were able to reach was only stable for 3DMark Vantage overclocking, but the 915MHz clock frequency was 100% stable for all games and benchmarks. We are happy with the overclock as 915MHz/1000MHz sure sounds and performs better than the default clocks of 750MHz/800MHz. The only thing really holding back the ATI Radeon HD 4770 is the number of stream processors and texture units... ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB Video Card @ legitreviews.com [Apr-28-09] (0 Comments) The ATI Radeon HD 4770 graphics card might cost just $109, but the card doesn't look and perform like what many would expect out of a card in that price range. The Radeon HD 4770 was able to keep up with the Radeon HD 4850 and GeForce 9800 GTX+ in numerous benchmarks as a testament to that. For those that game in the 1280x1024 to 1680x1050 resolution range the Radeon HD 4770 should be fine for most games with average settings as our testing had the image quality cranked all the way up in almost every test and the card did fine... Speedblack Gaming Platform - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Apr-16-09] (0 Comments) Withthe wide range of games on different consoles, they give rise tosome interesting accessories and peripherals. We've seen mechcontrollers that are 4ft long on the original Xbox, Wii motes, Lightguns, dance mats and a whole host of others. Sometimes though, theseaccessories have their own accessories; like the Speedblack. Thisgaming platform is designed to give you a sturdy surface to race on,with your steering wheel and pedals. Is it worth it? Let's find out. Different Brand Video Cards Change What You See in Games @ legitreviews.com [Apr-03-09] (0 Comments) After some further research from the community it and on the test bench it appears that when running Enhanced Full Dynamic Lighting that the camo mesh is present on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 200 series graphics cards, but not on ATI Radeon 4000 series graphics cards. If the setting is changed to Enhanced Full Dynamic Lighting (DX10) on the ATI Radeon HD 4000 series of cards the camo mesh appears after the game is restarted. This is still interesting as it means that benchmarking ATI versus NVIDIA with the 'Enhanced Full Dynamic Lighting' setting doesn't matter much as the cards will be rendering different objects in various parts of the game and this could impact the frame rate as the render path is not identical... to:content-type; @ testfreaks.com [Mar-30-09] (0 Comments) Microsoft has recently released a new product, it's a wireless gaming mo usecalled the SideWinder X8 and it aims to actually be a usable wireless mousefor gaming. It's got the standard features of gaming mice, adjustable DPIsettings, macros management and programmable buttons. It also features anextra button which acts as a quick launch button to the games folder inVista, it also features replaceable feet as well, and includes two extrasets of them. One of the other features I found unique is the ability tocharge while playing, the charging cable clips to the base via a magneticconnection and allows you to continue playing while the mouse is charging.Overall it's a great mouse and in my time with it I've come to like it verymuch, so read on to learn more about a very adept and adequate wirelessgaming mouse. Speedlink Mini Chat - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Mar-27-09] (0 Comments) Eventhough speaking to other players over VOIP or other services isbecoming more prevalent, with PC games including voice chat in game,and console users able to discuss over headsets within their parties,and within certain games, one of the main modes of chat is still thetext message interface. One problem with this on consoles, is how longit takes to spell out a message with a standard controller. Speedlinkhopes to rectify this with their Mini Chat keyboard for PS3, Xbox, WiiMac and even PC. BFG Tech GeForce GTS 250 Graphics Card @ legitreviews.com [Mar-04-09] (0 Comments) The BFG Tech GeForce GTS 250 1GB performed roughly the same as the original GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB, which makes sense since both cards have the same 'engine' under the hood. The BFG Tech GeForce GTS 250 1GB's larger 1GB frame buffer came into play when the image quality was cranked up or when running at resolutions above 1920x1200. In games like Call of Duty:World at War and FarCry 2 we were able to see a 10-13% performance improvement from the extra frame buffer. The GeForce GTS 250 didn't put a world of hurt on the GeForce GTX 9800+, as many of you would have guessed without reading any of this... Windows 7 vs. Vista VGA Performance Analysis @ tweaktown.com [Feb-27-09] (0 Comments) I'm one of those people who love Vista; I will openly admit it and honestly, from day one I've loved it. Over time it's only gotten better and as someone who loves their graphics cards and games, why would you not want to experience DirectX 10? Today we want to see how VGA performance looks under the new Windows 7 in comparison to the now very well established Vista. We want performance to be close to Vista, but with Windows 7 still being in its Beta stage, we're not going to hold our breath. TheGameCade Flash Gaming Site Launched @ thegamecade.com [Feb-24-09] (0 Comments) Ina partnership between the owners of XSReviews and Tech-Reviews,we've launched a new flash gaming website, designed to showcase simplythe best games the web has to offer. It features a wide range of genregames, with comment accounts and full search integration allowing youto find exactly the game you want. How to Install Windows 7 within your existing OS @ w7forums.com [Feb-05-09] (0 Comments) Trying out Windows 7 isn’t quite as difficult as you may think, as you don’t need to wipe or dual boot your existing Vista/XP installation to try out the new Microsoft operating system. It is entirely possible to run Windows 7 from within your existing Windows installation, at the cost of reduced performance. All of this is thanks to virtualisation technologies which allow you to run a computer within a computer.There is a downside to this, as a virtualised PC normally uses emulated hardware – so the graphics card used to power Windows 7 will be nowhere near as good as a modern gaming card. This means you won’t be able to play recent games within the virtualised installation, but it is more than adequate for testing and playing with the new OS. Abandonware:The Ethics and Essentials @ bit-tech.net [Jan-28-09] (0 Comments) */As PC gamers, we tend to be as much about the good games of old as the [News] VH Attends PDXLAN 13 @ virtual-hideout.net [Jan-25-09] (0 Comments) When you go to any PDX event, you'll see vendor booths whichincluded Patriot Memory, Antec, DangerDen, Intel, and usually one gamesponsor who offers a free licensed copy of a decent game title. Last event,everyone received Front Lines:Fuel of War. This time, we all got a copy ofCall of Duty:World at War. (SWEET!) As usual, there were many, many eliteand customized systems for browsing pleasure. Sure, some are proprietary.But, with a little creativity, they look much better. The customized casecontest awarded $1500 to its creator. Only, actual customized cases/systemswere entered in to the event. Steelseries WoW Mouse - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Jan-24-09] (0 Comments) Thereare plenty of gaming peripheral manufacturers out there:Razer,Logitech, Roccat, Revoltec, Cyber Snipa, NZXT and many more. However,one of them that stood out for a while was Ideazon, for their productsand keyboard keysets designed for specific games. Since Steelseriesrecently bought out the brand, they've now released a WoW mouse to comeout in conjunction with their keyboard for the same game. Let's see howwell it works in the World of Warcraft, and other titles. Sapphire's ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB graphics card @ bit-tech.net [Jan-23-09] (0 Comments) Despite these flaws, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 doesdeliver a generally better gaming experience than Nvidia’s moreexpensive GeForce GTX 285. The cheapest we have been able to find the285 for is around £300, including VAT, which makes it £40 moreexpensive than the 4850 X2. That makes the decision difficult and whilewe’d typically recommend a single GPU solution almost every time(especially in light of what we’ve described above), the pricedifference makes it an awkward choice – the GTX 285 is 15 percent moreexpensive and it’s slower in four of the seven games we’ve tested here. GeForce 185.20, ambient occlusion tested @ tcmagazine.com [Jan-14-09] (0 Comments) Everywhere you turn these days you see people saying that 2009 will be tough, with economic recession, more trouble in the Middle East and the filming of BloodRayne 3. Despite the grim outlook, this year has started on a high note for Nvidia graphics card owners as a new GeForce driver bearing a new feature and the potential of improved performance got trapped in the spider-less world wide web. Also coming with a rather high number jump - from 180.70/87/88 to 185.20, the driver features support for every GeForce desktop card from the 6 series up and adds a new tab in the Nvidia Control Panel that enables Ambient Occlusion, a lighting model that's supposed to bring more realism to 3D games. GeForce 3D Vision Article @ nvnews.net [Jan-08-09] (0 Comments) Today at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) NVIDIA is scheduled to announce GeForce 3D Vision. Using wireless glasses, an IR emitter and driver software, the technology adds a 3D effect to games running on displays that can deliver a 120 Hz refresh rate. The effective refresh rate is basically halved as each eye receives a refresh rate of 60Hz, which is the minimum refresh rate that is usually needed to deliver flicker-free viewing. Budget Gaming Part 3:Low Cost Options @ xsreviews.co.uk [Jan-08-09] (0 Comments) Inthe previous parts of this article, we discussed the basics ofgaming on a budget, and where you can get a healthy dose of free gamesto tide you over. However, if you're budget is a little bigger thanzero pounds, there are plenty more options you can also consider.There's several different ways in which you can get plenty of playtime, without busting the bank. Games to Watch in 2009 @ bit-tech.net [Jan-07-09] (0 Comments) */So, we're back. You may not have ever realised we ever left thanks to Budget Gaming Part 1:The Basics - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Jan-06-09] (0 Comments) Withfears of a recession spreading like a virus throughout the world,and people clamping their wallets tightly shut after Christmas, perhapsit's time we all stopped playing games and got on with some work toearn back our hard spent dollars and pounds. But who are we kidding,recession or not, we're still going to spend a large proportion of ourtime doing what we enjoy most, playing video games; but how to do itwith so little money around? Ladies and Gentleman, I welcome you toXSReviews multi part budget gaming article, that I hope will help youstretch those pounds to the maximum amount of enjoyable playing hours. Viewsonic's VX2260WM 22-inch Full HD monitor @ bit-tech.net [Jan-05-09] (0 Comments) */In truth, it's the sort of visual faux pas you usually have to try very hard to spot, but just occasionally it can throw up distracting artefacts along the edges of moving objects, particularly in games. Still the good news with the VX2260WM is that you have the option of turning Ultra Fast mode off if it is giving you gyp. The Advanced mode is still extremely rapid and suffers from no visual artefacts. Various News Items @ bit-tech.net [Jan-03-09] (0 Comments) */Part platformer, part content creation tool, LittleBigPlanet comes from a group of ex-Lionhead developers who sought to bring their unique sense of humour to the PlayStation 3. While a good part of the game is actually built as a frustratingly difficult 2D platformer, the core part of //LittleBigPlanet is actually a complex series of tools that let players make their own levels and experiments. Think //Garry's Mod for consoles. NZXT College Football Bowl Game Challenge @ bigbruin.com [Dec-31-08] (0 Comments) NZXT is teaming up with Bigbruin.com to sponsor a College Football Bowl Game Challenge! Up for grabs are four great items from the NZXT line up, and in order to enter you just need to make your picks for seven of this season's top college football bowl games! The first of the bowl games involved is to be played on January 1st, so there is still time to enter. ASUS Xonar D1 PCI Audio Card @ bigbruin.com [Dec-31-08] (0 Comments) The ASUS Xonar D1 is a 7.1 channel solution designed to fit into full sized or low profile systems, and offers exceptional audio in 3D games and home theater applications. If you are serious enough about sound to realize that the onboard solution just isn't cutting it, the Xonar D1 is worth considering. It offers great sound, appealing features, and it won't break the bank. The Most Disappointing Games of 2008 @ bit-tech.net [Dec-30-08] (0 Comments) */Ah, Grand Theft Auto IV, how the mighty have fallen. We remember when bit-tech's Top 10 PC Games of the Year @ bit-tech.net [Dec-29-08] (0 Comments) */Whew, another year done and another 365 days of gaming content faithfully represented, critiqued and ripped apart for your reading pleasure. Now, we’re all tuckered out. Jeantech Unicorn - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Dec-22-08] (0 Comments) Whenit comes to building a pc, many enthusiasts leave the case to thelast thing on their list. However, does this crucial part in anycomputer deserve its ‘bottom-of-the-pile’ rank? Today at XSReviews, wehave Jeantech’s latest case – the Unicorn. Boasting a huge coolingpotential and easy installation, will this case prove its worth and beable to climb off the bottom rung? Let’s find out… Christmas 2008 Graphics Performance Roundup on Core @ bit-tech.net [Dec-17-08] (0 Comments) */Frankly, it's actually hard to separate the two in a single card configuration, because it's ultimately going to come down to which games you play and whether you plan to upgrade to CrossFire or SLI later down the line (on the proviso that you buy a board supporting SLI because not all do). There are strengths to both cards but neither has what I'd call a complete disaster along the way – overall, SLI looks to be the stronger option for the time being. Diamond HD 4870 1GB CrossFire Video Card @ legitreviews.com [Dec-17-08] (0 Comments) The Diamond HD 4870 1GB can take today’s latest games and blitz right through them, providing buttery smooth gaming enjoyment. At a price under $300, high end gaming never looked so good and cost so little. In the driver department I have had no problems with ATI’s 8.12’s. The inclusion of the AVIVO video converter for FREE is a welcome sight. I like that I don’t need to install third party applications or a second utility aside from the driver to do basic temperature monitoring, basic overclocking, and tweaking the fan speed... Microtransactions in Online games Today @ techwarelabs.com [Dec-16-08] (0 Comments) It honestly surprises me that this topic slipped under the radar and all, but I've been having more than a few discussions and/or arguments over the topic of microtransactions in games. For those who don't know, microtransactions or micropayments are Special Edition Video Game @ rbmods.com [Dec-09-08] (0 Comments) Tired of singing in the shower and want to show your true rock startalent? Games such as Guitar Hero allow you to become a musician, but noneof them provide the full rock star experience as the video game Rockband.Geeks, popular online retailer, sent us the Wii version of Rockband:SpecialEdition to check out. Will this game rock out? That is what we're going toanswer in this review. Holiday Gaming Performance Guide - How to waste your time @ pcper.com [Dec-02-08] (0 Comments) For our initial performance testing, to judge which of these fivegames meet all the criteria for our benchmarking suite, I threw a pair ofgraphics cards at the games. From NVIDIA we went the new 216 shader GeForceGTX 260 896MB graphics card since it is the most price-conscious high-endGPU and because the previous 192 SP version of the card is EOL. For AMD,the Radeon HD 4870 1GB card was picked as it is the top single-GPU card onthe market from the company and matches up reasonably well with the GTX 260in terms of pricing. OpEd:Yes, Games Critics Understand Innovation @ bit-tech.net [Dec-02-08] (0 Comments) */There’s an argument too to say that it’s the role of the critic to NZXT Guardian 921 - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Dec-02-08] (0 Comments) Agood case can be a gamer’s best friend, holding all the vitalcomponents whilst looking good and keeping the system cool. However acase doesn’t contribute in any great way to the performance of thecomputer so people tend to be a bit tight and skimp on a good lookingbut not very functional case. NZXT has released the Guardian 921, arelatively cheap but swish looking case. Is it like the hundreds ofother budget cases or does it have something special to offer? XSR'sgonna' find out. Sitecom's WL-308 Wireless 300N XR Gigabit Gaming Router @ bit-tech.net [Dec-01-08] (0 Comments) */It's all a bit frustrating really, as when we started testing we really thought Sitecom was onto a winner here by combining all the high end networking features we crave with a unique advantage of an inbuilt traffic management system. Unfortunately, while the StreamEngine technology does indeed work in managing the downsteam bandwidth and is clearly a fantastic new technology with a lot of potential (and one we'll be keeping close eyes on), it doesn't do enough to ensure playable pings in online games when a connection's upload traffic gets busy, which is a real shortcoming considering it is the router's unique selling point.. Sapphire Radeon HD4650 OC Edition 512mb GDDR3 @ modders-inc.com [Nov-18-08] (0 Comments) Are you looking for a budget graphic card for your HTPC withenough kick to really game with? A graphic card that is energy efficient butalso has enough power to play the latest and greatest games. If that's notenough for you how about you throw in 320 stream processing units, up to 1GBof memory and support for Microsoft DirectXR10.1 games, the ability to watchBlu-Ray movies and play HD content. Well Sapphire Tech has done just thatwith the HD 4650 OC edition graphics card. Not possible you say? Sapphire HD 4550 512MB - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Nov-12-08] (0 Comments) Whenit comes to GPUs, everyone always looks to the top end cards tojudge the current performance available on the market. Really though,the majority of money is made in the mid and budget range cards asthat's what everyone can afford. The main problem with these though, isoften the performance doesn't allow the prospective gamer much headroom for what games will be playable. Today we have the 4550 card fromSapphire which with 512MB, we're hoping will give reasonable gamingability. Let's find out. Overclocking Intel's Core i7 920 @ bit-tech.net [Nov-06-08] (0 Comments) */In a nutshell, the Core i7 920 is an overclocking monster and it delivers industry leading video encoding, image compressing, thread munching behemoth and a great value CPU. However, it sits in an expensive new platform that sniffles at games, still. Most of us will want to wait this launch out and see what happens as DDR3 kits drop in price and new X58 boards are launched./* AMD Radeon HD 4830 512MB - Do we need another sub-$150 GPU? @ pcper.com [Oct-23-08] (0 Comments) The HD 4830 512MB is obviously a strong contender in this area andputs the GeForce 9800 GT on notice becoming the best card you can get forless than $130. In our gaming tests I saw the HD 4830 clearly outpace theGeForce 9800 GT in both Call of Duty 4 and Crysis, two games that areusually quite favorable to NVIDIA's GPUs and drivers. Bioshock alsoperformed well on the HD 4830 but the tests at 2048x1536 indicate to me thatthe cards are about equal in this title. SilverStone Raven Gaming Mouse @ techwarelabs.com [Oct-21-08] (0 Comments) Tired of that uncomfortable mouse that you wasted your money on a year ago? Trying to play games and want to adjust your DPI on the fly? Today Ian looks at the SilverStone Raven Gaming Mouse that aims to solve your every need. Is it all its stacked up to be? ASUS EN9800GTX+ 512MB Dark Knight @ techgage.com [Oct-21-08] (0 Comments) Need a new mid-range GPU for under $200? NVIDIA's 9800GTX+ is a good model to keep in mind, and ASUS' Dark Knight card inparticular proves to be one well-worth considering. The card offersgreat gaming performance for the cash, even handling certain games at2560x1600 with ease, has a sweet-looking cooler, and best of all, ispriced-right. CyberPower Gamer Xtreme XE Gaming PC @ tweaktown.com [Oct-20-08] (0 Comments) CyberPower understands the real gamer and has made a name for itself catering to the price vs. performance, bang for the buck crowd. I left Quakecon with a real understanding of what CyberPower has accomplished and what they are trying to do for the collage kid looking to actually play games and not worry about a 3DMark score. Today we are going to look at one of CyberPower’s more popular products for gamers that fit the description of a real gamer. The Gamer Xtreme XE provides enough power to play the latest games, including Crysis, with high detail and high frame rates while keeping the price far below what you would expect to spend on such a performer. Lego Batman @ bit-tech.net [Oct-16-08] (0 Comments) */There are a few companies out there that enjoy remaking slightly tweaked or re-skinned versions ofthe same game, over and again -- but there are only a few games that can do it and still keep it fresh. Nintendo does it with Zelda, //Mario and //Metroid (and is losing its knack if you ask me). BioWare has done it with //KOTOR and //Mass Effecct. ECS GeForce 9800 GTX+ Hydra SLI Video Card Kit @ legitreviews.com [Oct-14-08] (0 Comments) The ECS GeForce 9800 GTX+ Hyrda SLI kit is a very innovative product that brings together SLI and water cooling very nicely. The bundle comes complete with everything you need to get started and that is very important for a kit of this size. Coming with the full version of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 video game is a nice touch as it is a $20-$30 game and not too many graphics cards come with games any longer. Installation was so simple the directions didn't even need to be used, so this kit will get you into water cooled graphics cards setup with SLI in minutes... PowerColor HD 4870 @ techwarelabs.com [Oct-13-08] (0 Comments) Is your old video card just not cutting it anymore? Do you go to LAN parties or simply try to play single player games and lock up or find your game experience could be better? Its time to introduce to you, the Power Color HD 4870. Sure you have heard that this is an amazing card, but how amazing is it? Hang on for the ride as we find out what this card is capable of. Give Me Back My Sandbox - Editorial @ bit-tech.net [Sep-17-08] (0 Comments) */Worse was to come though, namely in the form of 'achievements' and 'quests'. In the early days, games had a score and the aim, if any, was to beat your personal best. Nowadays, the games have to congratulate you for every tiny thing you do otherwise you don't feel you're making progress. Well done! You moved the mouse! Have 6,000 platinum points!. Logitech Driving Force GT Racing Wheel @ techgage.com [Sep-17-08] (0 Comments) If you are a regular player of racing games on thePlaystation 3, then you owe it to yourself to consider an upgrade tothat inefficient gamepad! Logitech's Driving Force GT was designed forGran Turismo 5, but works well with most other racers out there, andafter we put many hours of driving into it, we can happily walk awayimpressed. Turtle Beach EarForce X4 XBOX 360 Wireless Headset ed @ thetechlounge.com [Sep-11-08] (0 Comments) Turtle Beach's X4 wireless gaming headset is a great way to tap the enormous console market. Wireless headset? Playing video games in the living room at night without bothering anyone? Sign me up! Wirelessness isn't the best thing for audiophiles, but gamers [and perhaps more importantly, the people around them] are willing to sacrifice some things for a little convenience. Honestly, what's a little signal noise against a backdrop of orchestral gunfire. On top of that, the competition is a little weak. The mic that comes with the 360 is uncomfortable, ugly, and above all, it isn't a headset. It's got one Walkman-class scratchy plastic earphone with limited flexibility and added discomfort to make you avoid online gaming. Turtle Beach, with all their experience and wisdom, is right to make a quality headset that not only slides right into place with a 360, but also any other analog input you care to sport around your ears. This isn't their first set of 360 cans, so the X4s have big shoes to fill. [News] Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) 2008 @ virtual-hideout.net [Sep-06-08] (0 Comments) This past weekend, my work schedule changed and freed up some time.On a spur of the moment change, we pillaged the Penny Arcade Expo also knownas PAX 2008 in Seattle, WA at the Convention Center. I must say that theevent seemed to be well organized. With the exception of the CC staff, thePAX crew were on the ball. This was my first time this year and it was actually pretty darninteresting. VH has been known to play a few FPS, RTS, RPG, MMORPG, and0MFGSW33T type games. (Diceman loves games that involve pure destruction andsurrounding mayhem.) We all may not get to play as much as we use to, butthe gaming industry still proves to be the vital force that motivates thelikes of Nvidia, ATI, and Intel to bring us faster Graphics cards whichfurther perpetuates the creation of better video games.If you weren't rubbing elbows with the game makers or testing out a soon tobe released game title, one could walk across to the Free Play area and hopon any one of the 150 Intel sponsored PCs to play a few rounds againstothers in a LAN. In total, there were about 330 players present. [News] Vantec NexStar MX eSATA Dual HDD Enclosure @ virtual-hideout.net [Aug-29-08] (0 Comments) I really like the overall look and feel of the Nexstar MX. It's oneof the best little drive enclosures I've used. I don't know if adding eSatais worth doubling the price from the previous version, but it does allow formuch more than a doubling of speeds. I have been loading the MX on my PCusing eSata, which takes very little time, then I access it on my laptop viaUSB 2.0, as my laptop does not have Sata, let alone eSata. Since I am notgoing to be transferring all the data off to my laptop at once, the USB 2.0is fast enough for things like movies and even games. Games Convention 2008:Girls @ techpowerup.com [Aug-27-08] (0 Comments) Games Convention 2008 in Leipzig, Germany is the biggest tradeshow for the Gaming Industry. So it is just normal to see loads of pretty German girls around, showcasing the latest comsole and gaming products. We took 240 photos of the sweetest girls on site. Full-res images are available in case you want to see your favourite babe every day, as desktop wallpaper. NVIDIA NVISION 08 Pre-Show Coverage @ legitreviews.com [Aug-25-08] (0 Comments) The picture shown above with the big screen TV and the PC game title Race Driver GRID is part of the 3D Stereovision Demo that will be shown during the event. This demo shows off the new stereoscopic 3D hardware and software that has never been shown publicly before. You can play some of the hottest new games with new 3D glasses that are sycn'd with brand new Mitsubishi and View Sonic LCD displays. We took a second to try out GRID and found it to be really fun and the 3D glasses worked great and were much nicer than ones we have seen over the past year... M Festival and i34 - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Aug-22-08] (0 Comments) TheUK isn’t known for massive industry events such as CeBit, but we dohold some fairly large LAN Parties and some small scale events such asthe M-Festival.This year, the M-Festival and the 34th i-Series of LAN Parties wereheld at the massive Stoneleigh Park, where two halls were being used(one for I34 and one for the M-Festival). Altogether, there were over2500 Gamers battling it out in various games (the UK’s largest everLAN) and some of the top leading brands such as Cooler Master and MSIshowcasing new products.2 weeks ago myself and Clickshot were sent along by the absent Whooptyto see what this was all about, here's our thoughts on this auspiciousevent. ATI Catalyst 8.8 Analysis - XP & Vista @ tweaktown.com [Aug-21-08] (0 Comments) With the drivers coming in nice and early this month, I’ve been able to get stuck into the testing to see what the latest driver incarnation from AMD offer us. As usual, before we get stuck into the actual results let’s see what kind of promises AMD have made for us this time around.With new cards out and the year coming to an end extremely fast, it’s time to ramp up the performance numbers so we can all sit back and enjoy a high FPS Christmas with all those new games coming out. The Economy of Happiness @ bit-tech.net [Aug-18-08] (0 Comments) *Both the recent arguments about the right price for /Braid/ , and my own recent dialogue with games pirates (where cost has been cited as a major cause of piracy) has got me to realize something very important about the price of games. Code of Honor 2:Conspiracy Island @ bit-tech.net [Aug-14-08] (0 Comments) The real problem with Code of Honor 2 isn’t the bad graphics,though those are the first thing anyone will notice. Poor graphics wecan cope with. Not every game has to have huge polygon counts and ProcedurallyGenerated Dynamic Mega-texture-awesomeness – but good games do have tohave something. They have to have a hook that can draw people in and makethem want to play more. Code of Honor 2 doesn’t have that.Utterly boring and bland and far too easy in the singleplayer game, aquarter-baked and shallow experience on the multiplayer side, Code of Honor doesn’t really do anything right and is doomed to soonreside in the bargain bin. There are two type of games to find in bargain bins though. There areold or unappreciated games that are still very much worth playing andthen there’s stuff that just couldn’t survive in a capitalist marketdue to a stunning lack of worth. If you’ve read the review this far andstill can't figure out which one we think Code of Honor 2 is then this is probably the game for you. AMD ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 @ bit-tech.net [Aug-13-08] (0 Comments) AMD has done a great job with the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and it hassnatched the crown for the fastest graphics card in the world back fromNvidia in the process. Like we’ve said though, it’s not all rosy andthere are drawbacks associated with buying a Radeon HD 4870 X2, justlike there are with any other multi-GPU configuration. As long asyou’re prepared to accept them, then the Radeon HD 4870 X2 is wellworth considering if you’ve got that kind of cash to throw around.The GeForce GTX 280’s new price point makes it seem like an attractivebuy as well, with cards starting anywhere from about £275 includingVAT. If anything though, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 makes a single RadeonHD 4870 or GeForce GTX 260 look like better options [i]today[/i]because it’s almost as if there’s too much horsepower on tap here withAMD’s new flagship card.Right now, the Radeon HD 4870 X2’s most impressive performance gainscan really only be seen at the lofty resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 orwith high levels of Anti Aliasing at 1,920 x 1,200 – at lowerresolutions, or lower levels of AA, the gains just aren’t there atall. However, given that there’s a slew of new (and hopefully moregraphically intense) games about to hit the shelves before Christmas,picking up a Radeon HD 4870 X2 if you’ve got a 24-inch widescreendoesn’t seem like such a bad idea – you can play today’s games withstupidly high levels of AA and hopefully tomorrow’s games at nativeresolution with no big compromises to image quality. Braid @ bit-tech.net [Aug-12-08] (0 Comments) Braid does have a few problems despite our love for it. Theoblique logic and lateral thinking that you need to learn how to applytoo rapidly scales up from Easy to Murderous, for instance, and thegame doesn’t always do a great job of introducing the new ideas. Worse, the game doesn’t even have a proper help page and there’sliterally no introduction to the rewinding mechanic until you die forthe first time – something you naturally spend your first go throughthe game trying to avoid. The combined ingenuity of the gameplay and the gentle, nostalgicbrilliance of the art and writing do manage to overcome this though andit’s a testament to the pacing of the game that you manage to learn allthese elements without any decent manual or instruction. Cerebral and startlingly playable, Braid is a throwback to the forgotten world of commercialplatformers and proper adventure gameswhere the puzzles were hard, but rewarding. At times it can be toodifficult for its own good, but the bulk of the game isn’t weighed downby this and Braid instead manages to float upwards, toexcellence. Soul Calibur IV @ bit-tech.net [Aug-07-08] (0 Comments) *Fighting games seem to have gone out of fashion over the last couple of years. Most games are variations on the FPS or racing genre, but it's good to see that the fighting genre still has a place on the gaming shelf. GameShare.co.uk Inteview - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Aug-02-08] (0 Comments) Witha market worth over £25 million a year, the game trade-in industryisn't something to be scoffed at. As valuable as it is, one complaintwith the typical trade in locations, is that the money given to theperson trading in the games is often incredibly low, giving the shopthat takes the old game off their hands, quite a healthy profit whenthey sell it on. One emerging market for these second hand games thatskips the trade in shops though, is the game swapping idea. Naturallythe big shops are against this market, but that doesn't stop these gamesharing companies popping up all over the place. Today I've managed tograb hold of the owner of one of the UK's premier swap sites, Kevinfrom GameShare.co.uk. Sherlock Holmes Vs. Arsene Lupin - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Jul-24-08] (0 Comments) SherlockHolmes:A popular fictional detective, born and based inLondon, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 19th Century.Many readers have been interested in his stories and adventures withhis sidekick Dr Watson. Who’d have thought that they would make a videogame about him? Turns out there is actually a series of games based onhis adventures, 4 in fact! Such titles as “Sherlock Holmes:TheAwakened” and “The Case of the Silver Earring”. Today I have with me,Sherlock Holmes Vs Arsene Lupin (anyone else think he looks likePoirot?) so let's see what it's like. [News] Patriot Viper 4GB PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Memory @ virtual-hideout.net [Jul-16-08] (0 Comments) If you're spending your hard earned cash on the new DDR3 standard,then you expect nothing short of stable, dependable performance whetheryou're using a 32-bit or 64-bit system. The memory must be reliable if youjust play games or if your system is a serious number crunching SETI beast.The Patriot Viper 4GB PC3-12800 Dual Channel Memory Kit thoroughly testedhere offered nothing short of those expectations. The memory is fullybackward compatible with your 1066 MHz and 1333 MHz Core 2 series Intelprocessors. The extra performance gained from the memory's timings at lower6-6-6-18 setting should be a pleasant bonus which also equates to plenty ofbandwidth. AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 1GB P - R700 a bit early @ pcper.com [Jul-14-08] (0 Comments) While it is hard to get a complete outlook of AMD's new Radeon HD4870 X2 1GB card with three games and some 3DMark Vantage numbers, ourinitial outlook for it is very, very good. If those idle power numbers canbe improved upon with the updated PowerPlay BIOS as AMD claims, it will bevery difficult to find weaknesses in AMD's new flagship product. The onlyexception might be the scalability concerns we mentioned above - that's upto AMD's software team to keep up with the PC titles as they arrive. bit-tech :Battlefield:Bad Company @ bit-tech.net [Jul-05-08] (0 Comments) */Battlefield:Bad Company/ is a good game, but like all games > it does have some definite flaws that can hold it back.>> Focusing just on the good stuff, the singleplayer campaign is plenty > long enough and has got a decent, good natured and funny story behind > it which helps keep the plot ticking over nicely and holds the action > together.>> The characters of Sarge, Sweetwater and Haggard aren’t universally > likeable, but they aren’t horribly offensive either and there are > plenty of nice touches which help make them memorable and distinct in > a world full of samey stereotypes.>> The gameplay itself is arguably a little unbalanced, but that’s been > well hidden beneath the near-instant respawns and semi-regular > checkpoints. The multiplayer is a little bland and uninspired, but at > least there’s the promise that the DLC will fix this at some point.> * */> / *>> *Cheers guys!>> Tim Smalley> www.bit-tech.net Top Spin 3 @ bit-tech.net [Jul-01-08] (0 Comments) It's important to realise that Top Spin 3 is more of a tennissimulator than a tennis game. There are no tennis-themed minigames inthe career mode and no unlockable naked tennis modes either. TopSpin 3 is all about the game, pure and simple.With that in mind, it's also important to realise that it isn't reallypossible to just pick up the game and start playing. It does take timeand perseverance before you'll be winning games consistently. If you'rewilling to put in the time and effort, and play through hours oftournaments, you'll be rewarded with a very in-depth and involving game.Online play is the icing on the cake and its polish and relativelyglitch-free operation could show some other developers how it's doneproperly. The inclusion of seasons in the online leaderboards meansthat there'll still be an incentive to play online tournaments, even inmonths to come.For me, I'm glad to say that my badminton wrists were up to the job,and I have just one final thing to add:move over Federer, there's anew boy on the tennis court. Civilization Revolution @ bit-tech.net [Jun-30-08] (0 Comments) Still, despite all these minor flaws and control issues,Civilization Revolutionis still pretty good and Firaxis has done well to carry over the sameaddictiveness and educating mechanics as the previous games.There are issues, but there’s also a lot to like in CivilizationRevolutionand even though a lot of the depth has been trimmed out, there’s stilla lot left in in terms of negotiations and deciding what to build next.There’s also a lot to like in terms of the different scenarios andmodes – though there’s only support for up to four players, which islimiting. The game is boiled down, streamlined and basic – but that isn’t all badand one could easily level accusations of needless depth and bloatinessat the original games. To have a lighter option is no bad thing and thedevelopers have done well to adapt the game to a console audience,though there are some obvious failings and concessions that have beenmade.The game could have been made better in some fairly fundamental ways -we'd have loved to see some of the more varied campaign scenarios andthe like from Beyond The Sword, the add-on for the last proper Civilizationgame. Some expanded multiplayer support and better controls would godown a treat as well. Still, Civilizationis a strong brand and an awesome series of games, so these failuresdon't really have that big an effect on the overall outcome. As good asthe PC forefathers? Definitely not, but still better than the nearestcompetitor on a console. Toshiba Qosmio x305 Gaming Notebook @ legitreviews.com [Jun-28-08] (0 Comments) The graphics on the Qismio x305 will be powered by the yet to be announced NVIDIAGeForce 9800M GTX graphics card, which has 1GB of video memory. For those that still want to game, but save some hard earned dollars we overheard that consumers can customize the notebook with the less expensive GeForce 9700M GT graphics card rather than the GeForce 9800M GTX. NVIDIA hasn't said much about this un-released graphics card, but they did have the Toshiba Qosmio x305 notebook on display at a Microsoft Corporation event this week called the Games for Windows Presents:The Big Picture... Alone in the Dark (PC) @ bit-tech.net [Jun-27-08] (0 Comments) Alone in the Dark is a game we really loathe to not like, butatthe end of the day we do have to admit that we don’t like it and thatthe game isn’t really all that great. It’s a real shame because we cantell that Alone in the Dark is actually a real good gameunderneath. The story in compelling, the presentation is gripping andthe gameplay itself mixes a load of styles together to make a finalproduct that is unique and interesting. Unfortunately, all of that potential is lost underneath a sea ofproblems on the PC version. The controls are unwieldy and awful, thegraphics regularly freak out and break, the game can’t decide what itis or how it wants you to play it and the balancing has got more holesin than the Incredible Hulk’s underwear. Instant-deaths and poor control schemes are really only the tip of theiceberg, but they do reveal the real problem beneath the ocean of minorgripes. Fixed camera angles and checkpoint saves? This is a consolegame, ported poorly to the PC and left to fester. On a console, we can see this game making a lot more sense and having alot more accessibility. This game was built from the ground up to beplayed with analogue sticks and that’s clearly evidenced by the manymini-games and woeful handling. On the PC though, the game is part oil,part water – and that mix just doesn’t work. We want to like it, we really do – especially since we had to go outand buy it – but the reality is that although the game may be good on aconsole, on the PC the experience is more infuriating than fun and issuited only to the survival horror hardcore. You know who you are. Ray Tracing in Games:A Story from The Other Side @ pcper.com [Jun-24-08] (0 Comments) In contrast to the designers, for the programmers using a ray tracerseemed to make life easier. The most striking difference between a raytracer and a rasterizer is that there are so few special cases. The sameengine renders a 1M scene, including exteriors, for Outbound, and low-polyindoor scenery for Let there be Light. There is no code to limit visibility.All supported features work together effortlessly. And, programmers foundthemselves using rays for everything:testing particle and flare visibility,collision detection, object picking, and so on. Leadtek PX9800 GTX GeForce 9800 GTX @ techpowerup.com [Jun-23-08] (0 Comments) After AMD's successful launch of the HD 4850 Series, NVIDIA decided to drop the price point of the GeForce 9800 GTX to only $199. At this price the card becomes a very affordable product that offers all the performance you need to play the latest games. An additional plus is the support for PhysX via NVIDIA's CUDA implementation. Tom Clancy's EndWar 'voice-on' p @ bit-tech.net [Jun-19-08] (0 Comments) Besides, for every negative we can think of about Endwar wecan also think of one or two positives. The game is obviously a labourof love for many of the developers and it’s clear than an awful lot ofwork has gone into not just perfecting the admirable science behind thevocal recognition software, but also the balancing and technicalitiesof the game itself. There are still a few things which need to be cleared up to satisfy ourcuriosity – is the game part of an entirely new franchise Ubisoft arelaunching and will the game be staying as an Xbox 360 exclusive, forinstance. These are matters on which Ubisoft is keeping understandablya bit quiet on for the moment.Still, whether or not the franchise looks set to spore one thing iscertain for the moment and that’s that Real-time Strategy buffs are infor a definite treat when it comes to Tom Clancy’s Endwar.The game may still look a little bit rough and may be a bit on thesmall-scale side of things, but the game is very fast-paced and has adeceptive level of depth once you’ve got to grips with the voicecontrols and are able to order groups to take cover in buildings orunleash special abilities. Endwar is an interesting looking game and while it obviouslyisn’t going to be the definitive Tom Clancy experience by the look ofthings (that honour still lies with Rainbow Six), it couldcertainly be one of the most interesting console games of this yearregardless. Coolmax CUG950B 950 Watt Power Supply @ pro-clockers.com [Jun-16-08] (0 Comments) I recently received the newest Coolmax power supply entitledCUG-950B. The CUG-950B is near the top end of their power supply line nextto the CUQ line. The CUG-950 is aimed at the gamer that want max frame ratefrom their video games. Being compatible of running multi-GPU systems theCUG-950 does it with good cooling and quietness. There isn't much more youcan ask from a power supply except for stability. But it is that stable? Wewill try and find out for you. The Incredible Hulk (Xbox 360) @ bit-tech.net [Jun-16-08] (0 Comments) We expected The Incredible Hulk to be bad from theoffset, notout of some inherent bias but more to do with a realistic reflection ofthe past and the facts of the matter. On this front, TheIncredible Hulk didn’t disappoint us. It’s predictable, samey, bland and as by-the-numbers as any game ofthis type could be. The developers have got a checklist of all theusualerrors made on movie tie-ins and they’ve zipped down and ticked themall expertly. As a game it’s more shallow than a Paris Hilton-wannabeand uglier than the real-deal. But, at the same time, it is kind of fun to mess around with. And no,the Paris Hilton jokes stopped last paragraph thankyouverymuch.Elements of The Hulk’s character are captured very well and it’s quitebizarre to see that Sega has done a better job of capturing the wallclimbing experience than Activision did with Spiderman 3.Also, just because a game is shallow doesn’t mean that it’s bad – everyid Software game ever proves that, just about. Despite all the chinksin the armour and the fuzziness on the lens there is still a sense ofprogression that makes the game involving to play and aspects of theanimation do feel suitably kinetic and powerful. In the end, though Hulk can’t claim to be as good as themajority of the games out on shelves nowadays, he can certainly wipethe floor with Iron Man and the othercomic-movie-adaptation-tie-ins at the moment. Lego Indiana Jones:The Original Adventures @ bit-tech.net [Jun-13-08] (0 Comments) Lego Indy is very much a game in the same mould as LegoStar Wars– a fact which is simultaneously both exactly what we wanted and hugelydisappointing. It’s big and it’s funny and it’s going last any playerworth their salt a long, long time.It’s Indy and it’s Lego – both are equal parts awesome, so the endresult of the mix is pretty awesome too. The problem is though that we’re talking in generalities there, becauseonce you get down the specifics of the PC version the game is a bit ofa letdown. The keyboard just isn’t hugely fun to play with and the gamesuffers from fairly basic design flaws that really hammer this home. It’s a shame. The game could be exactly the type of game to pass thetime this summer while the football is on and we geeks have tootherwise occupy ourselves. In fact, it isthat game as far as console gamers are concerned, only on the PC doesit fall down out of a generally lessened accessibility and ease of use.Besides, trying to get two people to share a computer monitor – and akeyboard two unless you have a gamepad going spare - is never as muchfun or as easy to do as it is with a console. ASUS Eee PC 2G Surf 7-inch Laptop @ thinkcomputers.org [Jun-11-08] (0 Comments) When the Eee PC was announced many people were excited for it,myself included. The thought of a small 7-inch laptop for under $400 wouldexcite anyone! Now this is a budget notebook so you're not going to beplaying games on it, but for most people they do 2 things on their computer,surf the web and word processing. Having a small notebook that can easily becarried and used for those functions for that price tag is pretty amazing.Now the notebook comes with Linux pre-installed, that might be a barrier forsome people, but we will have to see how we like it. Read on to check outthe ASUS Eee PC! Palit GeForce 9800 GTX 512 MB @ techpowerup.com [Jun-11-08] (0 Comments) Palit's GeForce 9800 GTX follows the specifications of the NVIDIA reference design to the letter. Even then it is one of the fastest cards out there that you can buy, constantly delivering excellent FPS in games. Our sample allowed up to 16% additional overclocking on the GPU for a final clock speed of 784 MHz. Kingwin Mach 1 1000w - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Jun-10-08] (0 Comments) Withthe ever growing technologies such as quad SLI and quad coreCPU’s; the need for more power also grows. However, not only have PSUmanufacturers got the task of creating a power supply which pumps outplenty of watts, they’ve also got the task of making their units silentand aesthetically pleasing – to compete with similar models on themarket. One such power supply that boasts to do all this is the 1000WKingwin Mach 1; let’s see how well this beefy unit performs. Prince of Persia p @ bit-tech.net [Jun-10-08] (0 Comments) All in all then, the new Prince of Persia looks like itcould bethe best game in the series yet and if the developers can hold true totheir promises and roll up the best of the Sands trilogy withtheir new highly detailed cel-shaded style and the extra personalityafforded by the redesigned Prince and his companion then this could beyet another title to enter our must-have list for this year. Granted, there’s still a lot of detail to be cleared up in the game andwe’re fuzzy on whether the Prince’s arsenal of moves and swords will beupgradeable or completely open – finding a new sword was something weliked an awful lot in the past games – but these are trivial details atbest and when the soul of the game seems to be glowing this brightlythen we’d be more than willing to accept a dark spot or two. Sins of a Solar Empire Interview @ bit-tech.net [Jun-09-08] (0 Comments) BT:Piracy is pretty big topic right now and, with games like MassEffect and Sporethreatening increasingly draconian DRM ‘protections’, some gamers areworried about the state of PC gaming. Sins though came with no copyprotection at all if I remember correctly, so what’s your take on allthis? Is there a way to stop the pirates without punishing thecustomers?CF:We’re all stuck in an unfortunate vicious cycle. As piratingincreases, DRM increases, which in turn forces people to pirate.>From what I understand, Mass Effect has since backed down a tadafter listening carefully to their fans. SecuROM seemed a bitridiculous in my opinion. At the same time you can’t blame developersfor retreating to the console if they can’t receive the fruit of theirlabour.Until a real solution presents itself, Stardock and Ironclad willcontinue to reward legit gamers and make the purchasing process aresmooth as possible. The last thing we want to do is treat our customerslike criminals. Age of Conan:Hyborian Adventures @ bit-tech.net [Jun-09-08] (0 Comments) It’s always a painful and futile experience to try reviewing anMMO.For instance, there are problems with credit cards and the inevitablefact that we forget to cancel the subscriptions after the review isdone, therefore inadvertently charging a couple of hundred pounds tocompany credit card. Most of all though, the review very quickly runs out of date as thegame is constantly updating and how much anyone enjoys the game ismassively dependent on the calibre of gamers they end up gamingalongside. That means you’re going to have to take any conclusions weoffer with a pinch of salt – ok? Just so we’re clear.That said, Age of Conan is a lot of fun once you get intoit – the proviso mainly being that you do have to make an effort to getinto and jump over the initial few hours of boredom. Game designers seem to be labouring under the impression at the momentthat MMO games as a genre have only one aim; to topple World ofWarcraftas Lord of the Pings. To do this, they seem to think that you need acertain gimmick or hook – PvR gameplay or genre blending MMOFPS actionfor instance. So far, that tactic doesn’t seem to be doing to well – soit’s refreshing to see that Age of Conan bucks the trend andinstead focuses on creating just a solid and persistent world to playin. Age of Conan:Hyborian Adventures doesn’t bring anything hugelynew to the table and the only real gimmicks it has going for it are thefranchise behind it all and the fact that you can’t take two stepswithout faceplanting into the second biggest pair of boobs you’re everlikely to see. It’s a fun and accessible RPG though, and on that frontit can’t be faulted. Diamond Viper HD 3650 PE 512MB ed @ thetechlounge.com [Jun-06-08] (0 Comments) ATI's HD 3650 replaces the HD 2600 Pro, a frustrating underachiever. Generally, I dislike video cards in the $50-100 range, mainly because they're not going to play new games well and, if you're after features, then you're better off buying a lesser model from the same series. The features here are the real selling points--two of which stand out ahead of price, connectivity (HDMI), and low power- consumption. First is video playback. ATI swings when it comes to playing movies, and even their entry-level cards are going to do well, if not flawlessly. Second is Hybrid CrossFire. All 3000-series cards can be run in CrossFire with motherboards that have the 780G (and upcoming 790GX) chipsets, in either a performance mode (like regular CrossFire) or power-saving mode, which completely powers down the video card when integrated video is good enough. Combined, these features might give cause to move up a price bracket, favoring a 36 over a 34. TN GAMES FPS Vest - adding realism to games @ xtremecomputing.co.uk [Jun-06-08] (0 Comments) For this review I’ll be looking at something a little different from a, I assume, relative newcomer to the gaming accessory scene as before receiving the item for review I had never heard of them. The item under review today is the FPS Gaming Vest from TN Games. It’s a rather interesting item that should make compatible FPS games even more realistic by enabling users to “feel” the game. Boom Blox (Wii) @ bit-tech.net [May-29-08] (0 Comments) With all that said though, there are a few weak points in BoomBloxwhich perhaps limit how much fun you can have with it. The first andmost damaging flaw is the length of the game because after only a fewhours of gaming weˇ¦d already finished nearly the entire Explore modeand were making a decent dent in the Adventure side of things. The other thing to bear in mind is that, like all puzzle games, BoomBloxwill frustrate you as much as itˇ¦ll keep you entertained. Playingthrough the Chemical Blox campaign in Explore mode was something we didwith ease until about the eighth level, at which point we got stumpedfor more than an hour. Lots of swear words were uttered before weeventually got a gold medal. Still, itˇ¦s all very much a minor chink in the armour of BoomBloxand this is definitely one of the must-have family games in ouropinion. As a party game it may play second fiddle to the likes of Warioware,but if youˇ¦re after something to play on a week night when you donˇ¦tneed a bottle of tequila to have fun then this is definitely the gamefor you. The combination of fluid controls, screaming chickens and hugeexplosions is a sure winner. Dumbing Up Gaming @ bit-tech.net [May-29-08] (0 Comments) Recently someone tried to make a game out of proteinfolding. The idea was that if you could make an accessible fun game outof it, you could effectively get lots of people to process real datafor free, and contribute towards a worthwhile goal. Great idea, but dowe have to assume the game needs to be massively simple in order tocatch on? I'm sure a lot of biochemists play computer games, why mustwe assume they are incapable of learning a complex game?You can take a lot of great game ideas, and then dumb then down to thelowest common denominator and make them boring and dull, that's agiven. There are some great game ideas though that you just can't dumbdown before they fall apart. Right now that means the game doesn't evenget out of the starting gate.I've heard of games flopping because the marketing sucked, budgetproblems, piracy and poor design but I haven't heard about any biggames failing because they were too highbrow. Yet nobody is even tryingto make those games.In some ways it's all the fault of our old nemesis, the rocketing gamebudget. Rack up a four million dollar wage bill, and you need to sell aLOT of copies to break even. Selling just to biochemists won't cut itany more, you need to aim at the wider audience. But if you avoid thetechnology arms race and do a lower budget game, what kind of gamescould we make? Mass Effect (PC) @ bit-tech.net [May-27-08] (0 Comments) Mass Effect was already an awesome game, that much we knew. Itwas so good in fact that it managed to sneak its way in to our Top 10Games of 2007. The question is though, has it got any better since then?The answer to that isn’t easy, but mainly that’s because there aren’tthat many differences between the two versions. There are some positiveenhancements to consider like the new hotkey features and a smootherinterface, but on the other hand these are balanced out by an awfulminigame and the fact that all these changes feel insubstantial andtacked on – where are the new quests and weapons?The deciding factor then, due to a lack of extra content, should bewhether or not the game can win through on the merit of being on the PC– does the actual input of mouse and keyboard make the game better onPC? The answer is yes, but not enough for it to make a big difference.Mass Effect is an utterly absorbing, massive and enthralling game. Assoon as this review is done we’re going to go play it some more and ifyou’re a PC RPG fan who hasn’t got the Xbox 360 version then this isdefinitely a game you’ll want to pick up, but the PC version doesn’t doenough to push ahead of the Xbox 360 original and in the end the twowill have to settle for being equals. Asus Xonar DX PCI-Express sound card @ bit-tech.net [May-26-08] (0 Comments) The Asus Xonar DX isn't the perfect product a spec sheet wouldlead youto think – its software interface might be appalling and we've had towait for a proper EAX driver to fix popular games like BioShockand Half-Life 2:Episode Two,but at least it installed without issue on various systems includingboards based on Intel’s P965, X48 and P45 chipsets, along with NvidianForce 780i SLI and AMD 690G-based motherboards – we even used an x8slot instead of just an x1 and as expected, it made no difference. Theonly problem we've heard is that there are issues with it and the 790iUltra SLI because of the PCI to PCI-Express bridge chip. The Xonar DX has a fantastic core feature set – its sound quality islargely indistinguishable compared to the Xonar D2X and it'ssignificantly better than on-board audio. What’s more, the price tofeature ratio is what makes it very accessible to buy.In games (where EAX is progressively becoming less of a key feature),the quality was absolutely excellent, and now finally there are gameslike BioShockthat benefit from the working GS3D 2.0 engine, but that's not to saythat future EAX games will though. However, Asus did come througheventually and in only a few weeks, which is more than can be said forCreative's driver tradition.While we may harp on about Creative's record of support and bug fixing,what would happen if someone reverse engineered Asus’s software toenable DTS effects on the DX? Or opened up the ALT for other use? Asushas also yet to prove itself on how it supports its soundcard productsin the long term – it’s unclear whether in three years time, the D2X,D2 and DX will have Haze (PS3) @ bit-tech.net [May-23-08] (0 Comments) For a game that's had so much hype surrounding it, Haze shouldhave been the perfect game. The problem is that few games rarely liveup to the hype, and Haze falls firmly into that category.Nectar should have been an important part of the game, but instead itcomes across as just another gimmicky power-up. It makes the openingsections of the game far too easy and appears to disappear in the rebelsections of the game, only to be used as an artefact to drive theplotline forward.The storyline itself is hackneyed and feels lazy in its execution. Thetale of the corporate stooge who joins the rebels to bring down thecorporation has been done before and, more importantly, it's been donefar better. There are a few clever twists and turns to the tale laterin the game, but not enough to drag the story out of mediocrity.Taken as a run-of-the-mill FPS, Haze certainly isn't dire, but on theother hand it never really reaches the heights to which it aspires. Ataround six or seven hours to complete, there's not really enough in thesingle player game to keep you coming back after the first playthrough. You might play it again in co-op mode, but even themultiplayer games aren't enough to get you hooked.Haze could have been so much more, but it falls short on so manylevels. The game feels unfinished, as though it has been pushed out ofthe door six months early. Depressingly, it might be that another fewmonths of spit and polish could have produced the game that the hypepromised.Then again, perhaps not. Maybe every game studio is destined to producea game that they're embarrassed about. If that's true, then Haze willbe hiding at the back of Free Radical's closet for a long time to come. Left4Dead hands-on p @ bit-tech.net [May-19-08] (0 Comments) Left4Dead was always going to be great, that much we knew. Itwas coming from Valve and it was about zombies, so even before it wasunveiled as a four player co-op we all knew we were going to be in fora good time.Yet still, Left4Dead managed to surprise us in a number ofways,for reasons both good and bad. On the one hand we were utterly shockedto see how effective the AI director is at making the game unique andconstantly replayable. On the other hand though, we have to admit thatthe levels we played through did seem a bit on the small side and it’sgetting to that point where the Source engine might be starting to showits age. The thing is four years old by now and thoughcontinued development and expansion has helped, the cause is startingto flag a little. Not that that matters hugely when you get right down to it – as far as Left4Deadgoes gameplay is God and the multiplayer backbone of Steam means thatthe game will run smoothly from the off. As I mentioned to Chet when I interviewed him, Valve has a reputationamong games developers for testing games absolutely to death. What formany designers would be a case a few weeks at the hands of some tiredhalf-asleep geeks is an on-going process of refinement for Valve andit’s something that really shows in Left4Dead. The game is immediately playable and easy to pick up, but underneaththe hood are some incredibly complex and effective tools to make theexperience unpredictable and constantly replayable. This is Left4Dead’skey strength and it makes the game easily one of our most awaited gamesof this year. BFG Tech GeForce 9800 GTX OCX 512MB graphics card @ bit-tech.net [May-15-08] (0 Comments) To be fair, I’m still in two minds about the GeForce 9800 GTX.And eventhough BFG Tech has gone above and beyond the call of duty here, Istill don’t think it’s enough for me to change my mind about thisparticular card in Nvidia’s line-up. You see, the standard cards are still on the expensive side compared tothe GeForce 8800 GTX and GeForce 8800 GTS 512, while BFG Tech’s GeForce9800 GTX OCX is priced at such a point that it’s no longer competingagainst only products in Nvidia’s line-up, but also against the RadeonHD 3870 X2. And over time, it seems like the 3870 X2’s drivers haveimproved a bit and it’s now becoming a more rounded purchase when youcompare it to something like the card we’ve looked at here today.When the 3870 X2 drags its feet in games that don’t scale so well, theBFG Tech GeForce 9800 GTX OCX is a faster card, but when you get intoscenarios where scaling is there, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is generally asignificantly faster proposition. And because of that, I think it’s thebetter purchase right now in the £250 price bracket.That’s not to say that BFG Tech’s card is one that you shouldn’tconsider at all – the company has worked to correct the omissions fromits earlier bundles and you can now use the audio over HDMIfunctionality thanks to the included S/PDIF cable. It’s also one of thehighest-clocked GeForce 9800 GTX cards out there—and it’s backed by animpressive warranty term—which makes it one of the best G92-based cardson the market today. It’s also the first G92-based card we’ve seen thatbests the GeForce 8800 GTX in a convincing enough manner for it to beconsidered a replacement. Battleforge Interview:Volker Wertich @ bit-tech.net [May-14-08] (0 Comments) BT:You said“the Battleforge series” just then – does that mean you haveBattleforge 2 planned already?VW:Heh, well since Battleforge is an online game we havea longer life than other games and we’ll continue to work on the gameafter release. We will continuously release new maps, new cardadditions. Depending on the success of the game we may have a very longlifetime or a shorter life time, obviously.That said, we have sequels in mind and our game-plan goes over intoyears. BT:Now, Battleforge is a card-based RTS, but from what I sawearlier it looked very similar to a traditional RTS in that you’recreating units in a normal way and putting them down. How exactly doesBattleforge differ from a standard RTS game then?VW:Ok, so the thing is that the cards can be anything. Avehicle, a room – anything. What it is though is a collectible itemthat you own, ok? A virtual collectible item that you personally own.Having a card lets you then produce those units in a match.You then take twenty of those cards and form a deck that you take intobattle. The deck directly defines any unit, spell or item you take intoa game.Of course, this is a real-time game too. So, as soon as you produce aunit or play a card you have access to these new units which you cancontrol like you’re used to in a normal RTS game. In other words, the cards define your tech tree. Game Testing 2GB versus 4GB of Memory on Vista 64-bit @ legitreviews.com [May-13-08] (0 Comments) Our average frame rate increase of 1.6% in nine games was slightl y higher than the 1.1% shown by Corsair in the three games they tested, b ut our test system was a little newer and we were running Vista SP1. Some thing else that we noted while running the benchmarks is that game loadin g times were also significantly enhanced by installing 4GB of system memo ry. While load times was not the focus of this article we noted that Cry sis v1.21 loaded 54.1% faster (14.28s versus 22.00s) on the initial level load. After the level was loaded and then restarted (as if one died and started over) the load times were within a hundredth of a second... Grand Theft Auto IV @ bit-tech.net [May-13-08] (0 Comments) Grand Theft Auto IV is a great game and although it’s stillvery early in the year, this is obviously going to be a strongcandidate for Game of The Year. It always was, frankly.Yet, there’s still a little niggle of doubt in our ears here –something that says that although Grand Theft Auto IV is a great game,it just isn’t the huge leap forward we all expected it to be. This seedof doubt says that GTA IV is far more an evolution than a revolutionand that that is obviously going to limit the overall impact andimpression of the game.That doubt is true and is utterly justified in what it says when yousit down to really listen to it. Grand Theft Auto is a top-notch game,but it isn’t as mind-blowing and impressive as something like Portal,for example. It’s building on the foundations of previous games in theseries and adding on a few extra features each time – it isn'tcompletely new and fresh itself.That doesn’t make Grand Theft Auto IV any less of a Game of The Yearcandidate and it doesn’t take anything away from the insane amount offun to be had. What it does do though is make the entire experience alittle more predictable; a lot of the time you know what’s comingbeforehand and the first third of everything feels like jumping throughhoops just to meet an old friend.It’s not game-wrecking and it doesn’t detract from how great GTA IV isas a whole, but GTA IV isn’t as original and shockingly good as thefranchise once was. It’s another re-polished and re-tuned iteration ofa proven idea and though the game is definitely a must-buy, it alsoisn’t all that startling. DFI's LANParty LT X48 T2R motherboard @ bit-tech.net [May-12-08] (0 Comments) For a DDR2 board thegaming performance is very good, outperformingeven the Nvidia nForce 780i SLI board in all of our gaming tests. Itcan't keep up with the DDR3 boards, but buying 4GB of DDR2 is still afraction of the cost of even 2GB of DDR3 – that alone will offersignificant headroom for games as well.It is more expensive than its X38 brethren and you'd be hard pressed totell the two apart if they were standing side by side. However, if youwere concerned about price you'll probably want to wait for the P45launch anyway. It's not power friendly either, but DFI has neverclaimed to even care – it's not about the latest bandwagon, it's aboutbeing true to its core, of which it does in spades. The incrediblenorth bridge heatsink and its simple interchangeability is no greaterexample of this – you're free to replace it with anything you likebecause they are no heatpipes. If you love your DFI boards then you'll be onto a winner with theLANParty LT X48 T2R – everything you need out of Intel's X48 chipset isprovided and there's a lot of fun and time investment to be had withit. After talking to BIOS engineers and others in DFI's QA team, thelimitations we've been finding are essentially chipset level andthere's plenty of beta BIOS out there to try on DFI communities thatonly add to its true, core-enthusiast appeal. However finding theseplaces and knowing who to ask isn't the most obvious thing on earth –DFI should fill its manual with more BIOS details, overclocking tipsand support forum links for new DFI owners can dive into. This Bad Company interview with Jamie Keen @ bit-tech.net [May-11-08] (0 Comments) BT:You’resick of talking about premium content, I bet. But it was kind of agutsy thing to do, you have to admit.JK:<sigh> Yeah. BT:So, I guess – why did you try to do it? And why with thisgame especially?JK:Yeah, so…I think the thing that people need to remember isthat development costs on games these days are huge. So we always needto look at new revenue streams. It’s not just a question of trying torip people off and it’s not just us trying to put one over on people –we genuinely need to y’know…well, at the end of the day it’s abusiness, right? We have to recoup costs and we have to make money. So, there are those kinds of things happening. You’ll probably see moreof that in the years to come. We’ve got nothing more planned at themoment, we’ve listened to the customers and the community is reallyimportant to us. We really want to maintain that two-way dialogue withour fans. So, we’re not going to be doing anything – I mean, we’re givingConquest away as free downloadable content later on. The weapons arenow going to be free – we just hope that the fans see that we’relistening to them. Warhammer Online Interview:Josh Drescher @ bit-tech.net [May-10-08] (0 Comments) BT:So, speaking of other Warhammer games, did you know aboutIron Lore shutting down? Their last game was the Warhammer 40K Dawn ofWar:Soulstorm expansion and the company said that piracy played a bigpart in their closure.JD:Yeah, well if I’m honest then piracy is the number one concern fora PC gaming developer.BT:You think it’s putting off a lot of PC developers and driving themto consoles?JD:I think that in other genres, yes. Luckily, as an MMO we’re largelyinsulated from all that because of our model. It’s impossible for aplayer to pirate our game and, even if they did, then it’d be themalone in their basement. For our game to make sense you need thousandsof players all playing together on a massive architecture.As a result, we’re very attracted to Asian markets along with Russiaand China – places where piracy is everywhere. Piracy is just apandemic there. So, while we’re very worried about it, it doesn’treally affect us as much.Obviously, I can’t speak for other developers like Iron Lore. But,y’know I had friends who worked there and we tried to bring a load ofthem over to us when they closed. If they say piracy was a problem forthem then I absolutely believe them. Piracy is why we see so many sameyshooters. Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB graphics card @ bit-tech.net [May-09-08] (0 Comments) I have to say that I’m impressed with the Asus EAH3870 X2graphics card– it’s quite a step away from the reference design and innovation likethis should be encouraged. The inclusion of four DVI ports will be awelcome addition for anyone looking to run more than a couple ofmonitors on their workstation and what makes it even better is the factthat, unlike Nvidia’s SLI, ATI CrossFireX technology scales acrossmultiple displays.There is no need to disable CrossFireX in order to enable multi-displaymode – and believe me when I say that is a big thing for anyone like mewho is a gamer but also runs multiple displays. It’s for that reasonalone that I have never used a GeForce 9800 GX2 or GeForce 7950 GX2 inany system that isn’t used for testing purposes – it defeats the objectof having a single graphics card for me because it has all thecompromises of SLI.It’s not all rosy though because there are some things that aren’t aslikeable about the Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB. The biggest one is of courseperformance. In short, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is not as competitive asit needs to be and, if you took some games in isolation, you could makethe card look like exceedingly poor value for money compared to theGeForce 8800 GTS 512 and GeForce 9800 GTX, which are both retailing forunder £200. The 3870 X2, on the other hand, sits at about £240 (inc.VAT) at best, and heads up towards the £280 mark at worst.Another peeve of mine is with the fansink. Now, I accept that it’s acompromise that had to be made in order to accommodate the fourdual-link DVI ports on the PCI bracket, but that doesn’t mean it’s agood thing. While the two fans don’t really increase the amount ofnoise pollution by a significant amount, it does mean there are now twopoints of failure on the card – you could say you’re twice as likely toneed to change the card’s heatsink later down the line when one of thefans inevitably fails. There’s also the fact that heat created by theGPUs is no longer exhausted out of the back of the card, which meansthat you end up heating up the inside of your chassis – I doubt that’sgoing to be a major concern for most though.On the whole though, I think that the Asus EAH3870 X2 is a good choicecompared to what’s on offer from other partners on both red and greenfronts. It will undoubtedly please the multi-monitor crowd and that’swhere I see this card making the most headway. A word of warningthough:Asus has two EAH3870 X2 cards—one with four DVI ports (thisone), and one that follows the reference design pretty closely—so ifyou’re unsure, please do check with the retailer before purchasing. Iron Man (Xbox 360) @ bit-tech.net [May-09-08] (0 Comments) There’s nothing wrong with bad graphics in a game. There havebeen plenty of games in the past that have proved you don’t needbillions of polygons to make a best-seller – look at Pac-man or Tetrisfor crying out loud. Likewise, glitches and bugs didn’t completelyspoil games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and might not have proved to be the endof Iron Man.Hell, you don’t even need to have a great new mechanic or fantastic newidea to make a great game. Beat ‘em ups have been spinning the sametricks ever since International Karate +.There is something wrong with a game that combines all of these with atotal lack of shame. This isn’t a game that is even remotely good, thisis a game that someone hoped would make a lot of money and it’s aperfect example of why movies and games just don’t mix for the mostpart – Iron Man:The Game is little more than a bucket of brokenpromises and rust. Sapphire Hybrid CrossFire 780G Motherboard @ modders-inc.com [May-06-08] (0 Comments) Are you in the market for a small form factor m-ATX motherboardthat can give you blistering performance for your multimedia needs, plus theability to play the latest Direct X 10 games? And as a bonus you can installa second card to gain CrossFireX for your games. Then you have to check outthe Sapphire PURE Hybrid CrossFire 780G Innovation Motherboard. Are Intel chipsets really capable of running DirectX 10 games? @ hardwaresecrets.com [May-02-08] (0 Comments) That is the question nVidia is asking around. They just sent us some information about DirectX 10 support on Intel chipsets with integrated video. The conclusion is simple: DirectX 10 support isn't relevant as on-board video doesn't have enough performance to run today's games anyway! See below the full e-mail we've got from nVidia. If you are interested in learning more about integrated (a.k.a. on-board) video from Intel it is an interesting read.--- Rec Crisis Core:Interviewing Yoshinori Kitase @ bit-tech.net [Apr-28-08] (0 Comments) BT:We’re ten years on now and there’s been multipleFinalFantasy games since VII and yet between Dirge of Cerebus, AdventChildren and Crisis Core, you’ve always returned to Final Fantasy VII.What is it about VII that you think makes it so popular and special?YK:Well, Final Fantasy VII came out a time in a time oftransition when the PlayStation 1 allowed for a whole new realm ofgames with improved audio and graphics. Also, at the time I was a muchyounger man. Ten years younger in fact – though don’t count me out justyet! It was a time when I had all this enthusiasm and as a young creator Iwanted to try and challenge the idea of what an RPG could be. Combinewith that the hardware and these new realms of possibility forcreators. That combination seems to have worked because although it washard to say how successful we were at the time, ten years later thegame is still being talked about and I think we really did set a newstandard.We really have a soft spot in our hearts for Final Fantasy VIIbecause that was when we tried to change things. It was just the righttime for it. Making Gaming Better @ bit-tech.net [Apr-25-08] (0 Comments) Eight:Try to buy directMost people know that buying direct from the developer earns the dev abigger share than buying from a store, but do you have any idea howmuch difference it can be? In some cases it's a tenfold difference!I've nothing against publishers and retailers, but the whole systemcollapses if the guys making the games don't do well. It makes a hugedifference if you can buy direct, and if your favourite developerdoesn't sell direct, email them and let them know you would buy directif you could. It takes five minutes. Wii Fit @ bit-tech.net [Apr-24-08] (0 Comments) I say this a lot, but it really is hard to know what to thinkabout Wii Fit.On the one hand it’s obviously great. The hardware has a lot going forit in the future and is just as clever as everything else in the Wii.It’ll help get lard-arses off the couch and on their feet and even ifyou aren’t into fitness then the game itself is still fun for a littlewhile. Yet, on the other hand the balance board is quite expensive, it isstill just another collection of minigames at the most basic level andthe reality is that those lard-arses will play the game every day forabout two weeks at most before going back to exercising their drinkingarm. Sure, that last part is grumpy as hell, but it’s also true. There’sroom for movement, but the vast, vast majority of people willvociferously defend themselves and pledge to play the Wii for hoursevery day – only to let themselves off because they had a hard day atwork. I know. I’m one of those people. Judged on fun and ingenuity, Wii Fit gets top marks. Judged onlongevity and value though, the game suffers horribly at our admittedlygrumpy hands. The decider then goes to the future of the balance board and whetherthe hardware can prove itself useful in upcoming games. If the supportis there then the game and the hardware will flourish – but otherwiseit may end up as ugly and uncomfortable as the Zapper. bit-tech :Crossover Games for Mac @ bit-tech.net [Apr-22-08] (0 Comments) *Of course, since DirectX is exclusively Windows-based, it's left Mac and Linux users out in the cold for quite some time. Releases lag by months if not years before a Mac port is created, and that's if one is ever even seen. Updates are rare and bugs linger for ages. Sure, there are some great games coded natively for OSX or Linux, but most commercial titles are just not there. Fallout 3 p @ bit-tech.net [Apr-21-08] (0 Comments) You should be able to tell by now that we already love howFallout 3is shaping up. It’s grim and visceral, keeping close to the good sourcematerial and barely dealing with the lamentable spin-offs that laterruined the Fallout name. The best thing of all though is that we’ve barely scratched the surfaceof the game – in fact, we’ve barely scratched the surface of the Alphabuild of the game which is growing by the second. The ending, which isdesigned on the same branching model as in the first games, has grownfurther now too so that there are now around 500 endings on offer. You may think that that is too many endings. You may be right. Ifthat’s your line of thinking though then the people you should feelsorry for are the Xbox 360 Gamerscore addicts like Jamie – Pete reckonsit’ll take at least three or four playthroughs to get all theachievements on offer. And yeah, that does sound daunting – but personally I can’t wait togive it a shot. Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB WD3000GLFS - Evolution @ pcper.com [Apr-21-08] (0 Comments) What can you really say after seeing all of those benchmarks andtests? Without a doubt the new Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB drive isthe fastest hard drive we have ever tested. The upgrade of the Raptor lineto the SATA 3.0 GB/s specification was well overdue and you can clearly seethat at least part of the performance boost was due to that change. Withburst speeds of 247 MB/s and sustained transfers over 110 MB/s theVelociRaptor is the best enthusiast hard drive you'll find for anyapplication we can think of - games, boot times, video encoding, etc. Vizo Propeller II PCI Slot Fan @ aphnetworks.com [Apr-17-08] (0 Comments) Over the last couple of years, the computer market has become fierce and intense in all areas. The tight competition between processor makers AMD and Intel, as well as the graphics card front on the ATI/AMD and NVIDIA side, we have come to expect more powerful processors and video cards to do various tasks -- whether it's to play the latest DX10 games such as Company of Heroes, to something that simply pushes our graphics cards to the limit such as Crysis. Of course, there is a price to pay for this rapid increase in graphics performance. According to Murphy's Law, Unboxing the Asus Eee PC 900 @ bit-tech.net [Apr-15-08] (0 Comments) Another cool feature is the Macbook Air-esque (I just diedinside)multi-touch trackpad, so you can use two fingers to zoom and scroll.While the scroll works in everything, the zoom function is currentlylimited to Works, StarSuite 8 and Adobe Reader.There's also a new OS option:Windows XP Home. That will make the extramemory and storage evaporate, although it is now open to a wealth ofother software and more immediately familiar to non-Linux users.Included in the package are Microsoft Works, Intervideo DVD XPack andSun StarSuite (databases, spreadsheet, presentation, illustration andword processing– basically a “slim” Microsoft Office). The problem with the XP versionis that despite the larger screen resolution, you still have to scrollup and down the desktop - that's not ideal.The 20GB Linux model pictured below should retail for ÂŁ329 in the UK,which is only a modest increase in price considering the advantages.Our resident games expert, Joe, recently spent ÂŁ250 on an Eee PC and isnow regretting it – the extra screen room makes a huge difference andthe added storage is a definite boon. The Windows XP version will onlyship with 12GB of hard drive space but will retail for the same price.Because of this, we'd absolutely suggest buying the Linux version andthen shoehorning XP into the 20GB model. Thrustmaster RGT Force Feedback Pro Clutch Edition @ benchmarkreviews.com [Apr-14-08] (0 Comments) If you are in the market for a new steering wheel for your PC racing games, odds are you will be looking to either Logitech or Gran Turismo 5 Prologue @ bit-tech.net [Apr-12-08] (0 Comments) The game is undeniably beautiful to look are but the car modelsare probably on a par with Forza 2 and PGR4, not reallysurpassingthem as you might hope. There are also a few occasions where thejaggies creep in which, given the alleged complexity of the models,you'd expect not to see.So, is GT5 Prologue worth your money? That depends. Yes,it's half the price of other games, and yes it's the only serious raceravailable on the PS3 for the foreseeable future. But on the downside itdoesn’t ever feel really complete. The lack of progressive difficultyand the limited number of tracks means races can get a littlemonotonous.If you only have a PS3, then I'd recommend you get this game to tideyou over until the full release comes along sometime next year. On theother hand, if you've got an Xbox 360 as well, I'd recommend that youstick with Forza and PGR as they'll give you moresatisfaction in the meantime.As a demo, it's a great way to show us what's to come. The only problemis, it leaves you feeling unsatisfied with what you've got andimpatient to wait for the final release. Should we really be paying fora demo in the first place? Condemned 2:Bloodshot @ bit-tech.net [Apr-10-08] (0 Comments) When you get right down to it though, these are all minorconcerns at best and Condemned 2:Bloodshotreally is an excellent game that flies in the face of common gamedesign and thrives off what makes it different. At a time when everyoneelse is making open-ended, sandbox games all about huge gunfights andso on, Monolith has made a fantastically scary and enthralling gamewhich makes a point out of being linear and claustrophobic. The level of blood and guts is sure to scare many people away, butthere’s an audience for that stuff too and it’s that gore-loving crowdwhich will perhaps love Condemned 2 the most, though beneaththe surface there’s actually something for everyone. At times puzzling and at others utterly pant-filling, Condemned2:Bloodshotwill shred your nerves, baffle your brain and exercise your sweatglands all in turn, making it clearly one of the most accomplishedsurvival horror games we’ve ever played despite the uncomfortablemultiplayer. Forget the flaws, dim the lights and up the volume forsomething that we can, unfortunately, only describe as 'pant-cackinglyscary'. bit-tech Feature:How To Start Your Own Games Studio, Pt 1 @ bit-tech.net [Apr-09-08] (0 Comments) *Written by Mark Morris of Introversion software (creator of DEFCON, Darwinia and Uplink).*There are many fantastic things about my job, but there are also many frustrations. Perhaps one of the most trying of these is when I get emails that read: 5 PC games that deserve sequels - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Apr-08-08] (0 Comments) Ageof Empires 2, Call of Duty 2, Red Alert 2, Half Life 2, the list ofgreat video game sequels for the PC is almost endless. Why then, are somany franchises left to die at the side of the road, despite the firstgame having an original concept or a great fan base? Unfortunately, inmost cases it probably boils down to money, but there are many reasonsthat games just don't get made. Still, in an effort to see our dreamscome to life, XSR has come up with our top 5 PC games we'd love to seesequels to. ATI HD 2400 XT 256MB Video Card ed @ thetechlounge.com [Apr-02-08] (0 Comments) It's hard to believe, but there are actually many people who don't want the trappings, and cost, of gaming hardware. Integrated graphics aren't always an option and, when they are, they use precious system resources that, for only a little extra cash, can be un-tethered. Which is exactly what an entry-level video card is supposed to do. They're not intended to play video games, and their 3D processing capacity is misleading. Good enough doesn't mean gaming; it's about low power consumption and decent features. So, for those of you looking for Gigabyte iSolo 210 chassis @ bit-tech.net [Mar-27-08] (0 Comments) There’s basically two ways to look at the iSolo 210 and itdepends ifyou’re a glass half full, glass half empty or an “I ordered acheeseburger with my drink” kind of person. On one hand, you could say that the Gigabyte iSolo 210 is a little dulland uninspiring – certainly not as cool as my word association gamesmay have convinced me it was. The inside of the case is very muchby-the-numbers, the performance is solid but not truly outstanding andthe same is true with the noise performance. Then you can look at it the other way. You can say that this is abudget end chassis, that the case follows the standard designconventions for a reason and that the performance for the case ispretty damn good. You can say that the exterior of the case is prettysnazzy looking and that there’s plenty of room for modding. This is theview we’re leaning towards here, though we don’t really like the windowall that much and we’d do away with the tool-less system if we could. Now you’ll have to excuse us – our glass may be half full, but we stillhaven’t got our cheeseburger yet... NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX Early Test! @ tweaktown.com [Mar-25-08] (0 Comments) Initial pricing on the 9800 GTX looks promising; down under we sh ould see it pop up for under $500 AUD which puts it into a bracket that d oesn't really exist at the moment.For roughly 15% more (sometimes less) in the money department you can get yourself an HD 3870 X2 and this really is going to be the GTX's toughe st competition. While the X2 may be a dual GPU card it doesn't carry th e excessive price tag that we see on NVIDIA's dual GPU card, the GeForc e 9800 GX2. We all know these dual cards don't always provide great per formance in all games due to untweaked driver support, so our tests today should be rather interesting indeed. No More Heroes @ bit-tech.net [Mar-23-08] (0 Comments) No More Heroes is a game that really does thrive on surprisingplayers and it’s great to see a completely accessible game like thisthat manages to shock players without ever relying on shock tactics. It’s also one of the funniest and most entertaining games that we’veplayed on the Wii – it goes a long way to addressing the huge gapbetween decent Wii releases. Super Mario Galaxy was a long timeago now, so if you’ve been itching for something worthy to flail yourWiimote at then No More Heroes will certainly fit the bill.No More Heroes isn’t a perfect game at all and it has some veryidentifiable problems which occasionally put players off. Given thatthe appeal of the game lies in blind-siding the player with off-beathumour and wit, it also may not be suitable to everyone. And onceyou’ve got to grips with it then you may find it a tad tiresome ifyou’ve not got the same sense of humour as the writers. No More Heroes is an excellent example of how an eccentriccharacter design and storyline can compensate for some technicalfailings though and the combination of bizarre characters and strikingpresentation really do make the mini-games and such a minor concern atbest. If you’ve been looking for a more adult game to play on your Wiithen No More Heroes should come highly recommended. Frontlines:Fuel of War @ bit-tech.net [Mar-23-08] (0 Comments) If I was to say that Frontlines:Fuel of War disappointed methen youˇŻd probably get the wrong idea, so I wonˇŻt say that. But itkind of did. You see, Frontlines isnˇŻt a bad game at all. ItˇŻs actually quite a good game.ThereˇŻs a good balance to everything and the game alwaysmakes it possible to salvage victory from the jaws of defeat if youhave a good understanding of where to put your tanks and helicopters.If you get a group of people working together then it can take on anenjoyably military feel, especially with the inclusion of artillery andairstrikes.However, with the history behind Frontlines of theboy-wonder modders whoˇŻve struck the big time, we have to admit we werehoping for something a little more interesting. Kaos Studios is adeveloper built on a team of amateur modders from outside the industry,so the logical if misplaced hope is that bringing them within theindustry could lead to a few interesting and new ideas. But that hasnˇŻt happened. Instead, the result is that Kaos has usedtheir knowledge of how games are played to create a well-balancedshooter. What they havenˇŻt really done is introduce any fundamentallynew ideas. ThereˇŻs nothing here to set Frontlines apart from any other game like it on the market ¨C infact, it feels very, very similar to Enemy Territory:Quake Warspretty much all the way through. So, while the game itself isnˇŻt flawedin any major way, it doesnˇŻt really do anything to stand out in thecrowd either. Asus EAH3870 (ATI 3870) TOP 512MB Graphics Card @ aphnetworks.com [Mar-21-08] (0 Comments) After going through several of the latest and hottest NVIDIA G92 based graphics card in the past few months, it seems that we've been ignoring the other important player in the market -- AMD/ATI graphics cards. While they don't necessarily hold the performance crown in the single GPU market in attaining the highest FPS in games and benchmarks, they are extremely popular for the performance they give at the price you can get them for. After all, it's not always about buying the fastest video card, we all have limited budgets too, right? Nowadays, high-midrange video cards are amazingly powerful and offered at incredible price points. Of which one is the AMD Radeon HD 3870. Today, we'll take a look at the Asus factory-overclocked version of the Radeon HD 3870, and see how it stacks up in value and performance against NVIDIA GPU based boards we've tested. Plus, we can also find out how it stacks up against its previous generation cards, the X1950 series. Warhammer 40k Dawn of War:Soulstorm @ bit-tech.net [Mar-20-08] (0 Comments) There’s a fair bit to like about Soulstorm. It’sstand-alone for starters, which means you don’t have hunt down an oldcopy of Dawn of War if you want to play it. It also does a good job of wrapping up all the previous expansions andcontent from the original for those who just want to jump straight inand play, while at the same time being an excellent platform from whichto backtrack into the rest of the series.However, there are down sides. The graphics in particular are a sorespot and it seems like Iron Lore must not have been listening to fansof the original game who have long been crying out for a better view ofthe battlefield. The low-res textures and occasionally jerky unitanimations too would have been easily fixable problems. It’s a crying shame really that Iron Lore’s last game should prove tobe such a…well, not a disappointment, but certainly a surpriselessgame. The studio had an enormous amount of talent within it and couldhave been capable of much, but Soulstorm doesn’t really buildon the quality of Dawn of War as much as it builds on thequantity. In the end, Soulstorm is your typical, unimaginativeexpansion pack. It offers up more of what the hardcore fans mightreally like, but doesn’t stray at all from the formula and, in the end,that might put off a lot of people who have since found much better andgraphically superior RTS games to invest their time in. XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 Video Card @ legitreviews.com [Mar-18-08] (0 Comments) It's been nearly two years since NVIDIA has produced a dual PCB video ca rd design and they feel they have a winner in the works with the GeForce 9 series. One of the reasons NVIDIA feels so strongly about the GeForce 9 800 GX2 is because they have a whole new approach at how the video game f rames are being rendered. The first generation Quad SLI technology seen o n the GeForce 7950 GX2 back in 2006, used a hybrid mode of split frame re ndering (SFR) and alternate frame rendering (AFR) to enable concurrent re ndering on four GPUs. With the latest games utilizing complex shaders, in ter-frame effects, and multi-pass rendering, SFR becomes less efficient.. . An interview with BioWare's Matt Atwood @ bit-tech.net [Mar-18-08] (0 Comments) Bit:It’s interesting you’d say that because a lot ofPC games aremoving more towards console games in an effort to avoid piracy. Waspiracy a factor in the console launch?Piracy is always a concern obviously, but if we were that worried thenwe wouldn’t do a PC version at all, right?Hmm, maybe I should qualify that. We’re very concerned about piracy andwe put steps in to stop people doing that. At the end of the day theBioWare team spent four years—it’ll actually be more than that when thePC version is out—of their lives making just the first game in thistrilogy. Four years of their lives with very many long hour days. Theydeserve to have consumers pay for the title – they’ve put a lot of workin. That said, piracy didn’t factor into our platform choice massivelyand the sequels will be released in the same way – Mass 2, Xbox360. Lost Empire:Immortals @ bit-tech.net [Mar-15-08] (0 Comments) Lost Empire:Immortals can't claim innovation and the game isutterly predictable in almost everything it does. Combine this withincredibly long games and huge playing fields and you’re left with agame which is going to leave a sour, tired taste in the mouths ofnearly all gamers. Hardcore strategy fans though may find somethingappealing though, provided they can look past the admittedly roughedges. VVIKOO GeForce 8800 GT Max 1024 MB @ techpowerup.com [Mar-12-08] (0 Comments) Even though the GeForce 8800 GT has already been out for a while, it still has the punch to play all the latest games. The VVIKOO 8800 GT Max 1 GB comes with the Zalman VF1000 pre-installed and also features double the video memory. But is there any performance to be gained by going from 512 MB to 1024 MB of memory? Make It Again, Man @ bit-tech.net [Mar-11-08] (0 Comments) It all comes down to that age old nightmare – game design. AsI've said before, design is hard– it’s certainly the hardest thing about making good games. As an indiedeveloper, I get to do all the jobs, and the design bit is the one Ifind hardest of all, although ironically it's the bit I get praised forin reviews. I'd like to put forward the theory that the difficulty ofdesign is a reason we should love sequels. Let me explain...I worked for three years on Lionhead’s The Movies and Iended up being known as the AI coder even though I actually worked onlots of different parts of the game. Because I was involved more orless from the start of the project I saw the game design evolve overtime, which it did rather dramatically.If you haven't seen The Movies, let me describe it briefly. TheMoviesis a management game where you run a movie studio, with a 3D view ofyour studio lot. You pick the actors, sets, costumes, and (and this wasthe cool bit), you actually got to see the finished movie that youmade, with the option to add subtitles, sound effects and so on.Commercially, The Movies did alright, but notbreathtakingly. I left Lionhead just as it was released so I don't knowthe exact figures, but I know there won't be a sequel. There was anexpansion, but the first add-on pack for a game is always indevelopment before it ships – that's just the logistics of things. Thegame got some good reviews, but it didn't set the world on fire.Now if you’re an investor, a publisher or a money man then yourimmediate thoughts are these: The game did notprovide as good a return on investment as expected. The game did notsell enough. The last thing wewould do is another game like this.Which makes absolutesense. Why throw good money after bad? Would you fund The Movies 2? NVIDIA Comments on Ray Tracing and Rasterization Debate @ pcper.com [Mar-07-08] (0 Comments) Reality intrudes into the most fantastic ideas and plans. Virtuallyall games and professional applications make use of the modern APIs forgraphics:OpenGL(tm) and DirectX(tm). These APIs use rasterization, not raytracing. So, the present environment is almost entirely rasterization-based.We would be foolish not to build hardware that runs current applicationswell.Ray tracing may be the future of rendering-it's definitely part of thefuture at least. There is an old joke that goes Asus EAH3870X2 Videocard @ rbmods.com [Mar-06-08] (0 Comments) With the new 9600 GT cards we have a very close competition betweenNvidia and ATI. Today we got one of these contenders on our test bench, tobe more precis we have the 3870 X2 card from Asus to test. We have decidedto run the card vs a 8800GTS 640mb and vs the well performing 8800GTX card.We will push the card through games and various benchmarks before we end upthe review with the mandatory overclocking tests so stay tuned. AMD 780G Chipset P - Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H Evaluated @ pcper.com [Mar-04-08] (2 Comments) The AMD 780G chipset is probably the most exciting integratedchipset launch I have covered in my 8+ years of writing about the techindustry. This is the first time that the GPU in the chipset isn't based ona previous generation of technology thus crippling it right from the start.And of course, the ability to stretch that performance even further byadding in a discrete GPU and taking advantage of Hybrid CrossFire reallyallows system builders and DIYers to make a system for themselves or familythat can actually play games for a relatively low price. Conflict:Denied Ops @ bit-tech.net [Mar-04-08] (0 Comments) There are some glimmers of hope to be had with Conflict:DeniedOps.If you can get past the graphics, cardboard cut-out story, wonkyphysics (a shotgun blast pokes a tiny hole in plywood, butrifle-butting a door will splinter it out of the frame?!) anddisjointed, confused gameplay then there is an semi-enjoyably mindlessshooter here. Maybe. Crippling Conflict:Denied Ops though is that the competition is composed offar better, cheaper games. It comes down to this. When I was at university Iˇ¦d occasionally dipinto my student loan on a slow week and go trawling the bargain bins atmy local GameStation with a fiver in hand. I knew that the games I wasbuying would most likely turn out to be awful, but Iˇ¦d buy them anywaybecause theyˇ¦d fulfil my need for a cheap, forgettable game to whileaway the time between thinking about starting my dissertation andforgetting to start my dissertation. Conflict:Denied Ops is about on par with those old bargain bingames from three years ago. It ranks next to games like Stolen,Project I.G.I and Aikens Artifact. There are people out there whoˇ¦ll disagree with me and whoˇ¦ll claim adeep love for Denied Ops ˇV but these are the type of people who claim that theoriginal Evil Dead is the best film ever made and they shouldbe discounted completely. Donˇ¦t listen to them; listen to me and waituntil Denied Ops drops into the bargain bins if you must playit at all. Zalman ZM-FG1000 FPSGUN Gaming Mouse @ bit-tech.net [Feb-27-08] (0 Comments) Gaming mice are probably the most important peripheralhardcore gamerscan invest in, so cost is not usually an issue if the gains arenoticeable. What Zalman is asking you to do though is to buy into anidea, a concept – one that may or may not work according to how wellyou adjust and how big your hands are. Comparing the FPSGUN to the likes of a Razer or SteelSeriesmouse though might be considered a little unfair, as essentially youare limited to using the FPSGUN for FPS games. So, even if you didinvest £35 in the FPSGUN, you would still have to stick with your oldmouse for everything else – for us, this ruins any of the value andattraction the design could have ever had. Imperium Romanum @ bit-tech.net [Feb-27-08] (0 Comments) For all this criticism though, Imperium Romanum remainsa decently enjoyable game that is pretty standard and by-the-numbers,but fun in spite of that. Is Imperium Romanum the type of game which you absolutelymust go out and buy? No, far from it. It's not even the type of gamethat you'll end up replaying or getting massively involved in.Yet, if you do fancy a go at a fun and solid strategy game with a focuson micromanagement and not exploration then you could certainly do alot worse. It's a verdict that is strongly grounded in my pastexperience of Roman-themed strategy games too because, while ImperiumRomanum hasn't turned me back onto this most classic of genres, it hascertainly entertained me enough while I played it. Intel demonstrates ray tracing on ultra-mobile PCs @ pcper.com [Feb-27-08] (0 Comments) The real strength with this demo at the Game Developer's Conference,as Intel sees it, is that games can be created and easily transported fromform factor to form factor by utilizing the scaling ability of ray tracing:We believe that with Ray-Tracing, developers will have an opportunity todeliver more content in less time, because when you render things in aphysically correct environment, you can achieve high levels of quality veryquickly, and with an engine that is scalable from the Ultra-Mobile to theUltra-Powerful, Ray-Tracing may become a very popular technology in theupcoming years. Sins of a Solar Empire @ bit-tech.net [Feb-26-08] (0 Comments) Stardock and Ironclad are to be congratulated on many levels.Not onlyhave they successfully created a game that merges the best parts of RTSand 4X games, they've also managed to create a game that doesn'trequire you to upgrade your PC to be able to run it. What's more,Stardock should be praised for not including any copy protection withthe game. In their own words, the idea is to Installing Linux onto your Sony PS3 @ tweaktown.com [Feb-25-08] (0 Comments) Linux on Sony hardware has been done before, but not to any great success. Some of you may remember that the PS2 could run a strange version of the open source OS with a bought package that gave you a 40GB HDD, a keyboard and a mouse. However, it did not allow for any functionality of the DVD-ROM because Sony thought you might start using your PS2 to rip off all their games. There was a lot of noise in the beginning of the PS3's marketing-hype-launch that the console would have Linux pre-loaded, but Sony came to their senses when they realized how much more work that was going to be for them. So we are left to figure this one out for ourselves. Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare @ bonafidereviews.com [Feb-22-08] (0 Comments) War. Huh. Yeah. What is it good for? Well apparently its good for selling tons and tons of videogames to obsessed FPS fans. Say it again now. Unless you’ve been living in a foxhole for the past few years you have probably heard of Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty series. Advergaming and Other Horror Stories @ bit-tech.net [Feb-21-08] (0 Comments) Virtual worlds are also a popular target for advertisers. In SecondLifea number of companies have purchased land within the game to establisha permanent presence. You can buy products from retailers like Nike andAmazon. Apparently Starwoods Hotels and Resorts built a digital replicaof a hotel they were planning to build in real life to see the reactionfrom people. You have to wonder about this logic though – if companiesthink they can garner useful information from people's online choicesthey may be in for a nasty shock, after all, gaming is about escapismand most people frequently do things in games that they would never doin real life.There are all sorts of fantastical predictions about the amount of adspending there will be in future games, but so far despite claims itwill reach $2 billion by 2011 it remains far short of this target.There's a suggestion that this revenue could be worth $1 per game topublishers – which is certainly enough to catch their attention. StillI think I'd be willing to spend an extra $1 on the game to get itwithout advertising. Personally I don't mind advertising when it'sbundled into something free as they have to pay for it somehow but whenyou are already paying a premium price for something it’s cheeky tojust bombard your customers with adverts regardless. Penumbra:Black Plague @ bit-tech.net [Feb-20-08] (0 Comments) Black Plague is a radically different game to Overturein terms of pacing and style, but at the same time in manages toincorporate many of the same themes and plot elements. In truth, Black Plague feels more like a professionally produced game, forboth better and worse. While Overture was a decidedly indieeffort that seemed to thrive on its rough edges and unusual delivery, BlackPlague is a game that has a more shiny, refined and polished feel to itall the way through.It’s clear that Frictional has taken on board some of the majorcomplaints about the games too – Penumbra:Black Plagueintroduces collectable items to extend replayability, more solutions topuzzles along with characters and narrative that are more fully fleshedout and realised.On the down side, like many professional games, the ending feels a bitrushed and those parts that still reek of indie stand out now as beingall the rougher against the polish of the majority. Still, we reckon there’s a good five or six hours of chilling, puzzlinggaming in here and the price isn’t likely to break the bank. With anintriguing mix of ideas and a stunning presentation and design thatdoesn’t at all hint at the diminutive two-man team behind the series, Penumbra:Black Plagueis easily the most impressive break-out game of recent years andbelongs in the catalogue of every hardcore gamer who prides himself onhis cult-games collection. It's not for everyone - hence my hours ofwrestling over whether it's an eight or a nine – but it is superbly puttogether despite the flaws and deserves mentions as another laudableeffort from the diminutive team at Frictional Games. Universe @ bit-tech.net [Feb-17-08] (0 Comments) Universe at War:Earth Assault isn’t going to be to the likingof all RTS buffs and those who prefer historically themed or moreserious flavours of strategy games will most likely have already foundthe way out. However, Universe at War does have some excellentlybalanced gameplay going for it and the interface is beautifully setout, proving always helpful and never a hindrance. Does the game have problems? Certainly. The graphics in cutscenes are abit lacklustre, the game did prove to be very CPU intensive when wegathered a lot of units together on screen and at times even our newmighty gaming rig had to suffer a bit of slow down and the field ofview is quite limited too. In fact, the FOV is probably the biggestproblem – not being able to zoom out very far really limits thetactical options available to players when the larger robots or HabitatWalkers lumber on-screen.That said though, Universe at War has a lot going for it,so if you can look past the campy B-movie plot and stomach somesemi-awful voice acting then you may be pleasantly surprised at whatyou find beneath the rubble. Condemned 2:Bloodshot - Hands-on @ bit-tech.net [Feb-14-08] (0 Comments) Condemned 2 is looking like a fantastic looking game which, asyou can see from the screenshots, doesn’t pull any punches when itcomes to trying to creep out players. This is definitely a game foradult audiences only and the game is stuffed to the brim with filthyinsults, blood and brutal, unrestrained fisticuffs. However, it’s also got a cleverly delivered story in there too, both ona character-based and plot-based level. In terms of the seriesstoryline Condemned 2will see a whole lot of the mystery cleared up and Ethan will start topiece together the fragments and figure out what is happening to theworld around him. Meanwhile, players will get deeply involved inEthan’s personal struggles and see him battle against the loss of hissanity and come to terms with his alcoholism. Certain additions to the gamestyle don’t sit too well with us – such ashow the HUD will exclaim your combos, ruining the sense of immersionand horror, but there’s still a lot to like about the game. Justlooking at some of those screenshots is scary enough and the game isdefinitely one of the gutsiest thrillers we’ve ever played – justsitting through the opening cutscene is like having scorpions crawlingup your legs! Clearly horror and thriller fans are going to have atleast one game to look forward to this year. Hands-on P @ bit-tech.net [Feb-13-08] (0 Comments) I actually got a chance to speak to some of the marketingpeople recently and I quizzed them about the future of Spore– pressing on whether we could expect to see a slew of new content onshelves soon after release. The reply was a stark awakening to thebrilliant reality of Spore in that I was treated to a kind of “Idon’t know” answer and an explanation of how that wouldn’t work with Spore.You see, in The Sims, new items can’t be easily created and theexpansions can consist mainly of new furniture and so forth. In Sporethat doesn’t hold true and the future of the game seems to be groundedmore in adding new tools to the game through expansions – ways toexport and import creatures to Photoshop or Maya 3D. It’s not enough tosimply give people a new building or two, because those can always bemade by the community. To me, this attitude perfectly expresses how important Spore will be. Frankly though, even if the game doesn’t prove to be as redefining as Ithink it will be, then it’s still shaping up to be a fantastic game andclearly shows how even the most complex of tasks can be accomplishedwith enough persistence. Spore does have flaws in some regards and it’s plainly obviousthat most players aren’t going to enjoy parts of the game. Personally,while I loved everything from the Creature Stage onwards, I did findthe first part of the game—the Cell Stage—to be a little tiresome andpointless. I’ve nothing against simple arcade styled games at all, butthere are titles that do that better than Spore. Spore’s strength though lies in that the game overcomes thepersonal loves and hates of certain people and frees players uptotally. You can do almost anything you want with the tools on offerhere and the game is totally open to let players skip to the parts theywant. If all you want is the micromanagement and sense of control thenCivilisation Stage is there for you from the get-go. Halo 3 and The Art of Repetition @ bit-tech.net [Feb-06-08] (0 Comments) Let’s take Halo 3, and, before I actually say anythingabout Halo 3,I should make a disclaimer digression. I had put up some articles aboutrepetition in games on my blog, and how I felt that repetition issometimes a good thing (more on that later), and may have implied thataspects of the Halo 3 campaign could have benefited from somemore repetition, and I ended up with some comments that went somethinglike this:“Variety is the spice of life. Games with repetition suck. Your gamewill suck and no one will play it.”Now, I think I’ve played through the Halo 3 campaign about halfa dozen times. I love the game—I even pre-ordered it. I enjoy fanboyspeculation about Halo’s association to Marathon.While this does not make me an expert in all things Halo, I think it atleast gives me license to critique and comment. So I say:fanboys,stand down!hat out of the way, the critique goes like this:imagine you areplaying through Halo 3for the first time. You play as the legendary saviour of humanity, whoplays it cool while expertly wielding a massive arsenal to mow downwave after wave of baddies. However you have a somewhat foggy idea ofwhere to go next, what a missile pod does, how all of those crazy newitems work, the feel of a Spartan laser, and so on. So here’s themismatch:in cut scenes, the Master Chief is extremely cool andconfident, but under the control of the first time gamer, the MasterChief is suddenly acting like some bewildered idiot, fumbling withbubble shields and flamethrowers.Games like Marathon and BioShock succeed instorytelling because the main character can be a bewildered idiot. In Marathon,you’re a space marine who lands on a colony ship with very little ideaof what’s going on, when suddenly aliens start attacking and AIs startfighting over you. BioShock is roughly the same story—you landon an underwater city, things start attacking you, and greater powersstart fighting over you via the radio. You’re a dummy with a big gun,and everyone knows and is willing to exploit this fact. Intel SkullTrail P - Dual Core 2 Extreme QX9775 Processors @ legitreviews.com [Feb-06-08] (0 Comments) When it comes to performance the Intel Skulltrail platform is han ds down the fastest platform that we have ever looked at. With the dual 3 .2GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9775 quad-core processors in the system it consist ently outperformed the other test systems in multi-threaded tests that co uld take advantage of the eight cores. The only two areas that the Skullt rail platform didn't shine was in memory bandwidth and gaming. The DDR2-8 00 FB-DIMMs just don't provide the memory bandwidth needed to compete wit h DDR3 memory kits and it shows where memory bandwidth does come into pla y. When it comes to gaming it's not the fact the board is only PCI Expres s 1.0, it is because the games are not optimized to run on eight cores. I n reality many games are designed to run on just three cores as many game s are now written with consoles in mind... The Club @ bit-tech.net [Feb-06-08] (0 Comments) Don’t be fooled by the guns and the explosion – it’s been madeclear to us over the course of this review that The Club isn’t actuallya third person shooter at all. Really, it’s a very cleverly disguisedbeat-em-up; Tekken with all the regular moves left out and justthe special combos remaining. The whole game feels like Soul Calibur in the twenty-firstcentury and the proof is in the short character biographies, thecombo-centric gameplay and the booming voice that yells “Finn!Fight!” at the start of every round.Unfortunately, like most beat-em-ups, The Club is also alove-it-or-hate-it affair and it doesn’t surprise me to hear that thedevelopers refer to it as ‘The Marmite Game’. The experience playershave with The Club depends more on the gamers themselves thanthe game and, just as some people love Virtua Fighter but hate Deador Alive, so too will players of The Club become divided. Personally, I can see the game isn’t for me – the forced practice andrepetition of levels in order to get high scores and an unequalledlevel of perfection just doesn’t interest me. I can still see theappeal and craftsmanship in the game though and the level of polish onsome of the levels is truly extraordinary.If practice makes perfect is your motto and you love honing your skillsto a razor edge then The Club could be the best investment you make all year. If you’rethe type of gamer to learn all the cool combos in Soul Caliburor you can manual forever in the latest Tony Hawk’sthen this is the game for you – it’s complex, but approachable and agreat proving ground for your skills and memory. On the other hand, ifyou prefer games that you only need play once or with stories thatoccupy more than the head of a matchstick, then you may want to give TheClub a miss. It’s not a bad game by any measure – but it isn’t foreveryone. Tomb Raider:Underworld p @ bit-tech.net [Feb-01-08] (0 Comments) One of the biggest changes to the game however has been at amuch morefundamental level – the structure of the levels themselves. In the past, Tomb Raider has been like most games of thegenre – run, gun, puzzle, solution, run, gun. Wash, rinse, and thenrepeat. Levels are structured to be extremely linear and Lara mustovercome puzzles in a specific order. Underworld changes that, harnessing what the developers arecalling a new multi-level approach to the puzzles. The new structure is simple; there are fewer levels—only about eightapparently when we saw the game in action—but those levels are much,much larger and complex. It isn’t like Legend where Lara isalways moving forwards, it’s much more like the St. Francis’ Follylevel in Anniversary.The solutions to puzzles are often more than just a room away andaren’t just limited to grabbing the right coloured key. Puzzles requirethought, understanding and a close attention to the story. NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver 1.16925 for Vista @ ngohq.com [Jan-29-08] (0 Comments) The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver is a modified version of the NVIDIA ForceWare driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage. This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience. This driver includes NVIDIA's new Control Panel. We've preferred to include the new Control Panel over the old one due to flexibility and stability reasons. The Driver has support for all GeForce/Quadro cards - including mobile series (Go) as well. Staying Independent @ bit-tech.net [Jan-28-08] (0 Comments) There are a lot of crushed souls in the games industry. A lotof peoplewho set out with the hope of creating fantastic new games that allowthem to express their creativity, whilst simultaneously providing agreat experience for the players. These are the people who were cutdeepest when publisher’s pull the budget on the “risky” titles infavour of the “safe bets”. These are the people who lost a little morehope each time the producer told them that their idea was way too ‘outthere’ for a modern audience. We knew people like this when we set up Introversion and we run intothem now and then in the bars and restaurants surrounding the gamesconferences. When we first set out to write video games we knew the damage thatpublishers could do both to games themselves, and the people writingthem, and we were not willing to let that happen to us. In order toensure our creative freedom, we had to be independent from publishersand license holders, and that independence has become a guiding mantrafor us.Independence from publishers has allowed us ultimate freedom andenabled us to create without compromise, explore without boundaries andlive by a work ethos that isn’t about setting limitations. After sixyears with the sole aim of keeping the company financially afloat, wedid a spot of team building or as industry bods call it, ‘visionalignment’. We wanted to establish in what direction we might all beheading. Despite the fact that we’re a fairly disparate bunch of peoplewith very different motivations, the exercise really proved thatremaining independent was the key shared aspiration at Introversion. Burnout Paradise @ bit-tech.net [Jan-26-08] (0 Comments) Burnout Paradise is, by far, the most open and interesting Burnoutgame we’ve ever played. Playing past Burnoutgames has been a very linear experience and getting stuck at a certainpoint, unable to get the 400 takedowns needed to progress within thespace of two minutes, could be a major bummer. Paradise gets rid of that annoyance with an extremely elegantsolution, re-designing the entire game so effortlessly and naturallythat you might struggle to believe that there was ever a Burnoutgame that wasn’t like this. Does it have flaws? Yes, clearly. The most major one is obvious whenyou fail a race and have to hike back across the entire map in order torestart – a simple quick-travel or retry function would have been awelcome addition. The same is true when players want to change theircar and have to spend a while hunting down one of the five junkyards onthe map.Still, ignore that and the lack of offline multiplayer and Burnout Paradiseis clearly a new highpoint for the series. Sure, it’s annoying not tobe able to fight your friends up-close, but for a game this good it’ssomething we can learn to live without and, honestly, we’re far tooaddicted to the Showtime gamemode to say anything really bad about thisotherwise excellent game. The Rules of Game Design @ bit-tech.net [Jan-23-08] (0 Comments) One of the new features we’ve launched lately on bit-tech hasbeen guest columns. That is, columns written by developers and industryinsiders on a rotating monthly schedule. We’ve had stories and thoughtsfrom every corner of the industry, including budding indie developerslike James Silva and writers for established studios, like Simon Halland Rob Yescombe. After reading Simon Hill’s latest column,which talked about difficulty balancing in computer games and why hethinks computer games have got progressively easier, I got thinking.The more I thought about the topic, the more I decided I wanted to dosomething about it – partly because I’m a pretty heavy gamer and I likemy games to be worth the effort, but mainly because I'm just a noseybusy-body.As I looked into the issue though, the more my mind raged with examplesof how games had changed for the worse over the years – how simpleconcepts that had once been core to the design of every game were nowbeing forgotten or dismissed. The rules that had governed and createdthe Golden Axe Age of Gaming were now no longer beingobeyed.Naturally, being a bit of presumptuous so-and-so, I decided to shove mynose in and take Simon’s complaint to the next level. Thus, I presentwhat I think are the cardinal rules of game design. ATI Catalyst 8.1 Analysis - XP & Vista @ tweaktown.com [Jan-21-08] (0 Comments) With the slow run that AMD have been having with driver releases over the past few months it will be interesting to see what happens with the new release. Considering January is generally a pretty quiet month fo r hardware sales thanks to the fact that everyone spent their money over Christmas, who knows what AMD will have up their sleeves with this releas e.The most interesting (and potentially disappointing) fact about this driv er release is that AMD mention no form of performance improvements with t he driver update. We hope this isn't true, but let's find out what ha ppens when we place the driver through our typical line-up of games and g raphics cards. The Weighted Companion PC - a tribute to Portal @ bit-tech.net [Jan-21-08] (0 Comments) When it comes to great new games, one of the first thoughts onanyone'smind is AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition CPU @ virtual-hideout.net [Jan-20-08] (0 Comments) Now why would AMD release an AMD Athlon X2 5000+ Black EditionProcessor? Try affordability and performance on for size. At a reasonable$115.00 for 2.6GHz of power running through two cores, this processor shouldbe very capable of providing more than enough power for today's most graphicintensive games. Of course as with any of the newest processors, it shouldbe teamed up with a good graphics card like the NVidia 8800 or ATI's newestseries. This more affordable processor is basically AMD's way of thankingall of the people who have chosen and continue to choose AMD processors. [News] AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition CPU @ virtual-hideout.net [Jan-20-08] (0 Comments) Now why would AMD release an AMD Athlon X2 5000+ Black EditionProcessor? Try affordability and performance on for size. At a reasonable$115.00 for 2.6GHz of power running through two cores, this processor shouldbe very capable of providing more than enough power for today's most graphicintensive games. Of course as with any of the newest processors, it shouldbe teamed up with a good graphics card like the NVidia 8800 or ATI's newestseries. This more affordable processor is basically AMD's way of thankingall of the people who have chosen and continue to choose AMD processors. Cranium Kabookii @ bit-tech.net [Jan-19-08] (0 Comments) It’s quite hard to know what to make of Cranium Kabookiibecause, while to my mind it is clearly the best third-party party gameavailable for the Wii, it’s not strikingly awesome on its own. The mini games themselves range from inventive and fun to derived anddamningly difficult – though they do mostly edge towards the former,thankfully. Games like Cloodle prove themselves to be fairlyfun and repeatable and Cranium Kabookii is a game with acertain amount of replayability because of that. However,at the same time, the game is full of wasted potential and gameplaythat’s too simple, often seemingly rewarding players arbitrarily.Despite the colourful, vibrant presentation the game also fails toprovide anything that is suitably engaging visually. The developerswould have done a lot better to simply recreate the board from theboard game rather than to feature coloured tokens. All of the above is forgivable for the most part though – what isn’tthough is the extremely limited scope for play. You can only play CraniumKabookiiif you have four people with you and, even then, you can only play themain game mode. There’s nothing to unlock and the options don’t evenlet you alter the difficulty of the game. The result is a game which,while fun, could quickly get old for many and which seems to jumpbetween too hard and too easy a bit too much. If you’ve got a group of people with a wide range of ages and arelooking for a multiplayer game that kids can manage then CraniumKabookii is just what you’d want to look at buying.If you want something a little more flexible and adult-aimed thoughthen you’d be better off keeping your wallet in your pocket. Wii Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 @ rbmods.com [Jan-18-08] (0 Comments) If you've read some of our past video game reviews, you'll rememberthat we enjoyed one odd game in particular, Rayman Raving Rabbids, for itsunique game play and quirky story. As with most popular games, the gang isback for a sequel. Will Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 for the Wii continue thestreak of solid games for this series? That's what we're here to find outin this video game review. Ray Tracing and Gaming - One Year Later @ pcper.com [Jan-17-08] (0 Comments) The question may arise, why can't these acceleration structures beused in rasterization? Well, they are, to a certain extent, but at a lowerprecision. Some games have one such coarse-grained structure for renderinggraphics, a different one (at a different resolution) forcollision-detection and yet another one for AI (sometimes created bydifferent third-party infrastructure suppliers). Besides taking up morememory than necessary, one problem in using these three separately computeddata structures is the effort to keep them consistent. GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB Roundup - Albatron, eVGA and XFX @ legitreviews.com [Jan-16-08] (0 Comments) The Albatron, EVGA and XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB video cards are all gr eat cards that can play all the current games and overclock like no other . As you saw from the testing the different core clock, memory clock and shader clock frequencies vary from card to card and did impact performanc e. Higher clock frequencies did improve performance as the XFX card took the lead in nearly every single benchmark... Gaming in the real world @ bit-tech.net [Jan-16-08] (0 Comments) A question that’s often asked is how much of what we mightexperiencein a real life situation is reflected in those games that claim to beas close to real as possible? Having spent most of my working life in the Armed Forces and spendingmost of my spare time fragging in ‘realistic’ 3D environments, Ibelieve I’m in a position where I am pretty qualified to answer thatquestion. So, bearing this in mind, I thought I’d put metaphoric pen topaper and see if I could come up with an answer. In fact, I plan to explore the blurring of realism in the gaming worldin a series of articles as this particular subject is one that is closeto my heart.The quandary facing the games publishers has only become more apparentas gamers have become more demanding for perfection and more realismthanks to more advanced graphics. Should the publishers make a gamethat is a reflection of fact or one that is based on perceived fact? Toexplain this, we will be talking about one of my favourite genres:theFirst Person Shooter and, more specifically, ones that use history orcurrent events to set the scene for the action. Climbing The Difficulty Curve @ bit-tech.net [Jan-15-08] (0 Comments) There has been a growing trend over the last few years to makegamesthat are easy enough for every player to finish them. In many ways thisis a positive development which reflects the maturity of the industryand the mainstream nature of the audience who regularly play games. Italso reflects publisher desires to create mass market, accessibleproducts which can generate maximum profit for them. However today I’m posing the question “Have singleplayer games becometoo easy?”Early games were far more challenging than they are now and initiallythis was largely due to the lack of a save option. You had to play thething all the way through in one sitting, when you ran out of lives youhad to start again from the start. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t missreplaying the first three levels of a scrolling shooter twenty timesjust to progress past that tricky missile but the sense of achievementand immersion is reduced when you complete a game in half hour chunksover a month. Upon completing modern games I rarely feel the same rushof pride that I did from reaching the end of Double Dragon or IkariWarriors. ATI HD 2600 Pro 256MB Video Card ed @ thetechlounge.com [Jan-15-08] (0 Comments) ATI's HD 2600 XT is a pretty nice card. It plays games acceptably well,consumes a negligible amount of power, and has flawless video acceleration.It's my first choice for the mainstream. So where does that leave the HD2600 Pro? Being a cut-down, budget version of a cool card, what, then, ismissing? The HD 2600 Pro is targeted to anyone who wants a discreet videocard, the casual gaming ilk, but doesn't really want either the lowest-endmodel or to spend over a hundred dollars. All that seems reasonable, butit's just not true. I think the GDDR3, 256MB HD 2600 Pro should be skippedaltogether. It does a couple things right, but misses the mark too often. PCI-Express soundcard @ bit-tech.net [Jan-13-08] (0 Comments) In some regards the D2X represents the rather patheticstate of thesoundcard industry as a whole – we’ve had PCI-Express for nearly fouryears now and the only performance card worth buying on the interfacehas to use a bridge chip. At least Asus has got off its backside anddone something about it.As for the Xonar D2X itself, I still prefer not to use any of the extraDolby or DTS features and leave the core audio sounding as good as itshould – and it certainly sounds excellent. But because I prefer tohave the audio sounding as it was intended without the use of any Dolbyor DTS ‘features’, a lot of this extra value is lost on me. I reallywish Asus would launch a no-frills card that sounded just as good –without having to pay for the DTS and Dolby licences or extra OEMsoftware included in the bundle – it would work out far cheaper.The additional power the Xonar D2X requires caused me no end of fusstoo. First, my PSU at home didn’t have a floppy connector, so I had todig around for an adapter, and then I had to re-route all my tidiedcables – it’s just sloppy and messy. Even a normal Molex, which everyPSU has, would have been a better option. At the very least aMolex-to-floppy power adapter should be thrown in the box gratis.The software package is vast and beats anything from else we’ve seen,although the PMP software and ALT features are still pretty much asgood as useless. Thankfully the drivers have improved and it workedflawlessly straight out the box with everything we threw at it; newgames, old games, DVDs, music – the lot.Is the Asus Xonar D2X worth the money? Absolutely, if you require aPCI-Express soundcard and want the best currently available, but as analternative to the many PCI soundcards I’m still not so sure. If you’rea fan of older games and you’re running Vista then this could certainlybe very tempting, but it’s probably an expense not worth bearing unlessyou want to play and use at least some of the many features included. Sam and Max:Moai Better Blues @ bit-tech.net [Jan-12-08] (0 Comments) The main problem with Sam & Max Season Two:Moai BetterBlues is one of length. No matter what others may tell you, length is everything and with thegame only lasting two or three hours, the fun is over just as you'restarting to get into the game. This was a problem with Season One and it's still a problem with Season Two.I suppose it's not really a criticism as such, more testament to thequality of the game that you don't really want it to end when it does.There's a trade-off to be made between the episodic nature of the gameand length of the game though, and this time the episodic argument won.DespiteTelltale Games having made some changes to the games based on userfeedback, the main niggle still exists:Sam still walks like he shouldbe using a walking stick. While it is possible to make him run, thisdoesn't work on every screen and more often than not, you're lefttwiddling your thumbs while Sam ambles from one side of the screen tothe next.Sam & Max:Moai Better Blues is still an adventure game atheart, and as such doesn't really bring anything new to the genre, butit still shines on so many levels that you're willing to overlook thefew flaws. If you're really bothered about the length then youcould always grab the seasonpack in a few months time. Telltale Games are to be applauded for both showing us at the adventuregame isn't dead and that episodic gaming can be successful. Ultimately,its biggest flaw is also its biggest advantage:the game is shortenough to be enjoyable but not so long that it drags on. How to write... a strategy game @ bit-tech.net [Jan-09-08] (0 Comments) So, in this third instalment in my now re-focused and lessselfishseries I'm going to be looking at Real-Time Strategy games and try tosee how they are written, what stories they can tell well and how theymay change in the future. Helping me out along the way is MagnusJensen, lead designer on the fantastic World in Conflict. World in Conflict is an especially interesting game to use for acase-study since it basically re-wrote a lot of the rules for howstories are told and what stories are told in RTS games. In a time whenmost titles in the genre are still using talking heads or, at best,acted-out FMVs between missions, World in Conflict used amixture of scales to engage players. During gameplay players will befighting in battles which determine the course of a war, but in betweenyou'll be embroiled in the much more claustrophobic side of the war =96up close with the troops, exposed to their personal battles. What goes into an RTS game? Do well-known authors like Tom Clancy bringanything worthwhile to a developing title and can any RTS game win ourhearts without Joe Kucan? Enough with the questions! It's time foranswers! Gaming Books Round-up @ bit-tech.net [Jan-08-08] (0 Comments) Thus, this little round-up comes to a close and while it is by nomeanscomplete, we do hope that it has at least proven useful – if it hasn'tthen you can always read our own attempt to look at how games aredesigned and made. The sheer number of books out there on the topic of computer and videogames is, to me at least, very encouraging for the future of themedium. It represents a growing acceptance for computer games as aworthwhile and artistic medium – one contested by Roger Ebert and manyparents who still see computer games as nothing more than uber-violentgorefests which corrupt their children. The end of that path towards mass acceptance is still a long way off,but the fact that intelligent authors are now trying to express thatidea sensibly (for a fee, of course) is a large step in the rightdirection and one that we should all be grateful for. After all, we allneed something to read when there's a power cut or we can't get intothe forums, right? Gigabyte HD 2600 Pro 512MB @ thetechlounge.com [Jan-08-08] (0 Comments) I've said before that the HD 2600 Pro should be passed over in favor of theXT for anyone who wants to play video games, or the HD 2400 XT for peoplejust interested in having a discrete graphics card without all that gamingmalarkey. But then, Gigabyte has put together a compelling package with theHD 2600 Pro. A memory bump to 512MB, a clockspeed bump of 5%, passivecooling, component and S-Video out, and Neverwinter Nights 2-a popularsequel by a big developer. Asus EAH3870 TOP @ bit-tech.net [Jan-07-08] (0 Comments) This is the closest that an AMD/ATI-based graphics card has gottocompeting with Nvidia at the same price point for some time now, butthere are still cases where even this factory overclocked Radeon HD3870 from Asus disappoints me a bit. It pains me to say that becausethe Radeon HD 3870 is a truly fantastic product that we are big fans ofat bit-tech.The penalty for enabling anti-aliasing is the single most disappointingdownside and in particular I’m referring to 4xAA performance comparedto what else is on the market at the same price. We’re now in 2008 andone would hope that a performance mainstream graphics card is able tocope with 4xAA enabled at respectable settings and resolutions in mostgames. Of course, Crysisis an exception to this rule (and probably will be for some time tocome), but there are still times where the performance drop is muchlarger than what we’re used to seeing on ATI-based graphics cards ofdays gone by.On the whole though, the card looks to be a great choice as long asAsus meets its suggested retail price and that you also know about thesometimes extreme AA performance penalty. However, our suggestion wouldbe to look at one of the cheaper Radeon HD 3870s on the market, pocketthe difference and then dabble in a bit of overclocking. We say thisbecause although the Asus EAH3870 TOP gets close to a similarly pricedGeForce 8800 GT, it never really matches it in every scenario. Gameconnect's History of Gaming That Never Was @ tcmagazine.com [Jan-07-08] (0 Comments) This article takes you on a time machine journey of the last 6 cha nces you had to change gaming into something better, 6 chances you failed , and we tell you exactly where and why you should have played more of th ese games, bought 2 copies of each, and sent love letters to their design ers. We also have a few of them up for download. It=E2=80=99s your chance to learn about redemption, and how to make sure that we don=E2=80=99t ha ve to ever see Pro Street Dance Dance Pokemon Fifa Basketball 2010 on the shelves. How I Became A Game Designer (part two) @ bit-tech.net [Jan-06-08] (0 Comments) *When we left the story, James had just entered in a competition to have Dear TV:Please Get Your Act Together @ bit-tech.net [Dec-22-07] (0 Comments) Picture yourself as a new gamer. You just bought a Wii. You’rewillingto buying more games for it, but how do you know what’s good? You’renot actively pursuing the idea of buying a new game, because your lifewas perfectly fine before you even bought the console – but you’re opento it. Maybe you’ll check on the Internet, but you don’t know the differencebetween IGN and wiidudesftwlol.com. You don’t have a brand you cantrust. You see a commercial on the TV for a new game. Crammed into afifteen second spot, it all looks a bit complicated. Better to stick toWii Sports, eh? End.The one thing that TV is better than the Internet at is positioning. TVinvented Prime Time. Sure, the net has advert placement, but nothingbeats having a glowing box in your living room that mercilessly plays aparticular kind of programme with a particular kind of advertisementsat a particular time of day without your consent. You just give in toit. Yes, TV has options, but they’re still incredibly limited comparedto the net. On the whole, the TV audience just accepts it. bit-tech's Top 10 Games of 2007 @ bit-tech.net [Dec-18-07] (0 Comments) Whether you look at The Orange Box as one game, threegames orfive games – whether you’re a newcomer to the series who wants to playit in his living room on a console or a hardened fan who wants the PCexperience, there’s still no faulting The Orange Box. Ifnothing else there’s still just an enormous feeling of value. Half-Life 2:Episode 2 is perhaps the most perfect andappreciable of the Half-Life experience yet. The meaty part ofthe story, Episode 2 picks up directly after Episode 1and sees Alyx Vance and Gordon Freeman desperately trying to make it toWhite Forest Base to deliver a message of the utmost importance to theresistance. The story is brilliantly told and the pace is kept fast so that playersare constantly moving, barging through obstacles and knocking foes andtrials aside. There is no pause, no relief save those shared betweencharacters at pivotal moments of the plot. Uncharted:Drake's Fortune @ bit-tech.net [Dec-15-07] (0 Comments) Uncharted:Drake'sFortune has been proclaimed by some as thebest game so far for the PS3. While this is true to some extent, it hasto be judged against the relative paucity of the console's currentgames catalogue. It's a bit like films that come out in January withposters proclaiming themselves the best film of the year.So, while Uncharted:Drake’s Fortune is possibly the best PlayStation 3game to date, that doesn’t have to be taken as seal of perfection. Thankfully the game is still pretty damn good. There’s enough to keepyou coming back for more and the replay value is enhanced by the bonusfeatures. On the first run the game is short enough that it's not agrind to replay on higher levels, but long enough to be enjoyable andentertaining. The frenetic pace sustained throughout Uncharted helps to hide itsflaws, but it's impossible to get round the fact that this game isflawed. The pace of the game is maintained by the fact that there areno loading pauses to speak of. Each chapter flows seamlessly into thenext, and you're never left looking at a stats screen or standing in anelevator. NVIDIA 3-Way SLI Technology - 8880 Ultra x 3! @ pcper.com [Dec-13-07] (0 Comments) NVIDIA has just taken its performance lead in the world ofhigh-end consumer graphics and trumped it by introducing 3-Way SLI to theworld. Though we have some minor issues with what cards NVIDIA has setupfor 3-Way SLI compatibility the fact is that the performance results fromour testing are freaking incredible. There are definitely some majorgames that need to be addressed in future, Crysis being the mostprominent, but our initial impressions proved quite pleasing. Nvidia's 3-way SLI on nForce 680i SLI @ bit-tech.net [Dec-13-07] (0 Comments) I am actually quite pleasantly surprised at how well 3-way SLIactuallyworks at this early stage and, in fact, I’m almost lost for words –that’s generally not a good thing in my line of work. If you comparethis brief experience with the time we spent playing with Quad-SLI onsome of the top games at that point in time, they couldn’t be muchfarther apart. The difference is almost like night and day; north andsouth; east and west... you get the idea.Unlike Quad-SLI, which we had no end of problems with, this wasn’tsomething sent to us by Nvidia in a highly-polished gold flight case,packed to the brim with velvet bubble wrap. Not once did we experiencea crash during our time playing around with 3-way SLI and this was on asystem that was built and configured by ourselves... rather quickly Imight add.The downside of course is that this kind of set up is going to requiresome megabucks in order to see the benefits. You really need at least a1920x1200 screen (when you look at Crysison its own) and a 2560x1600 screen for anything else. That, on top ofthe graphics cards, is going to set you back about £2,000. Yeah, it’snot cheap.But then, Nvidia has never claimed that this would be anything butexpensive. In fact, the company’s representatives don’t expect to seemany users running 3-way SLI for that matter – it’s doing it justbecause it can; because it wants to. And knowing Nvidia’s CEO andPresident, Jen-Hsun Huang, quite well – I can probably guess at whathis reaction was to the hard words we dished out when Quad-SLI launched.He’s an enthusiast, a very determined and passionate guy and he couldhave hidden away from scaling to more than just two GPUs after theinitial failure with Quad-SLI. He didn’t though and I’m sure that hisdetermination is part of the reason why we’re seeing 3-way SLI beingannounced today. AMD Introduces Hybrid CrossFire - 780G and Radeon HD 2400 @ legitreviews.com [Dec-13-07] (0 Comments) When it comes to performance the Radeon HD 3450 isn't going to do minate any games, but it does score a respectable ~1650 points in 3DMark 2006 on the test system powered by a 2.2GHz AMD Phenom processor. If you enable Hybrid CrossFire the score in 3DMark 2006 jumps up to ~2660 point s, which is a boost of over 60%. We didn't get a chance to see the ATI Ra deon HD 3470 graphics card in action, but AMD said it should score over 3 000 points when run in Hybrid CrossFire on 3DMark 2006. AMD let us try o ut Call of Duty 4 at 1024x768 with decent quality settings on the system pictured here and we were seeing 20-50 frames per second Hybrid CrossFire enabled... Frontlines:Fuel of War hands-on p @ bit-tech.net [Dec-12-07] (0 Comments) Unless youplay at a higher level, most Unreal Tournament 3 and Team Fortress 2games are actually quite casual and rarely require use of a microphoneor regular communication – unless you suspect there’s a spy in yourmidst.Frontlines, like Quake Wars, isn’t built like that.Instead, it’s constructed so that players need to communicate if theywant to accomplish complex goals. It’s something to which the leveldesign is a heavily contributing factor as, in Frontlines,there is rarely any set path or route to follow. It’s an open world –players are given helicopters and tanks and told to do somethinghowever they want.The result is that everyone tries to pull in different directions,meaning that communication is essential. This doesn’t mean that Frontlines is a bad game, because I hadfun whilst playing it and, if nothing else that’s a great scale tomeasure a game by. It does mean that the experience (as opposed to thegameplay) isn’t as accessible as some games though – it targets itselfmuch more at someone who wants to really invest themselves in a game,creating clans and organising matches.If that’s the type of thing you find yourself doing often thenFrontlines could be right up your street. However, even then Frontlinesmay not be anything that is especially worth picking up as the game isreally quite generic and derivative. Again, it’s not that it’s thatbad; just that it doesn’t really take great strides forwards or haveanything that really sets it out from the crowd. If the competitionmanages to make even a small step beyond in terms of either technologyor game design then Frontlines could get left behind quite easily. A solid team-based shooter at its core, Frontlines suffersfrom a lack of accessibility and inspiration, but there is still plentyof time to go until release and the open beta is due to start soon.Shove those two ideas together and you realise that there’s still a lotof time for Frontlines to change and become something else – somethingworth shouting about. Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512 @ bit-tech.net [Dec-11-07] (0 Comments) Despite its horribly confusing naming scheme, Nvidia’s GeForce8800 GTS512 is a good product at face value, as it delivers unprecedentedperformance at the price point Nvidia is trying to hit. However, theproblem Nvidia has is that if it doesn’t manage to hit the price pointit’s given to us and the price edges up towards the £250 mark, itbrings the GeForce 8800 GTX back into play. That said, if the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 hits the ~£220 retail pricewe’ve been given, it will hit a sweetspot that will make it a viablealternative to a stock-clocked GeForce 8800 GT and should make it muchbetter value than most of the pre-overclocked 8800 GTs out there. Wesaid the GeForce 8800 GT delivered performance that rivalled theGeForce 8800 GTX, but the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 manages to take thefight to the GeForce 8800 GTX and in many scenarios it’s actuallyfaster.It’s worth making it clear that the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 is not aGeForce 8800 GTX killer and the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra will stillcontinue to rule the roost at high resolutions with anti-aliasingenabled. However, what Nvidia has done is made a similar level ofperformance available to those with monitors around 1680x1050 at a muchlower price point – if you're looking at playing games on a 1920x1200(or higher) screen, we'd still recommend the 8800 GTX.Ultimately the decision of whether to buy the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 willcome down to how much retailers want to charge for it. That’s somethingthat Nvidia unfortunately cannot control, but it could easily be boththe making of this product and its downfall too. Bughunting and the value of QA @ bit-tech.net [Dec-11-07] (0 Comments) Over thecoming weeks I’m going to be talking a bit about the gamesindustry with a specific focus on design and production. For my firstarticle, though, I’m going to tell you about my first job in the gamesindustry - the often overlooked or undervalued position of a gamestester. Hopefully it should serve as a decent introduction, while alsobeing informative to those who want to get started in the industry ofgame design. Novint Falcon Limited Edition @ bit-tech.net [Dec-08-07] (0 Comments) The Falcon is a fantastic game controller, although I still think a few kinks need to be ironed out. With the circular grip we used the Falcon quickly became painful to use unless you had a lot of desk space to spread out on, for example. Several of us ended up almost up-ending the Falcon completely with some over-enthusiastic swings, for example.However, just because it is good, it doesn’t mean that it’ll sell or that it’s good for the market. I’ve been round the block enough to know that selling something like the Falcon, even to seasoned gamers, will be an uphill struggle.This is the major fault of the Novint when you get right down to it – it’s an awesome gadget, but it’s a pretty sure thing that it’ll never really sell well enough to take off. Is it the coolest peripheral we’ve ever had our hands on? Undoubtedly and, although the comparison has probably been used before and is a bit unfair to start with, the Novint puts the Wiimote to shame in many regards.Unfortunately though, we can probably only recommend it to readers on the “Oh my god, that’s so cool” factor at the moment. The reality is that there just aren’t enough games out there which are new to the Falcon and, although the Quake 4, Penumbra and Half-Life 2 mods are fantastically cool, without the promise of support from future developers, they just don’t amount to $239 worth of cool. Crysis @ technic3d.com [Dec-07-07] (0 Comments) The Crysis Game from Electronic Arts arrived Technic3D. -An ep ic story thrusts players into an ever-changing environment, forcing th em to adapt their tactics and approach to conquer battlefields ranging from newly frozen jungle to zero-gravity alien environments-. Better than all Games ever in this time? See you in the following Review. ATI Radeon HD 3870 CrossFire Video Card @ legitreviews.com [Dec-06-07] (0 Comments) The ATI Radeon HD 3870 was a solid performer in all of the benchmarks we tested and was able to run all the DirectX 10 game titles we threw at it with no problems at all. The CrossFire drivers still need some help on certain games, but hopefully that will clear up in the next couple driver releases. The Radeon HD 3870 was hands down a faster card than a Radeon HD 3850, but you'll pay for the extra performance. Is the Radeon HD 3870 worth the extra $60... bit-tech :Super Mario Galaxy @ bit-tech.net [Dec-02-07] (0 Comments) Granted, that isn't a problem which immediately detracts fromthe quality of Galaxy,but it is a problem which will bother some of the grumpier gamers outthere (like myself) and will probably be pointed out by some of theXbox 360 and PS3 fanboys who populate the world.I suppose this criticism comes down to my original bite-sizedexplanation of the game; that it is essentially just SuperMario 64 in space. That’s not bad, because both Mario 64 and Galaxyitself are great games, but it is illustrative of a wider issue.Shoving those wider issues aside for a moment though, Super MarioGalaxyis a game which belongs in the collection of any Wii gamer. It’smassive world is one which can be either fully explored, probed andcompleted, or skipped through when the difficulty curve gets too steep.The new transformations and moves available to Mario are fun enough tokeep the game feeling slightly fresh even if it isn’t really that muchof a breakthrough and the levels themselves are complex and interestingenough to entertain anyone.The fact that it’s got the Super Mario name on it may putsome people off the game who think that Mario games are just for kids,but it really shouldn’t. Despite the cartoony and kiddy feel that thegame has on the surface there’s actually a wealth of longevity andreplayability hidden under the crust - Galaxy is a game whichwill keep hardcore and casual gamers entertained for hours and hours. bit-tech :Mass Effect @ bit-tech.net [Dec-01-07] (0 Comments) It’s difficult not to use superlatives and become all effusivewhen writing about a game like Mass Effect, but in this case it’s welldeserved.I’m not saying that the game is perfect:it’s not, and there are stilla few little spanners in the works. The graphical glitches and awkwardload points aren’t major points, and it’s a testament to the quality ofthe game that I’m essentially forced to nitpick to find something wrongwith the game. Mass Effect is huge too, both in terms of the area the gamecovers and the amount of playing time. There are enough side quests andachievements to keep even the most obsessive gamer happy for a year andBioWare has said that once the main game is finished, it’s stillpossible to travel around the galaxy and visit other planets,completing side quests that you may have missed.Add on top of that the chance to replay the game with differentdialogue decisions and the additional episodic gaming that BioWare haspromised, and Mass Effectgoes from being a huge game to being a mind-cripplingly massive game.It’s the type of game which gives ‘100 percent Complete Perfectionists’nightmares.If BioWare manages to carry on the quality of the storytelling foranother two games, plus the interim episodes, it will have donesomething the likes of which hasn’t been seen in computer gamingbefore. If you are at all interested in video game storytelling orsimply want to play a Shooter/RPG which offers colossal replayabilitywithout becoming a grind-fest then buy Mass Effect. You won’t regret it. ThermalTake Armor+ VH6000 - XSs @ xsreviews.co.uk [Nov-28-07] (0 Comments) I’ll be honest, when the ThermalTake Armor+ case arrivedat the office, I was left in a similar state as when the Antec P190landed; speechless. The box is a mammoth construction of cardboard thathints of the case packaged inside; a super tower case.This case is something special; it’s built for the most demanding userand includes the option to have preinstalled water cooling, up to sevenHDD bays, up to seven 5.25” bays, a removable motherboard tray,aluminium construction and a large 23cm fan. With its gamer-centriclooks, cavernous size and WCG (World Cyber Games) official caseaccolade, let’s see how it performs. Mod of the Month - November 2007 @ bit-tech.net [Nov-28-07] (0 Comments) Here we are at the end of November, and what a month it's been.It'salmost hard to believe that anybody has had any time to do moddingprojects as of late, being as the pile of great games just keepsgetting higher and higher. On top of that, those of us who areStateside have had the Thanksgiving holiday to contend with - and thoseTryptophan-laden turkeys don't just eat themselves!Despite all of that, it seems that you talented modding types havemanaged to find time for the art. Maybe it's the chill, dreary weather,maybe it's the impending holiday season - but whatever the reason, itseems you guys have been modding like fiends. Which is great, becausegood mods never take a holiday.This month, one of you will be walking away with another prize packfrom the folks over at AC Ryan, as well as a bit of love frommotherboard manufacturer MSI. [News] Patriot PC2-6400LLK 4GB Memory Kit @ virtual-hideout.net [Nov-28-07] (0 Comments) One thing that can always make a computer operate like a new machineis memory. If you've ever used your system with the bare minimum amounts ofmemory or just enough to get the job done, then you've held your system backand probably noticed lots of lag. Plenty of system memory means your machinewill perform much smoother with little or no lag. This is especially truewith today's Windows XP Pro or Vista running these huge new games likeCrysis and Call of Duty 4. The larger the data amount, the quicker theaccess and read times seem due to the extra memory. bit-tech :Assassin's Creed (PlayStation 3) @ bit-tech.net [Nov-27-07] (0 Comments) Assassin's Creed could have been so much more:givenbetterenemy AI, more variation in the missions and a more coherent storyline,this could have been a game that lived up to the hype. Unfortunately,what we have is a game with amazing graphics and not much else.The gameplay on its own isn’t really that bad, but it’s far from thehyped up genre defining spectacular we were all lead to expect. Thebrutal reality is that because the game tries to be a jack of alltrades it ends up as a master of none.There are better stealth games out there and better platformers andbetter third-person shooters too. For plot, there are more convincingscience fiction games and more interesting historical games. How exactly the game managed to build so much hype on just a handful ofscreenshots and a trailer or two, I’m not sure. It feels a bit like adevelopers conceit, and the game has been sold on the one thing itlacks:innovation and originality. The game ends up as entirely average.Let's hope Ubisoft can fix things in time for Assassin's Creed 2,a game which is surely on its way given the phenomenal and somewhatbaffling success of the first game. bit-tech :Kane and Lynch:Dead Men @ bit-tech.net [Nov-24-07] (0 Comments) Kane and Lynch is one of those odd games which manages to do somany things right, but so many things wrong too. It’s clear from theoffset that the unrelenting pace, complex backstory and coolly violentgameplay will make it an instant cult hit. However, the less than impressive graphics, awkward multiplayer andsamey nature of the gameplay at the most basic level will equally justput some people off. If I were a psychic forced to predict the future of Kane and Lynch,I’d say it’ll probably end up as one of those word-of-mouth games whichis constantly recommended by fans and critics. Somehow though it willnever really take off – like Psychonauts or Beyond Goodand Evil, both of which I heartily and ironically recommend. It’s not that Kane and Lynch is a bad game. Quite the opposite. Kane andLynchpromises an exciting ride filled with vendettas, vices and vengeance.Unfortunately, that isn’t a dish that everyone has a taste for andthose that are after something more basic and hi-res would be betteroff looking elsewhere. A good game on the whole, but one filled with minor flaws and issues, Kane and Lynchhas the potential to spawn a second, even more adult and undergroundfranchise for Eidos and IO. For the moment though, what we’re left withis a well-told tale which does its best to stand out but can neverquite manage to rise above the crowd of other higher-def shootersavailable this year. Worth picking up, but probably worth selling onagain a few weeks later too. Transformers for Nintendo Wii @ rbmods.com [Nov-22-07] (0 Comments) As you've certainly noticed by now, the Transformers franchise hasgotten a lot of press lately with the release of Transformers the Movie andjust recently the DVD. Not surprisingly, the video game industry hascapitalized on the new popularity, releasing video games based on the oldseries. Today we'll take a look at one such title, Transformers:The Gamefor the Nintendo Wii. Will this game be bit-tech :Guitar Hero III:Legends of Rock @ bit-tech.net [Nov-21-07] (0 Comments) One of the major complaints some of us had about the game toowas thatthe songs seemed a bit poorly chosen and that there were long periodsof inactivity. Sure, there's times when you need a moment to get yourfunk back and rest your hand but for some songs these pauses areincredibly long. You can honestly spend a good 30 to 60 seconds justsat at your TV, waiting for the song to start again.Another thing to take into consideration is the price – the old guitarsare compatible with the new game, but we’d definitely recommend the newwireless model. This naturally drives the price up by a few bobhowever. In the end, it all comes down to the songs and a personal taste. Ifyour musical palette can stand to see the likes of The Who mixing withRage Against The Machine, something my father would have regarded asakin to reputation-buggery, then you’ll be well catered for with GuitarHero III.It may be essentially the same game as Guitar Hero II,just with a few extra tweaks and songs added in, but that knife cutsboth ways so that what may sound like a bad thing is also pretty good.It may not be as innovative as the first games in the series, but it’sstill as fun and series fans will definitely want to pick it up. Rosewill Wii Sports Kit @ thinkgaming.org [Nov-19-07] (0 Comments) The Nintendo Wii has to be one of the most revolutionary consolegaming systems of all time. It proved that graphics are not always asimportant and it lets anyone play games, not just gamers. The Wii comes withWii Sports, which is tennis, baseball, golf, boxing, and bowling. All ofthese are fun to play with the Wii remote, but Rosewill has a kit thatbrings even more reality to the game. The Wii Sports Kit is a set of add-onparts that connect to the Wii remote. contains G.a.p.p.y-T.e.x.t @ bit-tech.net [Nov-18-07] (0 Comments) There is still some nugget of charm buried deep within PerseusMandatehowever and I was pretty surprised by the reaction of one or two peoplein the office when I got my hands on it. Within moments, two people hadseparately mentioned to me how they wanted to borrow the game when thereview was done so they could try it out. There just seems to besomething about the franchise that gets people coming back no matterhow bad I tell them the game is. The depressing thing is that I knowhow bad the game is, but I’ll still probably give it another fullplaythrough next time I have some time spare. You see, that’s the rub, as they say. Perseus Mandateisn’t a great game and it isn’t even a good-looking game. But if you’veread this review this far then we have to take it that you liked theoriginal F.E.A.R. an awful lot. If that’s true then the chancesare you’re going to pick this game up anyway, purely to experience theextra bits of the story. It’s a shame that you’ll likely waste yourtime on Perseus Mandate, because with the number of great gamescoming out at the moment there’s no excuse to be caught playing PerseusMandate. None at all. Digit-Life :Analysing NVIDIA G8x Performance in Modern Games @ digit-life.com [Nov-14-07] (0 Comments) This article was initially intended to continue our analysis of shader units and to show how their number affects NVIDIA G8x performance in modern games. We planned to change parameters of a G80-based graphics card to make it resemble the mid-end G84-based products. Unfortunately, our plans never got to the first base - G80's hardware performance counters didn't work with some shader units disabled. So we decided not to trash our test results and use them in a brief comparative analysis of performance and some other parameters of modern 3D games. bit-tech :Timeshift @ bit-tech.net [Nov-05-07] (0 Comments) TimeShift isn’t a great game, an opinion I’ve probably alreadyover-communicated, but it does have some redeeming features. The wholething is pretty easy to pick up and gamers who want some mindlessaction will no doubt get a kick out of it. The environments are welldetailed too, with some nice weather effects doing a good job of hidingsome of the uglier graphics and more poorly designed levels. One thing I did like about the game though was the unlockables section,which lets players unlock extra little videos and snippets whichexplain bits of the story. Sure, it further evidences the fact that thestory is poorly structured and told, but if you really get into it thenit’s a nice way to build in detail slowly. In the end though the game doesn’t do enough to make itself stand outfrom the crowd of truly awesome games this year. TimeShift hascome at a time when it has to compete with the likes of Halo 3,The Orange Boxand a host of other titles headed to the Xbox 360. By that measure thegame ends up falling a little flat and, while it may be good to pick upfrom the bargain bin for a rainy Saturday (as long as you try not totake it too seriously), that may be just about all it’s good for andthe game isn’t really worth the time of most players. bit-tech - Hellgate:London @ bit-tech.net [Nov-02-07] (0 Comments) When you get right down to it, Hellgate:London isn’tquite the epic RPG re-imagining that it was hyped up to be and justgoes to show that even a team of ex-Blizzard developers don’t alwaysproduce golden games. That said, the game is still enjoyable andplayable and if you’re after a game which tries to do lots of differentthings at once then Hellgate is The Safe Bet. A jack of all trades and a master of none, Hellgate feels likean odd blend of Knights of The Old Republic and Nethack,with a touch of FPS thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, while itkeeps a lot of the good stuff from these games it also retains a few ofthe flaws and we’re left with a game that is probably going toentertain most people for a good twenty or so hours, but which isn’treally going to rock anyone's world. bit-tech :The Legend Of Zelda:The Phantom Hourglass @ bit-tech.net [Oct-27-07] (0 Comments) The Phantom Hourglass has run out of time and now we canonlychoke out our parting shots before we’re buried under a veritablemountain of great gameplay. That’s exactly what’s on offer with The Phantom Hourglasstoo – a mountain gameplay which will keep you coming back for more overand over. The game does well to offer a scaled down version of past Zeldatitles and the design team has obviously learned what was good and wasbad about The Wind Waker. More impressively, they’ve managed todesign a game which is perfectly suited to the hardware of the DS. There are a few problems with The Phantom Hourglassthough, such as the titular hourglass which provides Link with a setamount of ‘safe time’ when traversing the game's central dungeon – TheHome of The Ocean King. The dungeon itself relies more on stealthgameplay than puzzles and the hourglass is an obvious and annoyingattempt to add tension to it all by restricting players to a certainamount of time before they die. That said, as a whole The Phantom Hourglass is a fantasticgame which should be considered a must-buy for the Nintendo DS. Forhardcore gamers there aren’t that many must-have games either, and ifyou want to avoid the likes of Nintendogs then you’re prettymuch limited to Mario, Advance Wars and Castlevania– which makes The Phantom Hourglass even more of a feat. UT3 beta impressions @ bit-tech.net [Oct-25-07] (0 Comments) In terms of gameplay, the game is fantastic. Smooth, fluid andinvolving, the game is accessible to new players and won’t overly putunfamiliar players at a disadvantage. At the same time, it encouragesplayers to experiment and try and learn more from the game, rapidlygaining skill.Graphically the game is a marvel too; environments appear both lush anddetailed without interfering or distracting from the match at hand.It’s the kind of thing which shows that the game has been playtested todeath. However, there are a few things which could be a problem – mainly thelack of change. Sure, the graphics are enhanced and there are newlevels, but a lot of that could have been accomplished in a smallerupdate. The Necris vehicles could help address our fears, but we can’treally comment since we didn’t get to see much of them.Basically, it’s the same old Unreal Tournament, but with a facelift and boob-job which is wellsimulated in terms of bounce. Yeah, I liked that analogy too. If you liked the past games then you’ll love UT3 and ifyou haven’t played the past games then you’ll probably still love it.If you’re one of those in-between players though who’s looking forsomething a little different or new, or with more of a focus onteamplay, then you may be better off waiting a while before you buy. bit-tech Feature:Independent Games Festival 2008 @ bit-tech.net [Oct-23-07] (0 Comments) One of the more accomplished titles to be spotted on the listis thefirst episode in the new series from Frictional Games, titled Penumbra:Overture.In order to quell any nay-sayers we’ve been in contact with FrictionalGames a bit over the last few months and we can promise both that thesecond episode is on its way and that we’ll be getting a good look atit when it does arrive.Penumbra began as one ofthe most popular and most downloadedindie games ever and the original game was a short, self-contained techdemo which can be downloaded here if you want to get a taste for thefull game.The game is the first part of a continuing series which tells the storyof Philip, a physicist who gets a mysterious letter from hislong-absent and supposedly dead father. Philip sets out to investigateand predictably enough gets embroiled in a survival horror situation inan abandoned bunker somewhere in snow-swept Greenland. bit-tech P:Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare hands on @ bit-tech.net [Oct-20-07] (0 Comments) The singleplayer is something we can talk about though and fromwhatwe’ve seen it’s shaping up rather excellently. The graphics areincredibly detailed and good-looking, though the smoke effects don’tlook nearly as impressive as they did when Call of Duty 2 came out andthe RPG smoke trails are a little suspect.The action itself is as frantic as ever too, with grenades andtracerscutting through the sky and sending up plumes of dirt whilst your teammates scream and run around taking down the bad guys. There are a fewareas where we think the gameplay could be tightened up but theoverwhelming majority of the game feels crisp and cleanly put together.The key difference between Call of Duty 4 and the other games in the series is, on reflection,not the largely cosmetic differences between World War 2 and ModernWarfare, but the vastly improved cinematic feel. The past Callof Dutygames have often felt grand and beautifully epic, but rarely were theytruly cinematic. They felt distinctly like playing a game rather thanbeing in a movie. This isn’t true of Modern Warfare which, witha new story and more contemporarily gritty feel, manages to feel moreimmersive and polished forever – possibly putting it forward as thebest Call of Duty game yet if the development continues likethis. bit-tech :Microsoft's Sidewinder gaming mouse @ bit-tech.net [Oct-15-07] (0 Comments) Technically the Sidewinder is a good mouse and on paper it hasall thefeatures one might look for – on the fly DPI, thumb buttons and anergonomic design which isn’t entirely uncomfortableto use. On top of this it adds a load of features which range frompseudo-useful to the downright annoying, such as the weight system andGame Explorer button. The mouse even performs quite well and I tested it across a number ofgames in the week I had it on my desk, including the awesome Team Fortress 2.However, the mouse isn’t exactly the most comfortable to use and theIntellipoint software hinges on being needlessly elaborate. Some of thefeatures, the Game Explorer button in particular, are entirely stupidand do absolutely nothing for us. The overall look of the mouse is alsoa bit repugnant, which makes the price even more annoying. TheSidewinder costs around £40 in the UK or $65 in the US. At that price, the Sidewinder is starting to put itself out of themarket and for just a little bit more you can get a much better mouse,like the Logitech G5, or you could get a Razer Deathadder for the sameprice. Logitech G9 Gaming Mouse @ pro-clockers.com [Oct-12-07] (0 Comments) It's like a media circus whenever Logitech releases any new inputdevices. The reputation that Logitech has when it comes to mice andkeyboards is second to none. Take a look at the G5, one of the most desiredmice around. It had razor fast response and good looks. And when we speakof keyboards, chances are you have heard or even own a G11/G15 keyboard.For an avid gamer this keyboard has all the features necessary to beat anyfirst person shooter, let alone using the macro keys in games . The LCDscreen, weapon shortcuts and media controls, this keyboard basically has itall. bit-tech :Half-Life 2:Episode Two @ bit-tech.net [Oct-11-07] (0 Comments) Perhaps the greatest accolade to lay on Episode Two atthis point is for me to again acknowledge that I was wrong to bitchabout the delays in the episodes. Episode Two was worth thewait, worth every second of it. With a compelling story which is excellently told, a fantastic andproven gameplay mechanic and an utterly enthralling way ofcommunicating with the player via digital actors like Alyx, EpisodeTwo is one of my favourite games ever. That’s not an expression I cometo lightly. You have to go play it and you have to go play it soon, but take myadvice and make sure that you play it in as few separate sittings aspossible. This isn’t the type of game you should dip in and out of forfive minutes at a time, though you easily could. This is the type ofgame you should spend some serious time on, exploring the world thatValve has delicately crafted for you. If ever there was a good reason for you to neglect your real life andplay a computer game for hours on end then Episode Two is it. DX10 Gaming Performance - Catalyst 7.10 @ pcper.com [Oct-10-07] (0 Comments) The real magic of AMD's Catalyst 7.10 update comes when you plug ina second HD 2900 XT card -- our CrossFire experiences with this driver wereWORLDS above what we had to deal with on the 7.9 driver revision. In all ofour games we saw notable improvements in the scaling of CrossFire and insome cases turned a negative performance gain into a strong positive one.In Bioshock we saw a 54% gain in CrossFire performance, in Company of Heroeswe saw a 73% gain and in World of Conflict a 93% gain. bit-tech :Team Fortress 2 @ bit-tech.net [Oct-10-07] (0 Comments) Like any multiplayer game all it really is, when all else isstrippedaway, is a set of rules and areas in which people come to have fun. Theareas dictate where they will have fun and the rules dictate how theywill have fun. By that rule, Team Fortress 2 is simply the most conciselywritten rulebook we’ve ever seen, dispatching with all the chaff andaddendums and leaving only a set of guidelines which will lead playersthrough an assault course that finishes in multiplayer heaven. Abrilliant sense of style and an established community can get you sofar, and Team Fortress 2 already has both of these. What really brings it into its own though is the sense of flow to eachgame and the uniting feeling that each player is somehow connected intheir pursuit of victory on any given map. And by that yardstick, TeamFortress 2 proves itself to be the title which all other multiplayergames want to be when they grow up.We love Team Fortress 2 and it's truly a breath of fresh air inthe world of online multiplayer first-person shooters but, like Worldin Conflict,there is something we can't quite explain that prevents us from givingthis game a 10/10 score. It's a game that we'd give 19 if we scored outof 20, it's a game you should go and buy right now if you haven'talready, and it's about time I shut up so you can get on and play... bit-tech :Inno3D GeForce 8600 GTS iChiLL Xstriker3 @ bit-tech.net [Oct-09-07] (0 Comments) At the higher price, you only have to look at the GeForce 8800GTS 320MB’s performance and measure that against its £165 asking priceto realise that you’d be a mug to spend £140 on a GeForce 8600 GTS.Thankfully though, Inno3D’s card isn’t as expensive as otherpre-overclocked 8600 GTSes and it actually comes in at a tempting pricepoint if you’re looking for an all-rounder.Where gaming is concerned, the Radeon X1950 Pro will perform as well asInno3D’s iChiLL Xstriker3 and in some cases better than it too – youcan pick one of ATI’s previous generation mid-range cards for around£85 (inc. VAT). Of course, it’s worth remembering that the X1950 Prodoesn’t have DirectX 10 support, but we think that’s a bit of a mootpoint and more of a checkbox feature given the performance penalty forrunning current games in DX10 mode. However, if you are looking at something that has all of the HD videoacceleration features that are available in the current generation’smid-range hardware, you’ll probably take the small performance penaltyin games to compensate for the massively improved performance in HDvideo playback. Therefore we’re not going to make an outrightrecommendation to buy this particular graphics card, but it’s one toconsider if the usage model outlined above fits you. bit-tech Feature:How to write... an Adventure game @ bit-tech.net [Oct-08-07] (0 Comments) The Adventuregenre is, it has long been proclaimed, a dead genre.Nobody plays them. Nobody wants them. Nobody good makes them. So go themelodramatic criers who want to get a lot of traffic on their websitesby appearing controversial and ‘in-your-face’.It’s true that the adventure game genre has died off a bit and theworld is no longer filled with point and click adventures like Beneatha Steel Sky, Broken Sword or the computer game adaptation of my secondfavourite story ever, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.Still, just because we don’t have many ‘point and click’ adventuregames anymore doesn’t mean that we don’t still have adventure games asa major genre. Both Fahrenheit and Sam and Maxare proof of that - thought it's impossible to deny that consumerinterest in adventure games has declined a lot in recent years. In a world where we have photo-realistic gameplay, physics simulationsand lots of really impressive explosions, why would anybody want toplay a story-driven adventure game? I put the question to David Cagefirst.“Adventure games died off because they failed to evolve. Theyfailed to find new answers, a new language different from thetraditional ‘Point and Click’, which led them to totally miss theconsole market. Because console games use a controller and not a mouse,because they are fast paced and targeting a younger audience, they madeadventure games look out of place.” bit-tech P:Team Fortress 2 beta impressions @ bit-tech.net [Oct-04-07] (0 Comments) Graphically, as well, the game is just on another level to itscontemporaries. As already mentioned, the game isn't designed to berealistic, but rather uses a mix of cel-shadingand various engine tweaks created by Valve’s dev team to createenvironments and models that are incredibly polished. Even effects likemotion blur are implemented exquisitely, giving the sensation of speedand movement, but without inducing nausea after five minutes of playlike we’ve found with some games recently.Let's not forget though that this is a Beta we're talking about andthat the dev team still has time to iron out the few wrinkles that docrop up from time to time (namely the occasional crash to desktop).TF2 will also be coming down the tubes through Valve’s infamouscontent delivery system, so updates should be quick and seamless.I could continue writing about the marvels of TF2 for days, oreven weeks (perhaps you should start a bit-tech fan club? – Ed.).Instead though, I will confine myself to stating that while Crysismay have left us speechless with its graphical prowess, TF2 seems, tome at least, a refreshing break from the norm of multiplayerfirst-person shooters.I simply can’t wait for the full release and the influx of thousandsmore noobs ready to succumb to my baseball bat of doom. Muwhahaha!! BFG Ageia PhysX Card @ techpowerup.com [Oct-02-07] (0 Comments) BFG is one of two companies offering the Ageia PhysX card in form of a retail product. The PPU - physics proccesing unit - is an additioal processor to the GPU and CPU. It enables real life physics and interactivity within supporting games. While the first games and a high price tag upon launch did not live up to expectations, the brand new Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and a very affordable 120 USD price tag makes this a great addition nowadays. Insignia NS-LCD32 32 Inch 720p HDTV Monitor @ benchmarkreviews.com [Oct-01-07] (0 Comments) With a 1000:1 contrast ratio and 500 cd/m˛ brightness, the Insignia 32-Inch 720p HDTV lets you view crisp, clear picture quality from your favorite movies and games. The HDMI input bit-tech :Company of Heroes:Opposing Fronts @ bit-tech.net [Sep-29-07] (0 Comments) Opposing Fronts is an excellent addition to the realm ofWWIIRTS games and the fact that it can be played either with or without theoriginal game is a great boon to genre fans.On top of this the game has undergone a variety of the enhancements andtweaks. Not only is there the two new campaigns and the new teams totoy with, but there’s also day and night cycles and some interestingweather effects which impact on gameplay. Muddy terrain will slow downheavy vehicles, while a burst of sunlight may give a troop of infantrya surge of courage and hope. These new weather effects don’t play a huge part in the game design andit’s probably possible to pass them by without noticing, but theaddition is interesting and unique enough to be noteworthy. bit-tech :Kingston KHX11000D3LLK2/2G and OCZ PC3-10666 Platinum Edition DDR3 memory @ bit-tech.net [Sep-27-07] (0 Comments) Overall, the Kingston performs better in 2D applications whenit'srunning at 1,333MHz with its default timings, whereas the OCZ seems torun better at 1,066MHz with lower latencies. On average there's acouple of memory heavy situations, like Xvid encoding, where theKingston is just simply faster than the OCZ. This isn't reflected in 3Dwhere the OCZ is the faster memory across all the games we've testedhere.So which one is better? We'd have to say neither of them are in thegrand scheme of things. If you do a lot of intensive 2D work then theKingston is more likely to suit you and if you're a gamer, you mightfind that the OCZ is a better choice.It's hardly surprising that they both overclock virtually identicallyas well, considering they use the same DRAM chips - the Kingston canhandle fractionally lower latencies but the OCZ does 8MHz more at thetop end. ~1,430-1,440MHz from 1,333MHz modules is hardly that much toshout about, but at least both of them are consistent. Compared to the engineeringsample Corsair DHX modules, which managed to achieve 1,520MHz, but thatwas at CAS-9 which negates almost any frequency advantage. Enemy Territory:Quake Wars Gameplay Performance @ nvnews.net [Sep-27-07] (0 Comments) Today we are reporting on gameplay performance in the demo of Enemy Territory:Quake Wars. Enemy Territory:Quake Wars is one of the few PC games being released that uses the OpenGL API, which makes it portable to Linux and Mac operating systems, both of which are currently under development. Along with BioShock, Enemy Territory:Quake Wars will be incorporated into our graphics benchmark suite as we ready ourselves for the next generation of GPUs from NVIDIA. bit-tech :Zotac's GeForce 8600 GT ZONE Edition @ bit-tech.net [Sep-26-07] (0 Comments) Ultimately, the buying decision is going to depend on your needsbecause there is no clear must buy in the midrange at themoment. Previous-generation DirectX 9 cards outperform their replacements,but the new generation of cards have DX10 support and better HD videocapabilities. I guess if you're after a mainstream graphics card with a good set ofhome theatre features and respectable performance in both DirectX 9 andDirectX10 games, Zotac's card looks to be a better purchase than the Radeon HD2600 XT, but it's a bit expensive for our tastes at the moment. Youcould say Zotac's GeForce 8600 GT ZONE Edition is a jack of all trades,master of none at its current price. bit-tech P:Crysis Multiplayer Beta Impressions @ bit-tech.net [Sep-25-07] (0 Comments) So, is Crysis the next best thing or a just a very pretty butstill dead fish floating in the vast and ever-changing ocean of PCgames? The chances are you’ve already made up your mind on the issue,but you still came here and read this far in order to hear my thoughtsso you’ll still have to sit down and listen. Or read. Whatever.The problem with Crysis as far as I can see is that it may be perilously close tofalling into the same trap as Far Cry– ending up a gorgeous game with some very interesting gameplayelements, but still marred on a few basic issues. The short ten hourlength of the singleplayer game and the quick movement between thejungle, frozen island and spaceship environments may just be a savinggrace for the singleplayer game if rumours are to be believed.With the multiplayer though, the gameplay still feels a little confusedand broken. Wonky physics and performance issues are easily forgiven ina beta version, but the actual premise and the design of the powerstruggle mode is still something I’d call into question. Even thegamemodes themselves could change as the game moves from beta to goldstatus and if you’re one of the few people who’s genuinely confusedabout whether or not Crysis will live up to the hype then you’re going to have to hold onand wait until you can get a taste of the game. NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver 1.16369 @ ngohq.com [Sep-21-07] (0 Comments) The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver is a modified version of the NVIDIA ForceWare driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage. This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience.This driver includes NVIDIA's new Control Panel. We've preferred to include the new Control Panel over the old one due to flexibility and stability reasons. The Driver has support for all GeForce/Quadro cards =96 including mobile series (Go) as well. This driver has a special compatibility mode option that provides better stability, and workaround for some known bugs. Real-time raytracing for PC games almost a reality @ pcper.com [Sep-21-07] (0 Comments) All of this leads us to one thought:we want this now. Unfortunately, that's not quite possible as the hardware isn't fast enoughto get high resolution and high frame rates at the same time. But itturns out we aren't far from that convergence. The team at Intelestimates that within 2 years or so, the hardware will exist that willallow Gaming Culture:Four Stereotypes Examined @ bonafidereviews.com [Sep-19-07] (0 Comments) Because Hardcore gamers have such a wealth of info on gaming and how games operate, they are keener on figuring out game imbalance. Though this might make new gamers angry when presented with evidence that their favorite character is either content-type:x-google-sender-auth; @ dragonsteelmods.com [Sep-17-07] (0 Comments) A couple weeks ago I took a look at the SteelSeries 3H Gaming headphones,well they've just sent me the 4H version for review which is essentially amore improved version of the 3H. In my review of the 3H headphones I foundthem to be a bit lacking in some areas but still overall a great set ofheadphones, the 4H version I have for review today picks up where the 3Hheadset left off. I found them to be an excellent all around set ofheadphones no matter what you are doing, be it FPS or RTS games, or even forlistening to music and watching movies, the 4H headphones are a great allaround pair for whatever you need them for. bit-tech Feature:The World of DS Homebrew @ bit-tech.net [Sep-15-07] (0 Comments) It’s weird then that the DS homebrew scene is still avoided bymany,who fear that homebrew is blatantly illegal and tough to get working.With the hardware we’ve detailed above it’s merely a case ofdrag-and-drop and the homebrew community is just about large andfriendly enough to help people with real problems through any problemscrop up. Plus, when used correctly homebrew development is a legal and usefulthing for console gamers – indifferent in legality and benefits fromrunning a mod for any PC game that you use. Who knows, with properencouragement from companies like Nintendo it may even be possible forsome homebrew developers to make it big, just like the makers of Counter-strike and Team Fortress did by modding alreadyexisting games. It may take a fair deal of bravery to make the first plunge into ‘thehomebrew scene’, but when the price of the homebrew hardware is so lowalmost anyone can make that leap – and why not? Homebrew is nodifferent from any other software really and running it is a sure wayto get some extra value out of your handheld, so why not pick up aSlot-1 card and get downloading?Who knows, in a week or two I may well catch some of you in a WiFi gameof QuakeDS... bit-tech :BFGTech GeForce 8600 GTS OC2 ThermoIntelligence @ bit-tech.net [Sep-14-07] (0 Comments) BFGTech'sGeForce 8600 GTS OC ThermoIntelligence is a great example ofa GeForce 8600 GTS and it delivers good performance for a gamer runninga 17” or 19” LCD monitor in current titles. In isolation, it’s a goodcard with a cooler that does exactly what it the manufacturer claims itwill do, and then some based on our results.Unfortunately though, BFGTech’s ThermoIntelligence cards come with aprice premium and the 8600 GTS OC2 is no exception to this rule at over£145 (inc. VAT). You can pick up a stock clocked GeForce 8600 GTS foraround £110 (inc. VAT), which isn’t too far behind in the performancestakes. Probably more of a concern is the fact that Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 GTS320MB starts at just over £180 (inc. VAT), with BFGTech’s own “OC”model starting at around £186.From the results obtained during this evaluation, both of these optionslook to be significantly better value for money for not that much more.One thing we've not mentioned is the previous generation mid-rangecards that are often perform better than the new generation ofmid-range hardware and are available at more attractive price points.Of course, you won't be able to enable DX10 features on these cards,which we've proven can be enabled on the new mid-range cards in nativeDX10 games like BioShock, but the benefitsat the moment are small. Austin GDC Coverage (Two Interviews) @ techgage.com [Sep-11-07] (0 Comments) At last week's AustinGDC, we had the opportunity to sit down withVivox, a company that's been implementing advanced voice communicationtechnology in many popular online games, including EVE Online. Read onfor our comprehensive interview and also thoughts from our experienceswith the technology. The Tetris Mod @ bit-tech.net [Sep-10-07] (0 Comments) Out of all ofthose great games though there was one which got peoplehooked all over the world - Tetris. The game seemed so verysimple...all you had to do was place every little piece into a wall. Ofcourse, simple doesn't mean easy - blocks dropped quicker and quicker,and the minutes flew by just as quickly. Thousands of colourful hoursin eight bits, double matches trying to be the best in the “hall offame”!The idea of the new Planet Express Klan project arose from these fondmemories. It would be based in a retro style, with very bright colours.It also had to be of huge proportions, as it would need to hold thegaming rigs of each of our clan. Austin Game Developers Conference Coverage @ techgage.com [Sep-06-07] (0 Comments) One of the more important aspects of any MMO game ishaving some great back-story. To gain an idea of what goes on behindthe scenes, we sat down with both Web Fiction Author and also theCommunications Director for CCP Games, creators of EVE Online. Tritton USB 5.1 Digital Headset @ modders-inc.com [Sep-05-07] (0 Comments) For the hardcore gamers, the challenge of picking the right headsetis even tougher. With todays games offering top quality sound, you need atop quality headset to take advantage of it. Today we are going to look atone of Tritton Technologies AXPC USB 5.1 Digital headsets. 2K Games BioShock PC Game @ pro-clockers.com [Sep-05-07] (0 Comments) The highly anticipated hybrid first-person shooter BioShock hit storeshelves August 21, and we had to get our hands on one of the first copies.After scratching and clawing my way through all the people and spectators, Iwas able to grab one of the last boxes available. After tending to my woundsand paying the store clerk, I eagerly rushed home to get this game installedand start my evaluation (whereas I prepared early and pre-ordered the gametwo months ago, and the most I received in the way of injuries was a nervoustwitch in my neck from the commute home - lovingly stroking the embossedmetal case the game came in - Ed) Games Convention 2007:Hardware @ techpowerup.com [Aug-29-07] (0 Comments) The Games Convention 2007 had some very interesting hardware product launches. We have scoured the halls, snapped pictures and collected information on all the interesting new releases at the show. Games Convention 2007:Girls @ techpowerup.com [Aug-27-07] (0 Comments) After running wild search patterns through the halls of Games Convention Germany we are proud to present you the finest collection of booth babes from Europe's biggest gaming show. You will find 300 high-res photos to get an impression of what you missed. Kinc and Shamino breaks 27,000 in 3DMark 06 with Mushkin and ASUS HD 2900 XT CrossFire @ nordichardware.com [Aug-26-07] (0 Comments) This brings Kinc, and Shamino of course, back to the top of the 3DMark 06 Hall of Fame, along with the Radeon HD 2900 XT. The new GPU-pots (rev4) with a thicker base really does wonders for the Radeon HD 2900 XT, and there might even be more coming. The new world record is 27,039 points and it might even get a tweak or two before the Games Convention is over. Exclusive Hands-on p of Haze @ bit-tech.net [Aug-25-07] (0 Comments) Created to help present and challenge some of the taboos andissueswhich affect all computer games, such as in-game violence and the wayin which it is glorified, Hazeis gutsy to say the least. With a story that will seriously encourageplayers to question how they view the world around them and a gamedesign which puts this message across through some excellent gameplayfeatures as well as plot, Haze is set to be the first realmust-have game for the PlayStation 3. An Insight - XSs @ Jon \ [Aug-22-07] (0 Comments) Inthe past XSReviews has worked quite closely with Ageia, reviewingtheir hardware and testing out some of their supported games to see howPhysX effects gameplay and ultimately, to see if that extra add-in cardis worth it. Recently I had the pleasure of conducting a lengthyinterview with Dan Forster who is the PR and Marketing manager forAgeia in Europe and he was able to answer some of our questions onupcoming games like Warmonger, using the PhysX SDK, competition fromthe Havok engine, and what we can expect from the Ageia hardware in thefuture. Technic3D with oVerkill.OC Team on Games Convention @ technic3d.com [Aug-20-07] (0 Comments) Technic3D goes with the German Overclocking Team oVerkill.OC o n Games Convention 2007. You find us in Hall 4/F31 on the Jet-Computer Booth. Every Day extreme Overclocking with -100=B0C and more. A very fast Game-PC on GC 2007 with 1.200W PSUs, BFG 8800 Ultra Cards and Int el QX6850 CPU. We can brake Records from the 3D-Mark 06? You cann see that and many more in the Shows in Leipzig Germany Wolf King Warrior gaming keypad @ bit-tech.net [Aug-18-07] (0 Comments) Whether the Wolf King Warrior performs as well innon-FPS games is abit harder to tell, as there aren’t really that many genres that wouldrequire a pad such as this. Ones that could benefit from a real keyremapping already have more dedicated inputs. Flight simulators?Joysticks. Platformers? Game pads. Isometric RPGs and strategy gamesmeanwhile tend to favour the mouse for the majority of inputs, withkeyboards being used for simple shortcuts predominantly.It’s clear straight away that the Wolf King Warrior was designedalmostexclusively for FPS games and action games, but that's okay - in these,the pad clearly excels. The World of Indie Games @ bit-tech.net [Aug-17-07] (0 Comments) The best thing about indie games nowadays though is the waythey arespreading to other systems and are being encouraged by some of themajor developers, like Microsoft. Microsoft in particular is going crazy for indie developers and cheaplygiving away support and assets to indie game makers who want to sign upto the XNA Creators Club. Doing so allows designers to create their owngames, with the hope of distributing them on Xbox Live and becoming thenext Geometry Wars.But Microsoft isn’t alone in the way it is encouraging indiedevelopers. Nintendo too is eager to entice bedroom-based game designers to the Wiiand is encouraging developers to make ‘WiiWare’ games which will buildon the unique and lower-end appeal of the Wii as a console. The Most Anticipated Games of Winter 2007 @ benchmarkreviews.com [Aug-17-07] (0 Comments) The summer didn't exactly bring all of the DirectX 10 sizzle we hoped for, but this winter is looking like things will really begin to heat up for gamers. Benchmark Reviews walks though AMD ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT GDDR4 vs. Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT @ bit-tech.net [Aug-14-07] (0 Comments) Neither theGeForce 8600 GT and Radeon HD 2600 XT GDDR4 deliver a good enoughgaming experience to give the previous generation cards a run for theirmoney in the variety of games we’ve tested here. Sadly, there’s nocompelling DirectX 10 content out there at the moment and that’s a goodenough reason to stay away from these cards for the time being.If you’re on a tight budget and need to buy a graphics card for around£80 today, we’d recommend looking at the Radeon X1950 Pro as it’lloffer a consistently better gaming experience than the new mid-rangecards from AMD and Nvidia. If AMD and Nvidia’s promises of DirectX 10content that performs well on mid-range hardware hold true, this maychange in the future. However, we’re unable to predict what mighthappen when in the future - at least on the performance front.Finally, if you’re a movie buff, you’ll probably find the new HD videoacceleration features in both of these new GPUs cool – we do too. Sadlythough, the current 24-bit colour depth limitation in Windows meansthat your HD movie playback device is not only going to cost more thana set top box, but it’s also not going to be able to match theirfeature set. Crysis hands-on p @ bit-tech.net [Aug-14-07] (0 Comments) One of the major talking points since we first previewed Crysiswas the sheer quality of the graphics. On that front, Crysismost definitely delivers and even though we were merely playing theDirectX 9.0 version of the game, it's easily one of the best lookinggames we've ever played - if not the best outright. The lighting was stunning, especially when you went for a swim - therays of light and reflections from the water on the sea bed werebreathtaking. Of course, lighting on its own is all well and good, butit's never going to deliver a truly immersive experience without somegood shadows. It's lucky, then, that Crysisalso delivers on that front too - the shadows are right up there withthe lighting effects and really helped to make for an immersiveexperience. NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v1.16218 @ ngohq.com [Aug-13-07] (0 Comments) The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver is a modified version of the NVIDIA ForceWare driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage. This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience. A look at Omega Sektor - the UK's largest LAN gaming centre @ bit-tech.net [Aug-11-07] (0 Comments) I spent a good ten or twenty minutes talking to these potentialcustomers and the one thing that I found most amazing was that they allbelieved the games were running on maximum settings, despite the factthat I later showed them it was default settings and that the PCprevented you from pushing the texture detail to high.Still, I pushed the topic forwards and asked them if they would bewilling to pay for time in the centre. The answer was a unanimous yes,despite the fact that none of them knew how the centre was to bepriced. When I outlined the pricing plan to them, they accepted it asperfectly reasonable given the quality of the hardware and selection ofgames and services. Herded back into the Omega Sektor-mobile and sent back towards thetrain station, I was no longer struggling with my conclusions. OmegaSektor had successfully won me over and it wasn’t because of the fancycars and flowing wine either. Omega Sektor struck a chord with me,making me enthusiastic about competitive gaming again and bringing backthe old adrenaline rush which only LAN gaming can deliver. Couple thatbuzz with the reasonable prices and the backing of companies like Inteland Scan Computers, it’s hard to deny that Omega Sektor is set to bethe hub for professional and competitive gaming in the UK. PhysX in GRAW 2 - XSs @ Jon \ [Aug-10-07] (0 Comments) Arounda year and a half after their original release, PhysX cards still causemuch controversy when discussion about them begins. They have the usualfanboys and skeptics and all those in between. No one can deny however,that there hasn't been many games that really utilize the PhysX PPU(Cell Factor is perhaps the only one) and shows off what the technologycan really do. Now Ubisoft have released their second game to supportPhysX, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (GRAW 2). With a special leveland extra effects for those with Ageia's cards, will this game make itworth buying one? Read on to find out. Diamond Multimedia Viper HD 2900 XT 1GB GDDR4 @ pcper.com [Aug-09-07] (0 Comments) The second problem that Diamond faces with the 1GB model is that, inmost of our tests, doubling the amount of memory to 1GB and moving to GDDR4versus GDDR3 modules didn't have a dramatic effect on performance.Certainly it had much less impact than I had initially hoped to see. Thereare still a couple games in our testing suite that did see SOME performanceimprovements such as Supreme Commander and Oblivion. A Woman's Primer to Building Her Own Computer - Part 1 @ thetechlounge.com [Jul-31-07] (0 Comments) The computer world has known for a long time that girls are to be takenseriously. Games can be ridiculously fun and appeal to everyone. And it'snot just about The Sims and Bejeweled; girls want to grab a lightsaber ordon platemail and save the world from Oblivion just as much as boys do, sowhat's stopping us from building our own computers? Wii Mario Party 8 @ rbconsoles.com [Jul-27-07] (0 Comments) While most Wii owners are eagerly awaiting the return of Mario inSuper Mario Galaxy set to release this fall, there are currently titlesavailable for the Wii that star the loveable character. Today we'll look atone such title, Mario Party 8 from Nintendo. This game is the latest in theseries of games that pits Mario and his friends in friendly competition in acarnival-type setting. Will this game bring the party atmosphere to yourhouse? Let's find out. Alienware Aurora m9700 17-inch Notebook @ thetechlounge.com [Jul-26-07] (0 Comments) When I think laptop, I think portable computing. I want to be able tocheck some mail, sync some music, and basically, go a long time out of thehouse without worrying about where I'm going to find a free outlet. I'malso the sort who uses a laptop for work, not games, and would rather spendmy gaming budget on a capable desktop. But I understand wanting a laptopthat can game, I've done the LAN party deal for posterity. I alsounderstand the appeal of the desktop replacement:a quiet computer thattakes up almost no space is something most everyone agrees with. Writing for the LCD:FPS games @ bit-tech.net [Jul-23-07] (0 Comments) One thing which is constantly interesting about thefirst-personperspective is how prominent it is in games compared to movies andwritten stories. In games, practically every other title is a FPS gameand almost all of the major releases for the last five years have usedthe FPS template in some way, from Half-Life 2 and Preyto the upcoming Haze and Crysis, yet in cinema thereare hardly any movies which harness a first-person view and the onlyones in recent memory are The Blair Witch Project and Doom,the latter of which doesn't really count in our opinion since it justcopies the game. In books however the first-person perspective is more commonly used,though not a majority, so it seems odd that it's so prevalent in moderngaming culture.The reason for this is most likely that games are an interactive mediumand therefore recognise that the first-person perspective is the mostnatural one to use when presenting an environment from the viewpoint ofa single character. Books and movies meanwhile choose generally toseize a third-person point of view as it frees them from the verydifficulties which Rob pointed out earlier on; a third-personperspective allows the writer of a book or movie the opportunity to cutaway to some off-screen action a lot more fluidly. E3 2007 Major Events Recap @ bonafidereviews.com [Jul-22-07] (0 Comments) E3 is still a hotspot for the latest info in the games industry, and this year being the second year of the new generation of gaming consoles, the puberty of their life if you will, had a very strong showing of some new and innovative ideas all of which are sure to wet your gaming whistle. Lets take a look at some of them now shall we. The Laws of PhysX @ bit-tech.net [Jul-22-07] (0 Comments) Maybe Unreal Tournament 3 will be that game which firstcrosses the line between simply providing extra eye candy and providinga fundamentally different game experience with a must-have status, butwe won’t know it until the game is released and this is what reallyillustrates the problem Ageia faces; without a string of must-havegames set up to use the PPU, few gamers will risk investing in a newpiece of hardware, but with few gamers willing to invest in thehardware it still remains to be seen if enough of the big developersare willing to take the plunge and develop games which will require thePhysX hardware. 10 Reasons to Buy a Nintendo DS Lite @ xyzcomputing.com [Jul-18-07] (0 Comments) In the future we can expect a lot from the DS. This is true not only because developers have figured out how to use the stylus and how to better integrate the two screens into the gaming experience, but for other reasons as well. One of the most important is that the success of the DS has meant that a number of highly awaited titles are making their way onto the DS. These are not just portable offshoots but first rate games that would previously have been seen on one of the big three consoles. Also the DS' unique form factor and touchscreen have allowed for a number of games that really lend themselves to the system, like Brain Age and WarioWare. Intel's Core 2 refresh:QX6850, E6850 & E6750 tested @ bit-tech.net [Jul-17-07] (0 Comments) If you aredead set on an Intel CPU, obviously the question that I’msure is on those people’s minds at the moment is whether you should optfor the Q6600 or the E6850, which are both at similar price points.Personally, I would opt for the quad-core processor every time, butthat’s because I’m quite a heavy multi-tasker and I often find myselfshort of processing time on a dual-core processor. I like to be able tocontinue what I’m doing when I’m running a processor intensive task andsince most applications that you’re likely to use benefit from no morethan two cores.Add this to the fact that there are a slew of games coming out in thefuture that will benefit from quad-cores – Crysis is the first, andfrom what we’ve heard there are plenty more too. In recent times, gameshaven’t really benefited from high processor clock speeds becausethey’re graphics limited rather than CPU limited. This trend is goingto continue, but as games engines get more complex, more will need tobe done at any given point in time – that’s where quad-core processorswill really come into their own. SteelSeries SX Mousepad @ thinkcomputers.org [Jul-17-07] (0 Comments) SteelSeries has surely created a mousepad that has surpassed all oftheir other mousepad's. It can't be compared to any other professionalgaming surface available today. The newly released Steelseries SX precisiongaming mousepad is composed of fiber polished aluminum with anodized oxidecoating, allowing for an uber smooth gaming surface for precise wrist actionin all of your games. The SteelSeries SX was designed for the hardcoregamers who really want to experience a different feel to communicating withyour computer. PNY GeForce 8800 GTX XLR8 Overclocked Edition @ pcper.com [Jul-14-07] (0 Comments) In our actual testing, the PNY 8800 GTX XLR8 performed just as youwould expect; it took the already impressive numbers that our reference 8800GTX was able to put forth and improved on them. In games like HL2:Episode1, the gains were very impressive while in some titles like Oblivion theextra core speeds were a little less palpable in the real world gamingscenarios we used. Sonic and the Secret Rings for Wii @ bonafidereviews.com [Jul-14-07] (0 Comments) The most common complaint that critics cited against previous 3D Sonic games, most famously Sonic Adventure, was that the camera often didn’t point in the direction that they were going. The game was lambasted for this, and now it’s not uncommon to see new games with wonky camera systems to be mockingly compared to Sonic’s Dreamcast debut. But was the problem the game, or the critics themselves? Zotac GeForce 8800 GTX AMP! Edition @ bit-tech.net [Jul-13-07] (0 Comments) On the whole, Zotac's first foray into our labs has been apretty goodone. Of course there is very little differentiation, aside fromclockspeeds, from most other board partners out there because Nvidia’shigh-end cards are all built by a third party contractor. However, whatwe have seen is that even a relatively new manufacturer can polishNvidia’s now nine month old GeForce 8800 GTX and create a pretty goodproduct.We’re a little disappointed that Zotac didn’t increase the shader clockspeed, but considering the relatively small performance difference thisisn’t a massive issue. Games are becoming more shader heavy and asproven by the GeForce 8800 Ultra, the higher shader clock results inultimately higher performance even despite a lower “core” clock. Matrox TripleHead2Go Digital Edition @ bit-tech.net [Jul-06-07] (0 Comments) On the whole,I am very impressed with the TripleHead2Go but there aresome definite drawbacks that you might want to consider before takingthe plunge. Not every game is supported and you can't guarantee thatgames you're wanting to play in the future will have support for thesuper-wide resolutions that the TripleHead2Go can handle.Thus, if you end up in a situation where a game you've been dying toplay isn't supported by the TripleHead, you'll be limited to playing onjust one of the screens. If this was to happen, you'd feel a littleshort-changed because for the same amount of money, you could havepicked up a single 24 ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB @ thetechlounge.com [Jun-28-07] (0 Comments) ATI is changing pace from their flagship by releasing their DirectX 10mainstream cards within recent memory of NVIDIA's mainstream release.NVIDIA's mainstream release was memorable if bitter; the advantages of theunified shader architecture that made the 8800-series of video cards sopowerful didn't have the same puissance once it was cut down forthe masses. Made people sad. So a lot of people are excited about thesemainstream cards. Not everyone wants a video card that costs $400 or more,and for a while there, the options were:buy a crappy mainstreamcurrent-generation card, or buy an aging card from way back when, that yeah,plays games as good (if not better) but doesn't have the features andconsumes a lot of power, puts out a lot of heat, and makes all the noiseassociated with high-end parts. Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-6400 2GB Kit @ techpowerup.com [Jun-28-07] (0 Comments) Today we take a look at the Ballistix Tracer PC2-6400 2GB kit from Crucial Technology. For those who haven't heard of the Tracer range, these modules feature eye catching blue backlighting and activity LEDs, making this RAM an excellent choice for making your PC really stand out! With most modern games using more and more memory and at the same time needing loads of bandwidth, this memory would be great for high-end gaming systems. An interview with Roy Taylor, SVP Content Relations at Nvidia - TWIMTBP, DX10 and beyond @ bit-tech.net [Jun-26-07] (0 Comments) Roy was quick to point out that “it’s important to note thatthemassive performance titles you’ve mentioned are results from games thatare early looks rather than reflective of the first wave of firstgeneration titles.” Roy continued, telling us that some more betaswould be coming out in the next two months, with full game launchesstarting as early as August. He then revealed that “the experienceswith those will be very different for a number of reasons.” Episodic Gaming OpEd @ bit-tech.net [Jun-23-07] (0 Comments) Episodic gaming is an issue which is very close to my heart asawriter, journalist and gamer. As a writer, I love the way that episodicdistribution opens up a whole new way of writing for games, while as ajournalist it was an essay on the problems of episodic gamedevelopments which got me this job and as a gamer I simply look forwardto the promise of more regular, interactive stories in an episodicformat. Loki p @ bit-tech.net [Jun-22-07] (0 Comments) The hack 'n' slash genre is one which I haven't played enoughof inrecent years, mainly because games of the hack 'n' slash variant tendto be of poor quality and are often immediately bargain bin material orthe stuff of weird Doom 3 mods.The hack 'n' slash genre still has a lot to offer though in theory, aslong as a good enough game can be made of it. Simple interfaces, focuson combat and RPG-lite elements; these are the hallmarks of hack 'n'slash which make it ideal for laptop gaming and some casual RPG fans.So, since we RPG fanatics are otherwise left around waiting for Fallout3 and Mass Effect, we'll have a look at the upcoming Lokiand see if it can tide us over or if it's nothing more than the bargainbin material we're used to. Microsoft sues Immersion... but what happened? - OpEd @ bit-tech.net [Jun-21-07] (0 Comments) With a costly judgement all but guaranteed, Sony had no choicebut tostep behind the settlement doors with Immersion... and walk out morethan $90m lighter. Talk about being bent over... that's a sixth of theentire company's profits in 2006, and almost a quarter of what theGames division made in 2005.It was really a brilliant scheme. Microsoft gets out of the patentissue for a paltry sum and a small loan (the patent wasn't ever worththat much, anyhow). Its biggest competitor, on the other hand, getsutterly screwed by the legal system and ends up diverting massiveresources away from its next console launch (which was subsequentlydelayed). And all the while, MS makes a new friend out of Immersion,which is laughing all the way to the bank. All that was left was forImmersion to pay back its little loan and nobody would be any thewiser. Bigfoot Networks Killer NIC M1 @ techpowerup.com [Jun-18-07] (0 Comments) The Killer NIC by Bigfoot Networks is a network card specifically designed for the needs of gamers. It comes with a 400 MHz RISC processor onboard that handles all network processing functions, giving the games more CPU time to use. In addition to that the processor can run small applications like a Firewall or BitTorrent client independently from the host system. Wii Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 @ rbconsoles.com [Jun-18-07] (0 Comments) When I first saw the Wii remote, the first thing I thought of was howgreat it would be to play a golf game using the motion-sensing remote thatyou can grip like a golf club. Fast forward to today, where Tiger Woods hasput his name on one of the early golfing games for the Wii, Tiger Woods PGATour 07 from EA Sports. Will this golf game turn out to be the nextgeneration of video golfing games? Read on to find out. Girls @ techpowerup.com [Jun-13-07] (0 Comments) At this year's Computex you could see an incredible number of hot girls that were presenting products or playing games with the crowd. We took over 190 photos of the hottest babes in their short sexy skirts. Full resolution shots are available for your viewing pleasure. Gaming Notebook Roundup @ insidehw.com [Jun-13-07] (0 Comments) A long time ago mobile computers were simply business machines. Withprices getting lower and lower each day, notebooks are becoming the firstoption when buying a home computer, and that places new obstacles in frontof them:to satisfy the multimedia and gaming needs of the owner. Althoughthey still cannot measure up to the newest desktop solutions, modern mobilecomputers can offer more than decent performance as far as the games areconcerned. That's why we decided to check out the situation on the market. The Top 5 Most Moddable Games @ bit-tech.net [Jun-12-07] (0 Comments) A while back, we revisited some of the great games of oldthat could really use a spit-shine and a re-release. Of course, despiteall of our wishes, hopes and dreams, the past is the past. Those games(and others so wonderfully pointed out) will always remain in ourmemories for what they are, but that got me thinking...whatabout the games that we love because of what we're able to make them? My First Gamefly Experience Not a Good One @ thinkgaming.org [Jun-11-07] (0 Comments) I'm sure most of you have heard of Gamefly. It is the game rentalservice like Netflix where games are sent through the mail to you and afteryou are done playing them you can send back. And the best thing is thatthere are no return dates so you can rent games for months at a time. Beingthat I wanted to review more games and buying them would cost a fortune Isigned up for Netflix. Well I got my first game in and I was verydisappointed. Gaming Smack Talk OpEd @ bit-tech.net [Jun-02-07] (0 Comments) I've got a confession to make and it involves the story of howI firstgot into games journalism, so buckle in for what's bound to be anexciting and passionate story of one man and his inability to stoptaking games seriously. Nintendo Wii @ thinkgaming.org [May-30-07] (0 Comments) The release of the Nintendo Wii in November 2006 has brought adifferent look to next generation consoles. Since is release it has soldover 7 million units. The Wii uses wireless (Bluetooth) remotes, calledWiimotes. Yes, other consoles offer wireless remotes, but they don't offerwhat the Wii does, interaction. The remote and receiver combination is moreof a virtual simulation where how you move physically is affected in thegame. This is very different than any other console. Yet some gamers mayfind this to completely destroy their purpose of video gaming. This usuallyis to just sit around rather than move. This gives the opportunity forpeople to lose weight and enjoy themselves while doing it. Who knew thatvideo games could come to this? An Inconvenient Truth about your PC gaming @ tweaktown.com [May-28-07] (0 Comments) You thought you knew what controversy was, well we are talking it to the next level as we bring you The Inconvenient Truth... about your PC gaming! Al Gore would be proud.With our new toy, the Prova Power Analyzer WM-01, or as popular TweakTown staff like refer to it – that power thingy, it was time to get down and dirty to see what your games are doing to the environment. Are multiplayer gamers that play games based on the Source engine looking after the environment more than those playing Prey? And which game type is better, FPS or RTS? There was only one way to find out, to do our normal array of benchmarks and see what results that new super dopper power thingy gave us. Game Emulation In Linux Article @ techgage.com [May-28-07] (0 Comments) A common complaint about Linux is that there is a generallack ofgames. When emulation is brought into the picture though, it opens up ahuge world of gaming possibilities. In this article, we will be lookinginto what emulation is, installing a gamepad and taking a look at aselection of emulators for different consoles. Wii WarioWare Smooth Moves @ rbconsoles.com [May-25-07] (0 Comments) Wario, the infamous Nintendo character that has shown up in a numberof games, is back once again, this time to tackle the Nintendo Wii in thegame WarioWare Smooth Moves. This time, he's back with a large cast ofcharacters and an even larger set of minigames that attempt to takeadvantage of the Wii's unique game play. Will the latest Wario adventurelive up to his famous name? Read on to find out more in today's video gamereview. Ubidays 2007 coverage @ bit-tech.net [May-24-07] (0 Comments) We were lucky enough to get sneak peeks at the continuing developmenton games like Assassin’s Creed, Haze, Splinter Cell:Conviction and TomClancy’s Endwar, as well as a few other titles planned for later in theyear. Of course, as I found out myself when attending the event, there’s noreal way to gently introduce these games to you. We can only reallydive right in and have a look at Ubisoft has got in store for gamersthis year. Nintendo DS Lite Impressions @ thinkgaming.org [May-21-07] (0 Comments) I know the DS lite has been out for a long while now, but I reallynever had the chance to play one for a long period of time. I'm not a realbig handheld gamer, more or less because I don't really travel that much andI'm not out a lot for me to have free time to play handhelds. Back inNovember I received a Sony PSP to review on ThinkComputers. I really likedit and thought it was really cool. I picked up a few games and it served mewell. Sad thing is I haven't touched it since my trip to Las Vegas inJanuary. Maybe it's the lack of good games, I mean there are a few goodgames (Lumines, GTA, etc), but you can only play those games so much. Soafter thinking about it I went ahead and sold my PSP and went out and got aNintendo DS Lite. I really could not justify having 2 handheld systems, andwith the announcement of Sim City and amazing screenshots from Zelda PhantomHourglass I had to get a DS Lite. MSI NX8600GTS OC @ nvnews.net [May-21-07] (0 Comments) So, you want a Direct X 10 compatible video card that won't break the bank? You don't necessarily need an upper-range card to push pixels in all their screaming goodness? How about a mid-ranged card at a mid-ranged price? There will come a time when DX9 is just not enough for the latest games. The MSI NX8600GTS will allow budget gamers to break into the DX10 gaming era. PowerColor Radeon X1950 Pro SCS3 – Silent cooling on show @ tweaktown.com [May-21-07] (0 Comments) You would think that the Radeon X1950PRO would just about be discontinued, with the new mid-range graphics cards from Nvidia offering Direct X 10 and the HD 2600 just around the corner, why would you even bother looking at the AMD DX9 counterpart?Well the new Nvidia cards come with an increased price tag and do not seem to offer the punch that the last generations do in DX 9 games. If you are not looking at jumping onto the DX 10 bandwagon straight away the X1950PRO and 7900GS are still very real examples of mid-range graphics cards you would consider buying. MSI PC2008 in Taipei Event – Exclusive (Part 2:Upcoming Santa Rosa NB) @ tweaktown.com [May-16-07] (0 Comments) Robson technology or Turbo Memory is also part of the new Centrino Duo platform, although as this is still rather expensive, it is unlikely that most notebooks will ship with a Turbo Memory module fitted. It will also be interesting to see what impact Turbo Memory has on overall system performance, as ReadyBoost did not prove to be a huge hit. Other news includes support for draft 802.11n wireless networking, again something that only higher-end models are likely to ship with. SATA 3Gb/s is part of the new ICH and this should allow for somewhat improved performance. Intel has also added support for Intel Matrix RAID, which is interesting, so we might see a lot more notebooks with twin hard drives in the near future.On the integrated graphics side of things, a new GMA has been developed, the X3100, which according to Intel offers twice the performance in 3DMark06. It also adds Vista Premium certification, HDMI support and better video playback performance for high-definition content. At the same time as Intel launched the new Centrino platform, Nvidia also announced its GeForce 8M series of graphics cards, which are mobile versions of the 8400 and 8600 series. These are already available in several Centrino Duo models from MSI as well as other manufacturers and this is the route to go down it you really intend to play games on your notebook. So let us take a look at what was on at the show. NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v2.15822 @ ngohq.com [May-15-07] (0 Comments) The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver is a modified version of the NVIDIA ForceWare driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage. This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience.This driver includes NVIDIA's new Control Panel. We've preferred to include the new Control Panel over the old one due to flexibility and stability reasons. The Driver has support for all GeForce/Quadro cards =96 including mobile series (Go) as well. This driver has a special compatibility mode option that provides better stability, and workaround for some known bugs. ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB Video Card @ thetechlounge.com [May-15-07] (0 Comments) It has been six months and one week since NVIDIA launched their highlyacclaimed 8-series of DirectX 10 video cards. ATI is more than a littlelate, but then again, why rush? Yes, many people have been rewarded forjumping on NVIDIA's graphics, but with Vista's slow adoption and a completevoid where DirectX 10 games should be, there's been little to gain besidesframe rates... NVIDIA has gained a lot of ground over the past six months,and has successfully hard-launched a whole set of mid-range cards and twoflagships--ground broken by ATI. ATI and Microsoft jointly developed Xenos,unified shaders and all, so if ATI doesn't show up NVIDIA it will be fairlyshaming. Revolution @ bit-tech.net [May-13-07] (0 Comments) Ultimately, CellFactor isn't up to par on its own andgamerswon't really be missing out on anything if they can't play it. It showsa few things that may help to persuade some potential customers, butnot enough to win over the masses. There is a promise that the PhysXcard can do better, but a promise isn't enough to sell us on the ideaas it is and CellFactor will only really be of use to thosewith super powered PCs and even then there are better games to spendtime on. BFG/Aegia Physix card @ xtremecomputing.co.uk [May-09-07] (0 Comments) It may seem that Xtreme Computing are a bit behind the times ingetting round to reviewing a PhysX card but there is a reason behind this.We wanted to wait a while for the technology to mature a bit, wait for thedrivers to improve etc, and for more games to come out that support thePhysX processor, and now seems to be about the right time as the technologyis a little more established now and the list of games is growing all thetime. AGEIA PhysX Spring Update - CellFactor:Revolution Released @ pcper.com [May-08-07] (0 Comments) I do play a LOT OF GAMES though both for recreation and for workhere at PC Perspective and I can tell you that while the new CellFactor:Revolution game is fun; there is a reason they aren't going to be sellingit. It's not a polished enough title to warrant a $30 or $40 price tag inreality but what it does do is showcase the AGEIA PhysX hardwareextensively. Gainward 8800GTS 640MB Golden Sample SLi @ xtremecomputing.co.uk [May-07-07] (0 Comments) Today we have a treat for you as I will be reviewing the Gainward8800GTS 640mb Bliss Golden sample in SLi, this is one of the latest GeForcechipsets on the market, holding a massive 640mb of RAM on each card. Whichadds up to a total of 1280mb of GFX memory which should be more than enoughto play the latest games on the market, as well as some future titles. Addto that they are also the golden sample editions with a GPU clock speed of550 and 1760 I am expecting great things. Customer Support - The Turbine Experience @ bigbruin.com [May-03-07] (0 Comments) I have heard of problems with many of the current and past generations of MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games) on the market. Some of them are valid, some of them are not. Of course there is the old adage that you can't please everyone all the time, but I wonder if the developers/game operators even really try? While I can not personally speak to every MMO/Online Game out there, I can speak to Turbine's DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online)... Video games and violence - Are they related? @ bonafidereviews.com [May-03-07] (0 Comments) We reflect upon the knee-jerk reaction some of the media, Jack Thompson included, had to the Virginia Tech shootings and relating them to video games. NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v1.15819 @ ngohq.com [May-03-07] (0 Comments) The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver is a modified version of the NVIDIA ForceWare driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage. This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience.This driver includes NVIDIA's old Control Panel. We've preferred to include the old Control Panel over the new one due to flexibility and performance reasons. The Driver has support for all GeForce/Quadro cards =96 including mobile series (Go) as well. This driver has a special compatibility mode option that provides better stability, and workaround for some known bugs. BFG Tech GeForce 8600GTS OC - SLI Performance Analysis @ tweaktown.com [May-01-07] (0 Comments) Someone asked me the other day if I thought SLI was just a marketing gimmick or a real technology that is actually worth considering. SLI is a great upgrade option for a lot of people, especially now with a large amount of SLI motherboards available for the impressive Intel Core 2 Duo processor lineup.Generally unless you are buying top of the line graphics cards like the GeForce 8800GTS or GTX, going out and buying a pair of lower-end cards for SLI is not really what we would consider good value for money. What the extra dollars equate to means that you could get a faster single card solution and not have to worry about some games not supporting SLI. The technology is best when implemented with someone buying a card like the new GeForce 8600GTS today, and then three months down the track, when they have some extra dollars, add a second card into the mix. Asus G2P 17" Core 2 Duo Gaming Notebook @ pcper.com [Apr-30-07] (0 Comments) Asus=A0got things right with the G2 by picking a good hardwareplatform for a gaming system - the LCD screen is really sharp and vivid, andthe speakers are some of the best I've heard on a notebook. The X1700 1024MBATI GPU gives you decent improvement over the X1600 in most games, but it'sstill far from being a graphics solution which you can run at highresolutions with high details. Wii SSX Blur (Wii) @ rbconsoles.com [Apr-28-07] (0 Comments) Disappointed with the melting of the snow on the slopes as summerapproaches? Well, it's always snowing on the virtual slopes. EA Sports,well-known makers of a variety of sports games, has released the latestversion of their SSX franchise with the title SSX Blur. We'll take a look atthe version for the Nintendo Wii in today's video game review. XFX GeForce 8600 GTS and GT - SLI Tested @ pcper.com [Apr-27-07] (0 Comments) Separating the two though, the 8600 GT model is still my favoritepick of the two as it has a better price and is able to outperform thesimilarly priced competition from ATI by a larger margin. The 8600 GTS isstill a great card, but as we saw in our initial review of it, the ATI X1950Pro card could consistently run games faster at the same or lower pricepoint. Internal Card Reader with USB 2.0 from USBGeek @ dragonsteelmods.com [Apr-25-07] (0 Comments) Quite a few types of devices out there today use some sort of memory card to store their data on, be it music, photos, games etc. What I've always wondered is why don't computer manufacturers include card readers as a standard feature on their computers. Yes some do, but most don't, so what you need to do is go and buy a separate card reader for your system like the one I have today for review from USBGeek. The Internal Card Reader with USB 2.0 is just that, a card reader with a couple extra USB ports on it, no audio ports, no firewire, none of that stuff. How many people actually use all those ports anyway? I know I don't, but I do use a card reader all the time and my USB ports. So this product is simple but yet right on with what is needed by most people. Gamester Race Pac for PS2 & Xbox @ rbmods.com [Apr-23-07] (0 Comments) While the Xbox and PS2 have become less popular with the release ofthe latest generation of consoles, there are many great titles stillavailable, especially in the racing genre. But how can you breathe new lifethose racing games? Geeks.com, popular on-line retailer, offers a product,the Gamester Race Pac, which might do the trick. This set puts you literallyinto the driver's set while playing your favorite racing titles. Read on tofind out if it makes it to the finish line in style. Super Talent T1000UX2G5 PC2-8000 Memory @ hardwarelogic.com [Apr-22-07] (0 Comments) With Microsoft's Vista operating system and newer games like Supreme Commander sucking up system resources, 2GB of system memory is no longer a luxury, it's is fast becoming a necessity. However, not any 2GB kits will do the job, save for those running systems from Dell, Gateway, etc. For them, they'll probably never know the difference or benefits of a quality memory kit. But for those who pride themselves on benchmarking and fine tuning their systems to the cutting edge, only high octane components will do. Nintendo Wii Control Scheme Analysis @ bonafidereviews.com [Apr-19-07] (0 Comments) In the past, more buttons meant more flexibility and functionality, and the Wii has a controller setup which has noticeably less buttons and control sticks than any of the last generation systems. However, the Wii is unique, in that motion now replaces the functions some of those buttons once controlled. However, some gamers are still skeptical as to whether or not motion can easily translate into an intuitive control scheme for all types of games. Let’s take a closer look as to which genres will benefit from the Wii’s innovation, and which may suffer for it. XFX 7950GT @ aoaforums.com [Apr-18-07] (0 Comments) When buying a gaming card, two names spring to mind:nVidia and ATi. One of the higher end cards from nVidia is the 7950GT. Not the most expensive card on the market today, but certainly more than capable of dealing with the most demanding games out there, we'll get to this later. But it manages to slaughter the CS Source stress test at max settings with full AA and AF at 1280x1024. It scores an average FPS of a /measly/ 146.77. How will it fare in more rigorous tests? XFX GeForce 8600GTS XXX – nVidia's new mainstream DX10 is here! @ tweaktown.com [Apr-17-07] (0 Comments) New graphics cards are great, especially when they are in the “affordable for most people” range. nVidia’s GeForce 8600 and 8500 series has been a long waited product. Why? Most importantly it’s the first affordable DirectX 10 capable graphics card from any company and nVidia even have Windows Vista drivers ready for the new range of cards at launch time.This product is so good for the market for two reasons - the first is that consumers who don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on a PC can now buy something that is going to offer support for the next generation of graphics (DX10 / Shader Model 4.0 with games like Crysis, Alan Wake and UT2007 coming). The second is because more people will be able to buy these GeForce 8500 and 8500 cards with it’s much more attractive price tag, game makers will have even more reason to put resources into making DirectX 10 supported games. The latter is something that is seriously lacking at the moment but the games are on their way slowly but surely. Inno3D GeForce 7950 GT iChiLL Accelero S1M @ bit-tech.net [Apr-16-07] (0 Comments) At around £140 to £150 (inc VAT) it's not too expensive andit's morepowerful than the PowerColor we reviewed recently for around the sameprice. However, like the PowerColor, this card unfortunately isn'tavailable to buy yet. This means that you've still got the chance tocheck out how the mid-range DirectX 10 parts perform before making yourdecision. Obviously though, they will almost definitely allinclude fans for the first few months and games designed to make use ofthe additional features on the new cards won't be out for a while yeteither. Saitek GH50 Surround Sound Headset @ techpowerup.com [Apr-12-07] (0 Comments) The Saitek GH50 may look quite normal at first glance and even though it is very light, the headset packs quite a punch. As soon as the SRS is turned on, you may never want to go back to using those normal stereo variants. We try the GH50 with games, movies and music after taking a close look and let you know if it really fares as good as it sounds. Linux gaming feature @ bit-tech.net [Apr-10-07] (0 Comments) While Wine does a great job at running most Windowsapplications underLinux, certain games sometimes just won't work. Call it badprogramming, call it faith, but the fact is that some applicationsrefuse to accept Wine. The guys over at Transgaming noticed this andused a hole in the X11 licensing to create a proprietary fork of Wine.But the developers didn't claim they invented the warm water, andinitially called their 'version' WineX. Favorite Video Game Eater Eggs @ thinkgaming.org [Apr-09-07] (0 Comments) Since it is Easter I decided to compile a list of my favorite videogame easter eggs. Video game easter eggs are little things that video gamedevelopers put into games that are hard to find, but if and when you do findthem you laugh or say sweet! Video game easter eggs have been in almostevery video game out there all the way back to the Atari 2600! So here aresome of my favorites. Read on to check them out! NGO ATI Optimized Driver v1.7.3 @ ngohq.com [Apr-05-07] (0 Comments) The NGO ATI Optimized Driver is a modified version of the ATI Catalyst driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. The NGO ATI Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage. This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience.This release is based on ATI Catalyst 7.3 and the main change is the drastic performance improvement in the latest versions of ATI Catalyst Control Center. Because of the improvements, we have decided to include it and the old Control Panel. Users have now the option to choose their own ATI control panel environment. Be advised that Catalyst Control Center requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher to operate. PowerColor X1650 XT 256MB AGP Video Card @ bigbruin.com [Mar-23-07] (0 Comments) The PowerColor X1650 XT 256MB AGP Video Card breathed some new life into a solid system that really only shows its age due to AGP graphics being featured. Performance in benchmarks and many games was better than expected, and showed that there really is no reason to retire a system simply due to the fact that it doesn't support PCI-Express. bit-tech.net Feature:The Ratings Game @ bit-tech.net [Mar-23-07] (0 Comments) To that effect, it's abroad misconception held by European gamers thatthe US ratings system is its own problem, or that what affects it won'taffect the European markets. Many big publishing houses (and a bulk ofdeveloper studios) reside in the US, and it accounts for a tremendousamount of game sales. Therefore, the cries from Congress for a harsherrating system there, more government oversight, or even chains likeWal-mart flexing moral muscle by refusing to carry certain ratings willalter the games that the industry releases as a whole. When such alarge market ends up closed off to a game, there may be too manydevelopment costs for it to ever be profitable. Add to that the realitythat the legal enforcement idea of the UK simply couldn't beeffectively implemented nationwide in the US (too much land to cover)and you've got a problem desperately needing a solution. Company of Heroes (PC) @ thinkgaming.org [Mar-14-07] (0 Comments) Company of Heroes is a World War 2 real-time strategy game. Its polished look, ensconcing soundtrack, and efficient gameplaymechanics really show off Relic's ability to make high-quality, memorable games. Read on for the review. NGO ATI Optimized Driver v1.7.2 @ ngohq.com [Mar-12-07] (0 Comments) The NGO ATI Optimized Driver is a modified version of the ATI Catalyst driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. The NGO ATI Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage. This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience.This driver includes ATI Control Panel and ATI Tray Tools by Ray Adams (Optional). We've preferred to include Control Panel over Catalyst Control Center due to the lower memory usage and flexibility. You can use ATI Tray Tools to take full control and to adjust advanced features while the Control Panel will give you basic control options. With ATI Tray Tools you can create game profiles and assign specific settings for each application. Inno3D GeForce 7900 GS iChiLL ACS6 @ bit-tech.net [Mar-08-07] (0 Comments) Whether or not the card is worth considering over a RadeonX1950 Prodepends on what games you’re playing and your personal preferences forATI and Nvidia hardware and / or software. The Radeon X1950 XT 256MB isgenerally a much better performer at 1280x1024, but it’s also around£30 more expensive, too. At just over £100 including VAT though, theInno3D GeForce 7900 GS iChiLL is a great buy if you’re gaming at1280x1024 and aren’t too worried about DirectX 10 support for the timebeing. Wireless router group test @ bit-tech.net [Mar-06-07] (0 Comments) For gamers, routers are a mixed blessing. Sure, they allow youto havemultiple machines connected, doing different things - power-tasking.But with that comes inevitable problems - port issues with multiplayergames, network lag, not forgetting the fact that 802.11 wireless isnotoriously unreliable and therefore not ideal for gaming.So what should you be looking for when it comes to buying a new router?Well, here's the sad, but true fact - many 'reasonably priced' routersin the £50-60 range are notoriously unreliable. We've had hundreds ofreports of cheaper Linksys, Belkin and Netgear gear conking out, andpersonal experience of much of this. To get reliability, you need tomove slightly higher in price. Connect3D Radeon X1950 XT 256MB @ bit-tech.net [Mar-01-07] (0 Comments) The Radeon X1950 XT 256MB is ideally suited to deliver greatperformance at 1280x1024 with maximum details and high levels ofanti-aliasing. In addition, it’s also capable of pushing out the framesfrequently enough to enjoy games at 1600x1200 too. However, both theshort and longer term benefits you’ll get from GeForce 8800 GTS 320MBat 1600x1200 make it a better contender for running games at thatresolution and, in the long term, it’s probably worth investing thatextra £50 into if you can afford it.At 1280x1024 though, Connect3D’s card is probably the best bang forbuck at the moment if you’re looking for something to last you untilmid-range DirectX 10 hardware from either ATI or Nvidia shows up in thenext few months. However, if you’re concerned about noise, you’re goingto have to spend a bit more on an aftermarket cooling solution. Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit @ techpowerup.com [Feb-28-07] (0 Comments) The Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit is a very unique device and may look like something out of a Sci-Fi movie, but it actually gives you control over games without the use of a traditional keyboard. It puts all functions within reach of your left hand. This makes gaming a lot more comfortable and faster. We tried it with First Person Shooters and Real Time Strategy games to see if the Pro Gamer Command Unit is just as advanced as its futuristic looks. Cyber Snipa Intelliscope Laser Mouse @ xyzcomputing.com [Feb-23-07] (0 Comments) The button configuration gives the mouse seven buttons total- the two primary ones, the wheel, forward/back buttons on the left side, one on the top of the mouse (back from the wheel), and one on the right side. The last two on this list are not self-explanatory so- in case you were wondering- the one on top toggles the sensitivity while the right one spans the entire length where two left buttons are placed and is programmable with no default function. The sensitivity button on the top switches the mouse between two settings:Stealth (red LEDs, 1000 dpi) and ATAK (blue LEDs, 2400 dpi). The change is instantaneous and can be done very quickly, a great feature for games where you may need to get more accurate in a hurry. EVGA e-GeForce 8800GTX KO ACS3 768MB @ techpowerup.com [Feb-22-07] (0 Comments) While most GeForce 8800 GTX cards are all based on the same product, with the exact same specs, EVGA has taken the 8800 GTX a step ahead. They cherry picked cards that can run high GPU and memory speeds and engineered a card that is running at higher clocks right out of the box. In our testing we see about 10% increased performance, especially at high resolutions with demanding games. What the market will bear - In-game advertising feature @ bit-tech.net [Feb-21-07] (0 Comments) One game that definitely wouldn't be hurt is the Grand Theft Auto Series.GTA is a perfect place for some great dynamic advertising. The gamethrives on a warped twist of a very real world, making it an excellentcandidate for some real (but twisted) advertising. Some online gamesare also good choices, particularly ones focusing on real-worldimitation like Second Life.On the other hand, games set in either the future or the past aren'treally going to make great advertising laden games, though there havebeen some novel adaptations. For instance, World of Warcraftisn't about to benefit from movie posters - but it could always use thesame Pizza Hut delivery service that the original Everquesthad. Now if only there was a beer delivery service... Wii Excite Truck (Wii) @ rbconsoles.com [Feb-13-07] (0 Comments) Back in the days of the original Nintendo system, one of the morepopular titles was Excite Bike, where you maneuvered your motorcycle througha variety of jumps and obstacles. Fast forward a few years to today, whereNintendo and Monster Games bring out a new title in the Excite series:Excite Truck for the Wii. Will this game capture the fun of the classic inthe new Wii console? Let's find out. EVGA e-GeForce GTS 320MB Superclocked @ nvnews.net [Feb-13-07] (0 Comments) In this review we examine the performance of the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB against the 512MB GeForce 7900 GTX in order to determine the areas where less video memory has an impact on performance. Armed with the freeware utility program VidMemWatcher, we were able to determine the memory requirements in the games we tested. After the results were tallied we found that under certain conditions, the e-GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB Superclocked graphics card could be a diamond in the rough. BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB @ pcper.com [Feb-12-07] (0 Comments) The BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB turned out to be a great performerat the 1600x1200 resolution with all the image quality eye candy turned upin our testing and was able to nearly match the performance of the 640MB andthe flagship X1950 XTX card from ATI. I fully expected the smaller framebuffer to affect performance at resolutions over 1600x1200 and that didindeed turn out to be the case as we showed in various games. NZXT Duet PC Case @ thinkcomputers.org [Feb-08-07] (0 Comments) Media center PCs are becoming more and more common today and with the availability of services like iTunes and Netflicks theneed for a PC (or PC-like device) in the living room is becoming more and more necessary. While there are many stand alone devicesthat can stream media from the PC you generally loose the ability to browse the web or play video games from your couch. Today wewill be looking at the NZXT Duet case, which was designed to be used in the living room for all your media center PC needs. Wii Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii) @ rbconsoles.com [Feb-02-07] (0 Comments) Things are changing here at rbconsoles.com, as we have recently obtained a next-generation console, the Nintendo Wii. This groundbreaking system offers a unique controller interface and a variety of new games to the scene. We start off our coverage of the Wii by looking at one of the early titles, Rayman Raving Rabbids from Ubisoft. Will this wacky game take full advantage of the Wii's capabilities and provide good entertainment? That is what we're here to find out in this review. Sapphire X1900 XT 512MB Video Card @ thinkcomputers.org [Jan-29-07] (0 Comments) A little while ago we took a look at the Sapphire Radeon X1300 XT video card. It proved to be a great midrange card,especially for the price. Well today we will be talking a look at its bigger brother on the high-end; the Radeon X1900 XT. I wasreally excited to get the X1900 XT and see what it had to offer. It really changed the way I play games and the feel of those gamesso let's take a look and see what it can do. GeCube X1950 Pro Champion Edition @ techpowerup.com [Jan-27-07] (0 Comments) The Radeon X1950 Pro series is one of the hottest selling video cards at the moment. It is competitively priced and can run all current games without breaking a sweat. Gecube has engineered a special TEC cooled solution for improved overclocking. In our testing we saw amazing clock increases of 20% on both the core and memory for a final clock of 682 MHz / 816 MHz. SteelSeries SteelSound 4H Headset @ techpowerup.com [Jan-24-07] (0 Comments) The SteelSeries SteelSound 4H is a headset made specifically for gamers. Like its big brother, the 5H, it is designed to give you an advantage in games by making sure you hear all the little details like footsteps. The SteelSound 4H offers great wearing comfort even when used for gaming sessions of several hours. NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v1.9792 @ ngohq.com [Jan-20-07] (0 Comments) The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver is a modified version of the NVIDIA ForceWare driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage. This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience.This driver includes NVIDIA's old Control Panel. We've preferred to include the old Control Panel over the new one due to flexibility and performance reasons. The Driver has support for all GeForce/Quadro cards - including mobile series (Go) as well. This driver has a special compatibility mode option that provides better stability, and workaround for some known bugs. CES 2007 Bill Gates Keynote Overview @ thinkcomputers.org [Jan-11-07] (0 Comments) The most exciting keynote speech of CES is Bill Gates. If you havenot heard him speak you should definitely try to catch a speech of hissometime. At this year's CES he discussed Windows Vista, Windows Live, VistaMCE, The Zune, Xbox 360, Games for Windows, and much more. Check out ourentire overview of the keynote! Company of Heroes @ ngohq.com [Jan-08-07] (0 Comments) We're not seeing many high quality Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games recently. But there are very many RTS games out there -- just not many are getting a lot of fame and success; like the Command and Conquer series. To be honest, the past few years have disappointed many RTS fans. Company of Heroes was developed by Relic and published by THQ, and it's been available since September, '06. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of THQ or Relic as I don't expect much from them. But who knows, maybe they will manage to surprise me this time.Company of Heroes (CoH) is a World War II RTS game. You will be playing as a commander of US Able Company during World War II against the German war machine. Personally, I think there are too many Yakuza Game for Playstation 2 @ rbconsoles.com [Dec-28-06] (0 Comments) Looking for an organized crime/mafia game with an Asian flare? Sega, well-known developers of games, has created such a game for the PS2 called Yakuza, which explores the mysterious world of the Japanese criminal underground. Will this game stand up to other popular games such as Scarface and GTA? Let's find out in today's video game review. NGO ATI Optimized Driver v1.6.12 @ ngohq.com [Dec-24-06] (0 Comments) The NGO ATI Optimized Driver is a modified version of the ATI Catalyst driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. The NGO ATI Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage. This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience. Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB - Perpendicular recording @ tweaktown.com [Dec-22-06] (0 Comments) The hard disk is simply the slowest part of the computer system. CPU’s can transmit data in the form of gigabits per second, memory bandwidth goes over 5GB/s and graphics cards can handle data in the order of 38GB/s across its memory buses. But the trusty hard disk in most cases cannot deliver sustained data faster than about 60MB/s, simply put, going for the faster CPU isn’t going to be able to speed up your load times on games if you can’t get the data off the disk quickly enough.In recent years, the advancement of the hard disk has started to become a major part of the PC industry with Serial ATA replacing the older Parallel standard that was used for over 10 years. Native Command Queuing or NCQ for short sped up the way the data is read off the drive, and now with perpendicular recording coming into the frey from companies like Seagate, we are now starting to see speed increases as much as what a magnetic recording device is capable of. Razer Barracuda HP-1 @ techpowerup.com [Dec-14-06] (0 Comments) The Razer Barracuda HP-1 is a unique headset which offers true surround sound. A number of small speakers in the headphone are placed at different positions and are driven by a small amplifier included with the headphones. Now you can enjoy positional sound effects while using a headset. In our testing we found out that this makes quite a difference in games like Counter-Strike or Battlefield, where you can locate enemies based on the sounds they make. Nintendo Wii Component Video Cable Accessory @ bonafidereviews.com [Dec-13-06] (0 Comments) A couple days ago we received our Wii component cable and it was just in time. Based on what we had read about what the cable does for Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess we didn't want to play the game until the cable arrived. Well we finally have it and wanted to share our experiences of it with you. By the way, it enhances Gamecube games as well! Icemat Siberia Headset @ rbmods.com [Dec-13-06] (0 Comments) Mike reviewed Icemat Siberia In:Ear a few weeks ago and he thought they were a pretty good set of earphones. I got the chance to try out their headphones this time. The gaming market is growing so fast these days and you need a good set of headphones/earphones to be able to keep up with the advanced sounds that the new soundcards are able to push out. A microphone is essential for todays gamer also as you always talk though Ventrilo or other voice communication software. Therefore I thought we are going to test this kit with music, games and voice communication software to get a final solution of how good these are. College Bowl Game Contest - Win a Set of Wireless Speakers @ bigbruin.com [Dec-13-06] (0 Comments) In the spirit of college football bowl season, Bigbruin.com has a new contest for registered members of the forum. Up for grabs is a brand new, unopened Saitek A-250 Wireless 2.1 Speaker System. Even if you know nothing about college football, you can still compete in this contest. All you need to do is enter your predictions for the final scores of the bowl games featuring the top 25 ranked teams 2006 Holiday Shopping Guide:Building a high-end Gaming PC! @ tweaktown.com [Dec-12-06] (0 Comments) Christmas and New Year holidays... this is the season to be jolly, they say. We say it’s a time to ignore your budget and go out and build yourself a kick-ass new high-end gaming PC. Besides eating too much and avoiding confrontations with your family, what else will you do during the holidays? Play games and try and make your fast PC even faster!In this guide we will provide computer component recommendations for building a high-end gaming PC these holidays. It won’t be an ultra extreme beast as found in our “Slayer” system in our System Builders Guide section but it will still pack a bunch without sending you broke for the next year or more. Games to get for the Wii @ thinkgaming.org [Dec-12-06] (0 Comments) This holiday season Nintendo launched their new video game system, the Wii. Unlike the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 the Wiidid not focus on graphics, rather enjoyment and gameplay. The Wii features a very intuitive controller in which you actually controlthe game with your hand movement rather than just pressing buttons. I was very skeptical at first, especially after seeing thegraphics and not being impressed, but after playing the Wii I was instantly hooked. The gameplay is just so much fun because youactually feel like your playing, where on other systems you are the character playing. So now it is the holiday season and you justpurchased your Wii. We have a list of 5 games worth checking out. Leadtek WinFast PX7950 GT TDH Extreme 512mb @ xtremecomputing.co.uk [Dec-11-06] (0 Comments) Splinter Cell double agent is a slow moving game so it would be hardto notice low FPS. So much so it is possible to play this game at 2048x1536!Should you wish too, Just check out that shadow eye candy..! Which shows theLeadtek 7950GT Extreme 512mb is more than capable of dealing with today'sgames. OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 Platinum SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel Memory @ rbmods.com [Dec-11-06] (0 Comments) More demanding games and software forcees the hardware manufacturers to make faster products, of course the ram is an important part of the computer and today we will review one of these memory kits from OCZ. Their memory has performed extremely well in our previous tests and it will be interesting to see if this new PC2-8500 Platinum kit can do the same. We are going to compare it vs another OCZ kit in both normal use and overclocking to see how well this one does. The Legend of Spyro:A New Beginning Game for Xbox @ rbconsoles.com [Dec-07-06] (0 Comments) Back in the days of the original Playstation, I enjoyed playing a game with a little purple dragon known as Spyro. Fast forward to present day, where that little dragon has returned in The Legend of Spyro:A New Beginning. How will Spyro fare against today's platforming games? Let's find out as we take a look at the Xbox version of this game. Saitek A-250 Wireless 2.1 Speaker System Give-Away @ bigbruin.com [Dec-06-06] (0 Comments) In the spirit of college football bowl season, Bigbruin.com has a new contest for registered members of the forum. Up for grabs is a brand new, unopened Saitek A-250 Wireless 2.1 Speaker System. Even if you know nothing about college football, you can still compete in this contest. All you need to do is enter your predictions for the final scores of the bowl games featuring the top 25 ranked teams Playing DivX and Xvid content on Xbox 360 – An easy guide! @ tweaktown.com [Dec-06-06] (0 Comments) Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gaming console is one of the most popular ever. It’s great for sitting around and playing games with friends and you can even play DVD’s and music CD’s on the console. While this isn’t terribly exciting, if you have a system that is running Windows Media Center (MCE) or Vista Ultimate Edition, you can stream Windows Media Video (WMV) movies to your 360 console over the network.The down side is that you are forced to use one of these operating systems and the WMV codec isn’t all that good – compression is not that great and although it’s becoming more popular these days, DivX and Xvid are preferred “DVD backup” choice codec’s, shall we say? These lesser mainstream codec’s offer better compression and many folks on the darker side of the Web mostly use this format to distribute movies around the Internet since they are the most 1337 choice among enthusiasts. The Future of Gaming @ bit-tech.net [Nov-30-06] (0 Comments) All of the developers we have spoken to about DirectX 10 have greeted it with open arms. Many of those developers are working towards either porting an existing game to DirectX 10 or are in the process of creating a new game using the new API and acknowledge that the lower overheads associated with many heavily used functions will allow them to create scenes with more visual complexity and richness. Both AMD's and NVIDIA's developer relations teams are working with games developers to ensure that they have the necessary tools to make efficient use of DirectX 10's capabilities. Icemat Siberia In:Ear Headset @ bigbruin.com [Nov-28-06] (0 Comments) The Siberia In:Ear Headset take my expectations for earbud style headphones to a whole new level thanks to the sound quality, comfort level, and noise blocking capabilities. They work well for audio playback, and adding the microphone creates a convenient way to communicate over IP telephones or in online games. Sapphire X1650 Pro 256 MB @ techpowerup.com [Nov-26-06] (0 Comments) If you are looking for a cheap video card that will keep you running until Vista and DirectX 10 are out you may want to look at the Sapphire X1650 Pro. The card will run most games on high details at 1024x768 without taking a sweat. It comes equipped with fast GDDR3 memory and the fan is temperature controlled to keep the noise levels down. Bully Game for Playstation 2 @ rbconsoles.com [Nov-22-06] (0 Comments) Sure, you've probably played video games set in outer space, or in the jungle, or in some other exotic location. But have you ever played a game set in a school? In Rockstar's game GeForce 8800 GTX @ pcper.com [Nov-09-06] (0 Comments) In the games I played where we kept score (i.e. benchmarked) therewasn't a single time in which the ATI X1950 XTX was able to compete with the8800 GTX, though it was the closest of the three competitors. The 7950 GX2card, that essentially is equipped with dual 7900 GT GPUs, was next in linebehind the ATI card in most cases, followed by the 7900 GTX. NVIDIA'sprevious single GPU flagship card simply doesn't stand a chance, andfrequently was seen to be less than half the speed of the 8800 GTX! I don'tknow if that should make new buyers laugh out loud or current 7900 GTXowners to weep. MSI GeForce 8800GTS is here - Hello DX10 @ tweaktown.com [Nov-08-06] (0 Comments) G80 is clearly the most anticipated GPU update for nVidia for quite some time now and unless you have been living under a rock, you would know why. Previous generation cards like the GeForce 7800 and 7900 series have been more of a speed increase then anything else. While we have seen implementation of new graphics technology built into them they are nothing near as major as what the new GeForce 8800 series brings with it today. DirectX 10 is going to be the platform for gaming over the next few years.There are two sides of arguments to the 8800 series - both of which make a very good point. Those who felt that buying the previous generation top cards wasn’t a waste of money, because while the 8800 line up was coming out with DX10 support (which of course is such a major leap), how long was it going to be until we actually see DX10 technology implemented into games? While the other side felt that the 8800 was not only going to bring increased DX9 performance but also support for DX10. Silverstone LC20 @ overclockersonline.com [Nov-03-06] (0 Comments) Looking back to the key marketing features Silverstone is presentingI'd say the results meet the marketing about half way. Certainly the casedoes have a clean, sophisticated appearance, and it does present manycooling options if you require them; however, given the depth of the case,the storage capacity could be severely hampered with the wrong mix ofcomponents, and you'll have a difficult time keeping this case quiet enoughto be inaudible during quiet sections of movies or games if it's notstationed in a console or cabinet. [News] eDimensional G-Pad Pro Gyroscopic Gamepad @ virtual-hideout.net [Nov-03-06] (0 Comments) The G-Pad Pro is a slick little controller with its VRMS features.The VRMS functioned well for me with the flight simulator and did OK in theracing game, but with the FPS games it was really lacking. Now, keep in mindthis is with VRMS enabled. While using it as a regular controller, itfunctioned like any other gamepad.... [News] eDimensional G-Pad Pro Gyroscopic Gamepad @ virtual-hideout.net [Nov-03-06] (0 Comments) The G-Pad Pro is a slick little controller with its VRMS features.The VRMS functioned well for me with the flight simulator and did OK in theracing game, but with the FPS games it was really lacking. Now, keep in mindthis is with VRMS enabled. While using it as a regular controller, itfunctioned like any other gamepad.... Silverstone LC20 @ overclockersonline.com [Nov-03-06] (0 Comments) marketing about half way. Certainly the case does have a clean,sophisticated appearance, and it does present many cooling options if yourequire them; however, given the depth of the case, the storage capacitycould be severely hampered with the wrong mix of components, and you'll havea difficult time keeping this case quiet enough to be inaudible during quietsections of movies or games if it's not stationed in a console or cabinet. Intel Core 2 Quad - Kentsfield arrives with Four Cores @ tweaktown.com [Nov-02-06] (0 Comments) As a matter of fact, we just got out of a meeting with Valve Software today and they indicated to members of the press that soon they will begin to implement multi-core CPU optimisations into the Source engine which will benefit all previous Source based games and new ones including Episode 2. Initially you will see improvements in frame rates but for Valve, that’s just the beginning. They want to leverage the multi-core technology (and we’re not just talking about four cores) and improve AI and the overall realism of the games to levels we’ve never seen before and they seem to be on track for doing it. From a gaming prospective, is it really worth upgrading to Quad Core right now? Probably not! Is it worth waiting a little while and seeing what all the software and gaming developer companies do? Yes! Right now the hardware is ahead of the software – keep an eye out on patches for your favourite games or applications and decide for yourself if you really need four Kingston DataTraveler Secure @ 3dvelocity.com [Oct-31-06] (0 Comments) The advent of the DVD and the ever increasing capacity of hard drives means our files have got larger over time. Not much more than a decade ago you'd have been unlikely to be in possession of a file that wouldn't fit on a floppy disk, in fact a great many games shipped on a single floppy. Today it almost seems pointless trying to make proper use of any portable storage medium that can't carry at least as much as a CD does. God Hand for Playstation 2 @ rbconsoles.com [Oct-30-06] (0 Comments) In a style reminiscent of old-fashioned fighting games like Kung Fu and Double Dragon, Capcom has released a game for the PS2 called God Hand. In it, you play a character through a wild-west type setting where your main weapon is, you guess it, your right hand with Everglide S500 Headphones @ rbmods.com [Oct-30-06] (0 Comments) As the audio in PC games gets more advanced, the demand for high quality sound gear increases along with it. Everglide, known more for their line of mice and mousepads, has come out with a set of headphones, the s-500 Gaming Headphones, which are optimized for the gaming experience. How much of a difference will these gaming headphones make? Read on to find out more. Dell XPS M1210 12.1-inch Laptop @ thinkcomputers.org [Oct-30-06] (0 Comments) I have been looking for a new laptop for a while. My previous laptop the Dell 700m was great and I had no problems with itat all. I wanted an upgrade, something that was small like the 700m, but also powerful and able to play games. After looking aroundI found a few laptops I was interested in, but I cut the list down to 2 laptops, the Dell XPS M1210 and the ASUS A8J. The decidingfactor was that I was actually able to go look at the Dell and check it out. Also my previous Dell had no problems so I opted forthe Dell. Inno3D GeForce 7950 GT @ bit-tech.net [Oct-24-06] (0 Comments) For many of you, the question will be:buy now or waitfor a DirectX 10compatible card? The answer comes down to how often you upgrade yourvideo card, and what games you are looking to play. If you are lookingfor more performance in current generation games, and are happy tospend another £200-300 when next generation hardware arrives, then bothATI’s Radeon X1900XT 256MB and Inno3D’s GeForce 7950 GT 512MB will suityour needs well, depending on the resolutions you’re looking to playat. Palit 7900GS @ aoaforums.com [Oct-23-06] (0 Comments) With a huge variety of high-end cards currently available there has been a bit of a gap in the mid range sector, the 7800GT appeared briefly and was phased out, the X1800XL never had enough grunt to keep up with the Nvidia based solutions and the X1800XT and 7900GT have never been cost effective enough to be classed as budget cards.All this has changed with the release of the 7900GS, as you will see in the following write-up it has plenty of stock power to play all but the most intensive of games with relative ease and has some serious overclocking potential to bring it in line with some much more expensive cards. ATI X1950 Pro @ pcper.com [Oct-17-06] (0 Comments) =93The Radeon X1950 Pro was definitely the best performing card forunder $200; the majority our gaming tests showed that the X1950 Pro had thepower to out perform the only a few months old NVIDIA 7900 GS card, even inthe overclocked card we had from XFX. In the pair of games where the X1950Pro didn't win out right, the NVIDIA and ATI GPUs were neck and neck inperformance at both 1600x1200 and 1920x1200.=94 Windows Vista RC2 P – From installation to benchmarking @ tweaktown.com [Oct-13-06] (0 Comments) Today we’ll take a close look at the latest released build from Microsoft (RC2 build 5744) and give you our thoughts on the OS, from the down right impressive to the down right dog ugly. We look at installation to tweaking the OS, driver support, discussing what XP supported programs and games worked in Vista and then run some benchmarks to compare the performance from XP to Vista in its current state and with the latest drivers available to us at the moment. World Tour 2007 (Xbox) @ rbconsoles.com [Oct-13-06] (0 Comments) While a number of golf games are available for the consoles, there is usually one that is mentioned above all others:Tiger Wood's golf series. Today, we'll look at a new golf game to hit the market: Gusto Games' ProStroke Golf:World Tour 2007 for the Xbox. Will this game be on par with the other, more popular games on the market? Read on to find out more. Antec TruePower Trio 650 Power Supply @ pro-clockers.com [Oct-02-06] (0 Comments) Antec has a longtradition of producing some of the finest cases and power supplies. We have seensome timeless classics like the SLK series of cases to the newest Lifestyleand Performance line. Their power supplies have been used by manyoverclockers and games, like myself. Just recently Antec has announcedsomething that speaks well about their power supplies; they have given alltheir new power supplies a five year warranty. This will add assurance to analready great product. Riot Response for Playstation 2 @ rbconsoles.com [Sep-30-06] (0 Comments) Ever wonder what it's like to be a riot cop in a city in complete chaos? Eidos, makers of such games as Tome Raider and Deus Ex, and Rocksteady attempt to recreate that feeling with the game Urban Chaos: Riot Response. Let's see how the PS2 version looks in today's featured video game review. Microsoft Gears Up For the Holiday Season @ thinkgaming.org [Sep-29-06] (0 Comments) At X06 Microsoft showcased an extensive, groundbreaking collection of games for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainmentsystem, Games for Windows and Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360. For the holiday season and beyond, Microsoft offers amazing experiencesfor all types of gamers - ranging from the hard-core gamer with the award-winning HIS X800 GTO IceQ II Turbo 256MB Video Card Giveaway @ xyzcomputing.com [Sep-29-06] (0 Comments) September is here, which means that holiday season is right around the bend. In order to start to get ready for the gaming/hardware busy season XYZ Computing has a new giveaway! This time around we will be giving away a HIS X800 GTO IceQ II Turbo 256MB PCIe video card! This is a good card with some very nice specs and it will have no problem playing any of the season's hottest games. Benchmarking The Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Processor @ legitreviews.com [Sep-29-06] (0 Comments) Overall we have been impressed by quad-core and what it will be able to offer enthusiasts down the road. Seeing upcoming DirectX 10 games like Alan Wake and benchmarks along the lines of Ice Storm Fighters push the processing limits of dual-core processors in upcoming months quad-cores will be the choice of enthusiasts and gamers around the world. Kentsfield really has lived up to the hype and has now become the Quadzilla of processors hands down. Intel Shows Quad-Core Kentsfield @ legitreviews.com [Sep-26-06] (0 Comments) When running Ice Storm Fighters on a quad-core processor (we assume it was the QX6700) with a 1066MHz Front Side Bus (FSB) vTune showed that 13% of the FSB was being used. This goes to show that even on intense upcoming games/benchmarks that are heavily threaded don't require a higher front side bus... FlatOut 2 PC Game @ techdomain.com.au [Sep-24-06] (0 Comments) When Bugbear Entertainment released FlatOut in 2004, it was widely acclaimed as one of the best racing games released to date. With a higher level of realistic effects, “flat-out” racing, and advanced graphics, it quickly set the benchmark for all games of the genre. Well, Bugbear is at it again, this time with the release of FlatOut 2. As you will see, FlatOut 2 has all the same ideals – marvellous cinematics and graphics, multiple game play arenas and the “flat-out” style seat of your pants racing entertainment. BETA link Dynamic Vibration Headphones (MSD-978VR) @ xtremecomputing.co.uk [Sep-20-06] (0 Comments) I really enjoyed the subwoofer vibration when playing games especially FPS Garfield And His Nine Lives (GBA) @ thinkgaming.org [Sep-19-06] (0 Comments) The long time comic strip character, Garfield, has been making his rounds. With two major movies under his belt, the felinecontinues his journey into the realm of video games. The famous fat orange cat sets out to conquer his bad dreams in this GBAadventure. After spending the night gorging on his favorite foods, Garfield must battle these dreams and enemies that face him. Guide to the WCG Finals in Las Vegas @ thinkgaming.org [Sep-16-06] (0 Comments) They've got furious fingers and laser-focused eyes, which is why the nearly 150 PC and videogame players coming to Las Vegasthis weekend are the nation's best. They will meet at the Aladdin Hotel to battle for a coveted spot on Team USA, which will travelto Italy in October for the international World Cyber Games Grand Final. There, Team USA will defend its title as overall championsagainst 700 gamers from 70 countries. With their reputations and big cash prizes on the line, it's sure to be an action-packedweekend. Auzentech HDA X-Plosion 7.1 DTS Connect Sound Card @ bigbruin.com [Sep-15-06] (0 Comments) I have been using onboard audio since an nVidia nForce 2 motherboard had issues with a Creative Labs Live! sound card some years ago. My biggest audio use has just been for playback of MP3 and games, but when I built my home theater system I thought of getting a dedicated sound card and just couldn't justify it as the sound was adequate. The Auzentech X-Plosion has changed that position, as I can clearly hear the difference between the onboard sound and the X-Plosion. Gaming on Windows Vista - ATI versus NVIDIA @ legitreviews.com [Sep-12-06] (0 Comments) All of the games that we tried playing, over 12 titles in all, were retail games that we purchased with the most recent patches. In case you are wondering about pirated versions working on Vista we don't know because ours were legit. The purpose of this article was to see how the drivers from ATI and NVIDIA are doing and they are coming along. Neither are what we would call shipping-caliber as both companies lack a ton of features. The NVIDIA drivers don't offer overclocking, GPU temperature monitoring, SLI graphics and many other features that I would call required. I'm a gamer and if my games play ~20-30% faster on XP Professional then you wont see me switch operating systems till the DirectX 10 titles come rolling out. Limited Account Tweak @ aoaforums.com [Sep-11-06] (0 Comments) Many kids have their own computers. As parents, this poses a problem with computer safety; not only to keep your kids safe but to make sure they do not do something that will cause damage to OS. A great way to keep a leash on the activity is to setup the accounts as limited. Unfortunately this will keep some already installed apps from working, including some games. There is a solution to this problem. This quick and easy tweak will enable you to keep the account set as limited and still allow running of applications that require an Administrator account. HIS X800 GTO IceQ II Turbo 256MB Video Card Giveaway @ xyzcomputing.com [Sep-09-06] (0 Comments) September is here, which means that holiday season is right around the bend. In order to start to get ready for the gaming/hardware busy season XYZ Computing has a new giveaway! This time around we will be giving away a HIS X800 GTO IceQ II Turbo 256MB PCIe video card! This is a good card with some very nice specs and it will have no problem playing any of the season's hottest games. Albatron 7300GT 256MB @ overclockersonline.com [Sep-05-06] (0 Comments) I may just be overly pleased with this card but I think the performance, scalability of SLI, and passive/silent operation is blissful. Newer games will be required to run at low resolutions but for the price, that is more than acceptable, Keep your eyes out for 7300GT cards especially passive ones that perform well like the Albatron 7300 GT DDRII. Hardware3D News:Why It's Difficult To Build PCs For The Less Tech Savvy @ hardware3d.com [Sep-05-06] (0 Comments) Most PC enthusiasts know what kind of power their PC needs to play the latest games, what hardware it will take to get that level of performance, and how much they will need to spend to finish it all off. But your friends, relatives, and customers may find it hard to justify dropping a grand on a PC which can Gauntlet Seven Sorrow for Xbox @ rbconsoles.com [Sep-05-06] (0 Comments) Before the variety of adventure/RPG games such as Baldur's Gate, Halo, etc, there was one game that I enjoyed spending hours in the arcade and at home playing:Gauntlet. The original game had a simple premise that worked well. Today we'll look at the Midway's latest offering in the series, Gauntlet:Seven Sorrows for the Xbox. How will this game compare with some of the latest offerings? Let's find out. Why would we buy Battlefield 2142? @ ngohq.com [Sep-02-06] (0 Comments) The developer's support is very important to keep the game running, fixing bugs, and to prevent cheating. That's why many online games are being patched all the time - sometimes the developer is making a mistake that can have a big negative influence over the game. For example, Client & Server stability issues that can lead to a crash. Usually, when a respected developer is making these kinds of mistakes, they release a fix in a timely manner of a few hours or a week. At least, that's what usually happens when a respected developer (like Valve, for example) has a bug in one of their popular games. FlatOut 2 PC Game @ techdomain.com.au [Aug-31-06] (0 Comments) TechDomain with thanks to our sponsors Reckless Games is pleased to announce the giveaway of a copy of FlatOut2! Experience the drive of your life as you throw yourself around on and off the track causing fences to shatter, tyre walls explode, water tanks and barrels fly across the track into other cars. And if anyone, including you, gets caught up in a big smash sit back and watch as the driver gets catapulted through the windscreen in spectacular effect. Also unique to FlatOut, anything you destroy or alter stays a part of the race lap after lap, increasing the carnage to unprecedented levels! Project Gotham Racing 3 (Xbox 360) @ rbconsoles.com [Aug-31-06] (0 Comments) While more and more games are being released for the Xbox 360 there are several very good games for it that you should not forgoten. Microsoft sent us a sample of their Project Gotham Racing 3 for us to test out. This new racing game offers features such as:buying cars, earning points to improve your car, and you can even play it online vs others on the Microsoft Live network. ZBoard Gaming Keyboard @ hardwaresecrets.com [Aug-24-06] (0 Comments) Ideazon rethinks the keyboard as a dedicated controller for a variety of games, such as a shooter like Battlefield 2 and a strategy war game like Age of Empires III. The Secrets of DaVinci:The Forbidden Manuscript PC Game @ thinkgaming.org [Aug-24-06] (0 Comments) DaVinci is quite popular lately so we expected a video game didn't we? Well the game I have for review today is nothing likethe movie at all, it actually has nothing to do with the movie. The Secrets of DaVinci:The Forbidden Manuscript is a work incollaboration with the Chateau du Clos Luce, Leonardo DaVinci's last residence; many experts were brought in to bring an extra levelof realism to the game to make sure the graphics/settings were exactly like the time of Leonardo. I have to say the game is verygood graphically, and it is interesting if you are into the point and click style of games. The ATI Radeon X1950XTX Video Card @ legitreviews.com [Aug-23-06] (0 Comments) The X1950XTX is without a doubt the fastest card ever to wear the ATI badge. The extra memory helps it shine running AA or HDR games at higher resolutions. This is important for the longevity of the card and should give it a little more lifespan as more and more titles debut with HDR and advanced shaders. It hauls ass and keeps quiet which is exactly what ATI was lacking on their last few flagship video cards. News@Technic3D / PowerColor und Technic3D GC 2006 Event @ technic3d.com [Aug-10-06] (0 Comments) Just a few days ahead, from 24/08/2006 to 27/08/2006, this yea rs Games Convention in Leipzig, Europe's best-known computer gaming exhibition, will open its gates to attract people from all over the wo rld with the latest in games and gaming gear. PowerColor and Technic3D .com have therefore established a partnership to create a raffle. Tha nks to some sponsors, we were able to obtain some nice prizes, includi ng an X1800XT graphics card, 15 Games from Frogster Interactive, and m iscellaneous products from Arctic Cooling. Good luck and have fun!PowerColor, manufacturer of graphics cards, will have showgirls walkin g around at this years Games Convention. Technic3D.com's reader shou ld be watching out for the lovely girls, because we want to publish al l of the taken photos on our website and our editorial department will be choosing the best photos. The winning photographer will then be ob taining one of our prizes. Episodic Content and Online Distribution @ thinkgaming.org [Aug-05-06] (0 Comments) With the recent release of Half-Life 2:Episode 1 and the announcement of Half-Life 2:Episode 2 it is clear that Valve isseriously trying to push the episodic content for their games. Although this may seem like a new and fresh idea with unlimitedprofit potential this may also generate a backslash in the gaming community. News @ technic3d.com [Aug-02-06] (0 Comments) Whether the Enermax Aurora under Office and Games works satisf actorily see you in the following Review on Technic3D 5 Ways to Watch TV on the Computer @ bigbruin.com [Aug-01-06] (0 Comments) Over the last several years, computers have worked their way out of the office and into just about every aspect of our daily lives. Home computers are no longer boring beige boxes destined for an existence revolving around e-mails and personal finances. They can also be the key to our personal entertainment that allows us to immerse ourselves in games, music, movies, and television (TV). This Tech Tip will focus on the television portion of the list above, and will take a look at five ways in which just about anyone can enjoy watching television on their computer monitor. Everglide Gaming Gear Give Away @ bigbruin.com [Aug-01-06] (0 Comments) The first few games are in the book and the second wave of games has been added, but it is not too late to sign up to win a handful of prizes from Everglide. Even if you know nothing about baseball, you can still compete in this contest. For two weeks there will be three randomly selected baseball games per day to make predictions on. All you need to do is enter your prediction for each team's final score in each game and then click Multi-GPU World Tour Part 5:Most Played Games @ neoseeker.com [Jul-22-06] (0 Comments) Our contribution has us looking at a rough cross section of a few of themost played multiplayer games on both XFire and Gamespy, though we do covera couple more recent high profile titles such as Oblivion. Notsurprisingly, the titles at the top of XFire and Gamespy's list are not atthe very bleeding edge of graphics - they require a certain amount ofhorsepower certainly, but these games are played by a wide range of userswho have a variety of system capabilities. This puts our particular testsin a less exciting light as far as sheer horsepower tests are concerned, butit does make these results highly relevant and representative of what alarge gaming audience can expect from Multi-GPU setups $300 Gaming CPU's:AMD 5000+ Versus Intel E6600 @ legitreviews.com [Jul-20-06] (0 Comments) Our testing showed that when gaming at high resolutions the limiting factor is not the processor, but is actually the graphics card. This was shown to be true in three out of the six games that we benchmarked. We used the ATI Radeon X1900XTX graphics card, which is the fastest single card GPU on the market (not counting the NVIDIA 7950GX2) and comes priced at a healthy $499 so it's not like we put in a weak video card by any means. The reason we didn't run X1900 CrossFire is because how many people can really afford it to start with? Prey PC Game @ techdomain.com.au [Jul-14-06] (0 Comments) TechDomain with thanks to our sponsors Reckless Games is pleased to announce the giveaway of a copy of Prey, the latest and greatest PC game to hit the shelves! Prey is a first-person shooter in which players take on the role of a character who must fight against multiple alien races. quoted-printable encoded unnecessarily @ ngohq.com [Jul-11-06] (0 Comments) At Computex 2006, we had the chance to see a new memory module from GeIL. EVO ONE is its name, and it is the enthusiast's wet dream. These days, memory plays an important role in running today's games and applications. However, some motherboards can be a bottleneck when it comes to high performance memory. Most of the motherboard manufacturers today are drawing voltage from the 3.3v rail to power memory modules. Only one manufacturer is using the 5v rail, which allows the user higher overclocking, and that's DFI. Even with DDR2, the voltage is pretty limited on many motherboards. Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit @ thinkcomputers.org [Jul-11-06] (0 Comments) With almost every PC game your keyboard and mouse is what you use to control the game. Sometimes your keyboard just doesn'tcut it. You have to reach far just to reload or change weapons. There are not enough keys that are close to program all your keysyou use in the game. Well Saitek has solved this problem with the Pro Gamer Command Unit. The Pro Gamer Command Unit combines thecontrols essential to First Person Shooter and Strategy games in one unit making them fast and easy to reach in the heat of battle. quoted-printable encoded unnecessarily @ ngohq.com [Jul-11-06] (0 Comments) At Computex 2006, we had the chance to see a new memory module from GeIL. EVO ONE is its name, and it is the enthusiast's wet dream. These days, memory plays an important role in running today's games and applications. However, some motherboards can be a bottleneck when it comes to high performance memory. Most of the motherboard manufacturers today are drawing voltage from the 3.3v rail to power memory modules. Only one manufacturer is using the 5v rail, which allows the user higher overclocking, and that's DFI. Even with DDR2, the voltage is pretty limited on many motherboards. ExactGame 9000 Pro gaming mouse . @ a1-electronics.net [Jul-11-06] (0 Comments) We are all moving to laser mice and this one is especially designed for those of your playing comuputer games at the top limit. Do we have time for game playing. You can use this ExactGame Pro 9000 at different laser dpi resolutions including, 400, 800, 1,600 & 2,000 dpi to suit your individual exacting reqirements at the time in real-time. You can also see the different colours the wheel lights up depending on the laser resolution. Everglide s-500 Professional Gaming Headphones @ bigbruin.com [Jul-10-06] (0 Comments) Although I am by no means an Audiophile, I was quite satisfied with the quality of the sound the Everglide Professional Gaming Headphones produced. I decided to test the headphones with a few PC games and a variety of music. In all tests I detected more bass than I've heard from other headphones. I should also add that I detected very little distortion when I cranked up the games and music throughout my tests. Speed-Link Medusa 5.1 Pro Gamer Edition @ techpowerup.com [Jun-30-06] (0 Comments) Today we look at the Speed-Link Medusa 5.1 Pro Gamer Edition headset. Not only does it come with all the cables and a tiny but effective power supply. It also sports a perfect bag which makes the journey to the next LAN party a breeze. The suede feel of the headset makes it incredibly comfortable and it definitely has the sound to make your scariest games even scarier and give you the 5.1 surround sound you need to excel at your next LAN Party. GeForce 7950 GX2 retail roundup @ bit-tech.net [Jun-27-06] (0 Comments) The XFX is undoubtedly the fastest of the five GeForce 7950 GX2's on test, but it is also the most expensive by a considerable margin - at over Ł527 including VAT, it represents very poor value for money, especially when you consider performance over a wide range of games. Indeed, there are occasions where its higher clock frequencies don't result in higher playable image quality settings. Of course, gameplay is slightly smoother and the performance gap will increase at higher resolutions. However, as we have already mentioned, we feel that gaming at 2560x1600 is limited to Quad SLI for the foreseeable future. ATP Pro Max 1GB Compact Flash Card @ thinkcomputers.org [Jun-24-06] (0 Comments) Flash memory can be found pretty much everywhere today, in almost every consumer electronic device from cell phones, digitalcameras to video games. Many companies out there make flash memory, but which is right for you? What qualities do you look for in aflash memory card? Speed is always important, durability is very important, and capacity. Today for review I have a 1 GB CompactFlash card from ATP, it's fast, water resistant and very durable. Gaming Hardware 06 @ hardware.gamershell.com [Jun-20-06] (0 Comments) There are exciting things happening both from the hardware point of view , as well as some new, resource-hungry games on the horizon, so this is a n especially excellent time to take a look at when you should upgrade, an d what that should entail. Of course the particular upgrade path you take depends on a number of features. These include the current hardware you are running, the sorts of games you like to play, and how much money you have to spend. Nintendo DS Lite @ gideontech.com [Jun-16-06] (0 Comments) For this review, I'm going to cut to the chase a bit earlier. The Nintendo DS Lite is one beautiful piece of work. Since hearing about the DS, I've always wanted one. The DS offers games of a different calibre. If you are expecting games you'd play on the PS2 or XBox, you'll be in for quite a surprise. The DS caters to the mobile gamer who wants challenging unique games with a touch of Nintendo added. Combine all that in a sexier piece of hardware and you have something to talk about. Razer Krait Gaming Mouse @ xyzcomputing.com [Jun-14-06] (0 Comments) This review will be taking a look at one product which was just recently r eleased, Razer's Krait mouse. This mouse is most notable because it was specifically optimized for real-time strategy (RTS) and massively multipla yer online gaming (MMOG), as opposed to the type of games manufacturer's n ormally focus on, namely first person shooters (FPS). The criteria for a n appropriate mouse for each style of gaming is different, or at least Raz er would want you to think that this is the case. With the market starti ng to accept products like gaming mice and gaming keyboards, it was only a matter of time until someone introduced a mouse for a certain type of gam e. While it is easy to be skeptical of such an idea, Razer has a great r eputation and may actually be onto something here. Spire Rocketeer V SP-500W 500W Power Supply @ bigbruin.com [Jun-13-06] (0 Comments) The image quality in 2D and 3D applications is superb, and the performance seems to indicate specifications greater than those indicated for brightness, contrast, and dot pitch. Additionally, the 13ms response time proved to be plenty fast for 3D gaming, and the handful of games I tried all looked great regardless of the pace. [News] Sapphire "Ultimate" x1600 PRO 256MB Graphics Card @ Diceman@VH [Jun-08-06] (0 Comments) So if you are in the market for a good graphics card and don't wantto break the bank, give the Sapphire Ultimate X1600 PRO a try. It's a goodquality card that will play just about any of the games currently out today.For the traveling LAN goers, I would suggest removing the card before youtravel since this thing weighs A LOT Sensible Soccer 2006 @ bit-tech.net [Jun-08-06] (0 Comments) There's a run button (each player has a certain amount of stamina available per game, indicated by a little meter above his head), and an arrow at your feet to show you exactly which way the ball's going to ping, but, apart from some periphery stuff (moving the goalkeeper and defensive wall around with the right analog), that's your lot. It's the 80s shoot-'em-up of football games - all speed and reactions, yet not without depth. Corsair XMS TWINX2048-3500LLPRO 2GB Dual Channel Kit @ hardwarexl.com [Jun-05-06] (0 Comments) Last week I got the chance to review 2GB TWINX DDR modules from Corsair.For quite some time dual channel modules 2x512MB with low latencies ruled inthe gaming community. More and more games nowadays are getting pretty hungryfor more memory, 2GB is beginning to be standard for high-end systems. Mostmodules come with pretty loose timing, but then again offer a lot ofoverclocking headroom. The 3500LLPRO's has it timings set on 2.3.2.6 andlike Corsair states it could run a freq. of 218Mhz. In our last DDR review Ifocused the review on overclocking, in this review I will focus more onkeeping the timings tight. Lets see how they perform. Sony Vaio UX Micro PC @ reviews.digitaltrends.com [Jun-02-06] (0 Comments) The Sony VAIO UX Micro PC weighs around 1.2 pounds and sports a 4.5-inch wide SVGA screen which uses the company's XBRITE technology to deliver brilliant color, crisp graphics and very fine details. The screen is also touch sensitive, usable with an integrated stylus and on-screen touch launcher for quick access to features and programs commonly used, such as games and Internet e-mail. Driving Sony's smallest PC is an Intel Core Solo Ultra Low Voltage processor and the Microsoft XP Professional operating system. This combination is joined by 512MB of 400MHz DDR2 SDRAM, an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with 128MB of dynamically allocated shared RAM/video memory and a 300GB 4200RPM ATA hard drive. BFG 7900 GT OC @ pcper.com [May-31-06] (0 Comments) The BFG 7900 GT OC is a great performing video card for all types ofgamers -- casual or hardcore. The GT has the power to get through any gamecurrently available and should be able to continue to perform well in futuregames through all of 2006. Even though it only sports 256 MB of memory, theBFG 7900 GT OC was able to perform on par with, or better than, the ATIX1800 XT card that has twice as much memory. Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 @ bigbruin.com [May-25-06] (0 Comments) Microsoft has come up with a great offering in the Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 Keyboard and Mouse set. With Geeks.com offering this combination at the bargain price of $56.99, anyone looking for a wireless desktop set up should give this one some serious consideration. Performance of both the mouse and keyboard were better than I had hoped for, and both maintained a strong signal no matter where in the room I used them from. The Wireless Laser 6000 mouse has also put to rest all of my apprehension over wireless mice in fast paced FPS video games. E3 2006 EA Booth Tour @ thinkgaming.org [May-22-06] (0 Comments) As you make your way into the massive South Hall in the Los Angeles Convention Center, you'll see directly up front making apowerful first impression - Electronic Arts. Their booth has a circular shape with a gigantic full 360-degree video screen showingseamlessly connected 360-degree video. Featured within this gigantic booth are many of EA's fantastic upcoming games, includingCrytek's Crysis, Battlefield 2142, Superman Returns, Madden NFL 07, Spore, etc. Check out this full on tour of the EA booth at the2006 E3. Comic Book Super-Hero Games @ thinkgaming.org [May-19-06] (0 Comments) With the annual San Diego Comic-Con coming up in just a few months and several huge super-hero movies being released thisyear and under production for the next few years, the gaming industry is itself jumping into the world of super-heroes at thisyear's E3 as well. Although the numbers are small (in comparison to how many FPS games you'll find), the games are just as uniqueand just as well made as many other metacritic-toppers out there. This year's line-up includes Warner Brothers' Justice LeagueHeroes for the Xbox and Playstation 2; EA's Superman Returns for the Xbox 360, Xbox and Playstation 2; and Activision's MarvelUltimate Alliance for all systems, including Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. E3 Hands-On with The Witcher:A Small RPG Looking to Make it Big @ thinkgaming.org [May-17-06] (0 Comments) There's a quiet hall tucked away underneath the glitz and glamour, the lights and sound, of the main South Hall filled withall the big developers. Kentia Hall it's called, and it holds some of the best, and also some of the worst, games at E3. It hasbecome known as the "On-Demand Gaming- The Next Big Thing?" @ xyzcomputing.com [May-15-06] (0 Comments) Game delivery has followed this trend and made a number of advances o in t he past few years. Rather than purchasing games on CD or DVD customers n ow have access to direct downloads from retailers as well as online servic es so that the games can be had without ever leaving their home. All it takes to do this is a broadband connection and a credit card, so for most gamers, things could not be easier. The most successful implementation o f this has been Steam, the service from Valve Software. This system expl oded in popularity because it is the best way to get access to Half Life 2 , as well as play Counter Strike:Source and Day of Defeat:Source online. UberSoldier PC Game @ thinkcomputers.org [May-14-06] (0 Comments) Games, I love getting them for review, especially first person shooters. I like all sorts of games but FPS games are myfavorite next to strategy games like Act of War etc. It is also nice to get good games for review, and UberSoldier falls into thatcategory, I might actually call it a great game. Before I received this for review I read a couple other reviews and one wasparticularly bad, and I was sort of unhappy about it as I was planning on buying the game. After installing and playing I can'tfigure out what they were talking about and how they gave it such a bad review... X1900 GT face-off @ bit-tech.net [May-10-06] (0 Comments) The GeForce 7900 GT is a very good overclocker, while the Radeon X1900GT looks to be a bit of a mixed bag at the moment. If you're looking to overclock, we feel that the GeForce 7900 GT is the better deal if you find one at a good price. However, if you're planning to run your video card at stock speeds the final decision will depend on the games you're looking to play. Logitech vs. Saitek @ techarray.com [May-08-06] (0 Comments) Nothing beats having a joystick for games that can truly take advantage of AGEIA PhysX and Ghost Recon - Gaming @ tweaktown.com [May-08-06] (0 Comments) Finally we leave thinking about the performance hit that has been spoken about a lot. There is no doubt that the AGEIA card in GRAW does impact performance - the VGA card has to render more detail due to the AGEIA card. Losses as high as 20 frames per second have been spoken about but with that said, the Radeon X1900XTX at 2560 x 1600 didn’t give us any major loss of FPS that affected our game play. The other thing is the PhysX in GRAW feels as it’s been kind of taped on and not written from the ground up. When we get a chance to look at the card again we will try Cell Factor which is designed around the AGEIA technology to see just how it performs. This will give us a better indication of how future games will perform with this technology as it matures. 2x1GB DDR Memory Roundup:Corsair, Mushkin and OCZ @ pureoverclock.com [May-05-06] (0 Comments) Games such as Battlefield 2, F.E.A.R, Quake 4, and more recentlyOblivion are setting an obvious trend that will only continue. If you're aserious gamer then you really should have 2GB of fast system memory, and ifyou currently have 2GB of ' value' stuff but are looking to upgrade, thenthe kits on test today from Corsair, Mushkin and OCZ are perfectreplacements. NVIDIA's Quad SLI @ bit-tech.net [May-02-06] (0 Comments) We've been through multiple video cards and more driver revisions than you can shake a stick at. We discovered so many issues and bugs in the drivers that we weren't sure where to start when it came to writing up this evaluation. Major games - like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Call of Duty 2 - just don't work as they should on Quad SLI. Any consumer buying Quad SLI right now is going to have a hell of a time trying to get their working acceptably. New article at Laptop Gamers - Being A Game Developer @ laptopgamers.com [Apr-24-06] (0 Comments) The games industry is now a massive multi billion dollar business anddevelopment teams can number 50 or more. My first game had me as programmer,artist, and beep designer - (well it wasn't proper sound!). I dideverything. Back then games were written in assembler and you had to learn6502 and Z80. Nowadays with a few exceptions games are written in C and C++.The days of back room programmers aren't entirely gone- there is also 'retroremake' and 'indie' scene, e.g. Retrospec but unless you have anexceptionally brilliant idea, you are not likely to get into the mainstreamgame business as a one man outfit writing Blockbuster PC games. BFG 7900 GTX OC @ pcper.com [Apr-17-06] (0 Comments) The BFG 7900 GTX OC maintains a small, but consistent performancelead over the reference scores we saw from the sample NVIDIA sent us lastmonth. The 670/820 MHz on the core and memory clocks brought with themaround a 3% gain in overall performance. The higher your resolution and themore eye candy you turn on, the better, and we even saw some games like BF2show as much as 11% performance improvement thanks in large part to the 100FPS top out of the engine. MSI GeForce NX7300GS-TD256E PCIE Video Card @ viperlair.com [Apr-14-06] (0 Comments) As for the speed, you will obviously not be able to play the latest games at high resolution. 1280x1024 is my personal minimum, and the NX7300 GS struggled for the most part. Unless you're playing an old title such as Quake 3, you'll be limited to 1024x768 and lower for an enjoyable game experience. Titles still look decent at 1024 and 800x600, but if you're a serious gamer where IQ and all the graphical doodads are important, you'll be better served spending a few hundred bucks more. Gigabyte's GeForce 7 Series Tested @ tweaktown.com [Apr-10-06] (0 Comments) I personally use a Radeon X1900XTX because it is better at what I play, predominately Battlefield 2 yet the biggest problem with it is the noise output - it is just way too loud and you really have to crank up the speakers or use headphones to get over it. The 7900GTX I feel is the better card, it performs similar and better depending what games you’re playing. The 7900GT which compared to the X1900XT is a single slot solution as opposed to a dual slot and is just an overall better card. ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe Motherboard @ viperlair.com [Apr-07-06] (0 Comments) While we can get hard numbers showing the improvements of SLI X16, we'd be hard pressed to tell you if our gaming experience was any better. With the current crop of games, the experience was no different between the MSI P4N and ASUS P5N32-SLI boards, but this may change with newer hardware and games. Those of you currently using solid SLI X8 boards probably won't lose too much sleep if you hold off SLI X16 boards at this time. BFG Tech 7900GT 256MB Video Card @ gideontech.com [Apr-02-06] (0 Comments) Overall, I think this video card is worth purchasing if you are looking to upgrade or are moving to PCI-E. For a mid-high range card it holds well in FPS games and does well in RTS and MMORPGs as well. It stays cooler than the 6600GTs which it replaces, which idled around 50c, a temperature this one only reaches after a gaming session. Although I'd still like to see the card come with RAM heatsinks, I have not run across a time where the extra cooling was required. The biggest disappointment I had was having to wait for the second card to arrive after the first one arrived DOA. Audio FX Gaming Headset @ atruereview.com [Mar-29-06] (0 Comments) Are you getting everything you can out of your headsets? You listento that bass thumping music and huge explosions in your games, but do youfeel it? Probably, not because most headsets do not put out bass lower than25Hz. Think PowerColor ATI X1600XT Bravo Edition @ thinkcomputers.org [Mar-22-06] (0 Comments) ATI is quickly trying to take the top slot in the video card wars; with the release of there newest core comes the releaseof other lower clocked cards. Aimed at those can't quite afford the top of the line technology, but still want to keep playing thenewest games. NVidia does the same thing, they release a high end card and after a bit release the lower clocked siblings for thosewhose pockets aren't as deep. Today for review I have one, what might be considered a mid-range card for review; it is the ATIX1600XT from PowerColor. Not long ago I reviewed the X1300 from PowerColor which would be considered a budget priced card. Let's seehow the X1600XT compares with the X1300 which is about half the price, and let's see if almost twice the money is really worthit... Saitek ST90 Joystick @ thinkgaming.org [Mar-15-06] (0 Comments) Saitek makes some great products, not long ago I reviewed the Cyborg Evo Force joystick. The Cyborg would be consideredhigh-end. Today I have what some would consider low end, not cheap but lower priced. I have the Saitek ST90, billed as:'Therevolutionary foldable stick for professional gamers', I'll admit I am not a professional gamer by any means, but I do love to playgames when I get time, which is rare these days. The Saitek ST90 is a cool looking joystick that anyone can afford. Gigabyte X1600XT 256 mb PCI-E video card @ rbmods.com [Mar-07-06] (0 Comments) The new X1600 is supposed to be a middle class card on the video card market, and we recieved a sample from Gigabyte to benchmark. A sample of their new X1600XT card was deleivered to us and we will today share our thoughts with you guys (and girls) out there. This video card is fanless and is cooled off with Gigabytes own heatpipe/heatsink technology so we decided to see how far it would let us overclock also and if we could run games for longer periods of time without overheating it. You will also see some game and benchmark results compared to other middle class cards on the market. Albatron 6600 512 DDR2 Video Card @ legitreviews.com [Mar-05-06] (0 Comments) The 6600-512 is a great card for you gamers on a budget, and those of you who don't spend a lot of time gaming and want something to play the latest games coming out today. If you're an avid gamer and prefer to run with Anti-Aliasing on then you should probably look at some more expensive options. Samsung YP-T8Z Digital Audio Player @ overclockersonline.com [Feb-27-06] (0 Comments) In today's highly competitive digital media player market dominatedby Apple's iPod Samsung's YP-T8Z does an excellent job holding its ground.Though not the 'iPod slayer', this feature- filled digital audio playerlives up to it's title as the all-in-one digital audio player with text,pictures, videos, games, FM radio, and USB host support. Although Samsung'sYP-T8Z is priced relatively high in comparison to other flash storage basedmedia players the large 1.8 PowerColor 128MB Radeon X800 GTO Graphics Card @ bigbruin.com [Feb-23-06] (0 Comments) The PowerColor 128MB Radeon X800 GTO graphics card definitely provides a solid bang for the buck. It may not be one of the cutting edge cards out there, but it is priced at a mere fraction of one of those cards. The performance definitely out weighs the price, and if you want a graphics card that can keep up with some of the latest games without costing much more than $100, this one might be hard to beat. City of Villains @ techgage.com [Feb-14-06] (0 Comments) There's very few games that allow you to be the bad guy,let alone anMMO! NCsoft is back again with a stand alone sequel to their popularCity of Heroes game, and we are here to determine whether it's worththe monthly fee! Chaintech GeForce 6600 APOGEE VE 256MB DDR2 @ techniz.co.uk [Feb-10-06] (0 Comments) The Chaintech GeForce 6600 APOGEE VE 256MB DDR2 PCI-Express graphic cardis great mid range graphic card. The default performance for this card hadbeen overclock 10% higher than the normal GeForce 6600. Thats why it iscalled the APOGEE which is means overclock version. The performance ofthis Chaintech GeForce 6600 APOGEE VE 256MB DDR2 PCI-Express graphic cardis very good during our testing in various benchmark and games..... Gigabyte GV-RX18L256V-B X1800 XL @ viperlair.com [Feb-09-06] (0 Comments) Performance was pretty good, as this card could play all the games we threw at it at 1024*768 with 4X AA and 16X ansio without a problem. Playing some other newer games (Age of Empires 3, etc.) provided a smooth frame rate at the settings I tried. In numbers this card, when not CPU limited was between 20% and 50% faster than the older x800XL mostly with AA turned on. Plantronics DSP-500 headset @ bit-tech.net [Feb-02-06] (0 Comments) Overall, the Plantronics DSP-500 is a very solid headset. Although the audio quality listening to music isn't great, it acquits itself very well in games and in VoIP scenarios, especially given the strong bass response and the excellent quality of the microphone. If you're looking for a good pair of gaming cans, we'd really advise you to give these a look. New Article at Laptop Gamers:Playing Video Games For a Living @ laptopgamers.com [Feb-02-06] (0 Comments) The easiest way to get a chance to work in the videogames industry is to Where in the world? @ bit-tech.net [Feb-01-06] (0 Comments) We at bit-tech towers decided that we wanted to investigate exactly where all our favourite gear comes from and how it gets made. We embarked on a gruelling world tour to find the offices and the manufacturing plants of all the top companies that we cared about, and then put finger to keyboard to report back to you. Did you know that some of the top enthusiast components in the world are designed in Canada? That one of the most anticipated games of 2006 is being developed in the Ukraine? That one of your daily website reads comes out of Alaska? Thought not! ATI All-In-Wonder X1900 PCIe @ viperlair.com [Feb-01-06] (0 Comments) Not everyone who buys a PC is a hardcore gamer, but there are a fair number of people who do kill time by blowing stuff up. At the same time, a lot of folks do more than just play games. Make no mistake, you probably are a Diamond Xtreme Sound 7.1 Sound Card @ pcper.com [Jan-30-06] (0 Comments) The major feature of the Xtreme Sound 7.1 with Dolby Digital Live isobviously the DDL 5.1 support. This feature is great for music and movies asthe upsampling of non-5.1 sources is excellent and the use of opticalinterconnects makes wiring a breeze. For gamers with 7.1 speakers shouldprobably use the analog connections and not use DDL as it only supports 5.1channels. So you will lose any effects that would have been produced on yourrear speakers would be lost. If you play games on 5.1 speakers (which is amajority) you should feel free in using them if your speakers support DolbyDigital. Radeon X1900 family @ bit-tech.net [Jan-25-06] (0 Comments) When we reviewed the Radeon X1800XL and Radeon X1800XT,we found that the high quality anisotropic filtering mode was not asusable as it should be. In fact, there were very few games where wefound that we were able to increase the texture filtering quality uptothe desirable and almost angle-independent high quality anisotropicfiltering mode. This is where things change. :ATI Radeon X1900 XT and XTX @ hexus.net [Jan-24-06] (0 Comments) R580, moreso than any modern GPU that meets the D3D9 spec,therefore relies on software to show it off. Even current syntheticbenchmarks designed to show off theoretical rates in 3D hardware canhave a hard time exploiting the tripling in fragment processingability. That's not to say the performance increases at the sameclocks as R520 are invisible. Clearly they're not without increases,especially at the higher resolutions, of up to 30% in the games wetested, clock-for-clock. UFO Aftershock PC Game @ thinkcomputers.org [Jan-21-06] (0 Comments) Science Fiction, probably one of the most popular themes of video games, in the past and most likely in the future as well,combine that with strategy role playing games and you have the makings of something great. UFO Aftershock is the sequel to UFOAftermath from Cenega. I have to be honest I never played Aftermath, but you don't have to in order to play Aftershock. I do enjoystrategy games and the C&C series is one of my all time favorites, I also enjoy RPG games as well. Aftershock combines both of thoseinto one great game. Viliv P1 20gig Portable Media Player @ xtremecomputing.co.uk [Jan-18-06] (0 Comments) The Viliv P1 is the first portable media player to use MacromediaFlash, files supported are DIVX, XVID, , AC3, MPEG1, MPEG2, WMA, AAC,OGG and mp3, there is also a JPG/BMP image viewer with support for 12megapixel files, a text viewer. Support for Flash movies and games aswell as radio and a FM transmitter, MW dynamic shadow rendering issues with ATi RADEON series @ ngohq.com [Jan-17-06] (0 Comments) It seems that there are a few dynamic shadow rendering issues with the games BattleField 2 v1.12 and Need for Speed:Most Wanted. It is not an isolated incident as we have noticed that many users are complaining about these issues in various forums around the world. Thermalright V1-Ultra GPU cooler @ rbmods.com [Jan-17-06] (0 Comments) With games becoming more advanced, everyone's trying to figure out ways to get the most out of their graphics card so they don't have to upgrade. Overclocking seems like the logical way to do this, but with faster speeds comes more heat. With some not willing to take the financial plunge into water cooling, the V1-Ultra from Thermalright may be the right choice for you. With improvements over its predecessor, as well as compatibility with newer cards, read on and see for yourself. Chaintech GeForce 6800GS 256MB DDR3 SLI @ techniz.co.uk [Dec-27-05] (0 Comments) The Chaintech GeForce 6800GS 256MB DDR3 PCI-Express graphic card is grea tmid range graphic card. The performance of this Chaintech GeForce 6800256MB PCI-Express graphic card is very good during our testing in variousbenchmark and games. For the overclocking results from this ChaintechGeForce 6800GS 256MB DDR3 PCI-Express graphic card is very good as well.There was an increment of 93MHz for the core and 300MHz for the memorythat brings up from the default at 425/1000MHz to 518/1300MHz... Corsair TwinX2048-4000PT @ rbmods.com [Dec-27-05] (0 Comments) Tonight we have a 2gb memory kit called Twinx2048-4000PT from Corsair. This is a sample from their popular Twinx series and we were able to get a 2gb sample to see how it performs. With todays more demanding games and software people are starting to buy more memory to be able to run a lag free computer. We reviewed a 2gb kit from OCZ a week back and we will compare this to todays Corsair kit both in overclocking and benchmarking. :Have a happy happy gaming holiday @ hexus.net [Dec-22-05] (0 Comments) Thisyear, like every year before it, is going to be the best year everfor fantastic game performance, exciting games, super powerfulplatforms, affordable prices, and community playing in both yourliving room and on line. And next year will be even better =96 but whywait? X-Arcade Trackball @ xyzcomputing.com [Dec-19-05] (0 Comments) Last year, I took a look at X-Arcade's premiere product, the two-player joystick. It demonstrated X-Arcade's quality as a brand and attention to detail. Since then, X-Arcade has introduced a new product, its Track ball. Designed to look and feel like ball-based arcade games from the pa st, the X-Arcade Trackball fits the bill. With a 3-inch-ish ball, and a rolling action that simulates the Sapphire Radeon X1300 256MB PCI Express Video Card @ bonafidereviews.com [Dec-16-05] (0 Comments) After last week's review of the BFG 7800GTX OC we visit the opposite end of the video card spectrum with Sapphire's X1300 Pro. Sapphire seems to have really focused on making their offering of the X1300 extremely affordable by being cheapest X1300 available. At the time of writing this card can be found online for $95. In other words, this video card costs less than 20% of what the 7800GTX is currently selling for. That's quite a statement. However, a graphic card has to perform to provide any real value to someone. A cheap video card that doesn't run the games they want play doesn't do much good either. So is this card worth its $95 price tag or is it a very effective paper weight? That's what we will determine in our review of Sapphire's X1300 Pro video card. Samsung Spinpoint 250GB PATA (SP2514N) HDD @ techtastic.ca [Dec-13-05] (0 Comments) It seems now days that the need for more hard drive space is in higher demand. Software and games have increased Corsair TwinX 2048-3500LLPRO @ pro-clockers.com [Dec-12-05] (0 Comments) Corsair has been around the computing world for a very long time.There is not one person that would not recognize the name when it comes upin a conversation about anything computer related. From the COOL watercooling kit to digital memory for your camera, they are in the middle of itall. And with the gaming community needing alot of ram to run these graphicintense memory hogging video games, Corsair has once again met the needs ofour community. By providing us two gigs of high performance memory withexcellent timings in the 3500LLPro. How To Connect Your PC to Your Home Stereo or Home Theater @ hardwaresecrets.com [Dec-08-05] (0 Comments) Learn how to hook your PC to your stereo or receiver in order to enhance you audio experience while playing games, watching videos, listening to music or even editing audio. OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 2GB Gold GX XTC @ techpowerup.com [Dec-06-05] (0 Comments) Modern games require more and more memory. One gigabyte of system memory has pretty much become today's standard. Once you turn up the eye candy you are much better off having 2 GB. OCZ is using their new XTC honey-comb heatspreaders on these modules which offer much better thermal properties than the traditional solid heatspreaders. For 1024 MB modules the overclocking works quite well too, we reached up to 240 MHz without any voltage increase. Saitek ST90 Joystick @ thinkcomputers.org [Nov-29-05] (0 Comments) Saitek makes some great products, not long ago I reviewed the Cyborg Evo Force joystick. The Cyborg would be consideredhigh-end. Today I have what some would consider low end, not cheap but lower priced. I have the Saitek ST90, billed as:'Therevolutionary foldable stick for professional gamers', I'll admit I am not a professional gamer by no means, but I do love to playgames when I get time, which is rare these days. The Saitek ST90 is a cool looking joystick that anyone can afford and might want toadd to their holiday gift list. Saitek P3000 Wireless Gamepad @ thinkcomputers.org [Nov-26-05] (0 Comments) When you think of PC games you usually think of a keyboard as your Nintendo Revolution will be king @ bonafidereviews.com [Nov-23-05] (0 Comments) Nintendo will win the next gaming console race. It may take a while after the all three consoles have been launched, but it will happen. The reason why Nintendo will win stems from where the three console makers have come from and their vision of the future of gaming. Nintendo is and always has been a gaming company starting of with the NES and the GameBoy. Games and gaming is their core, it’s what they are all about. Asus EN7800GT 2DHTV/256M/OSP/A Videocard @ pcstats.com [Nov-23-05] (1 Comments) One example of what the GeForce 7800GT is capable of is Asus' EN7800GT 2DHTV/256M/OSP/A PCI Express x16 videocard. Built with the massive 320 million transistor GeForce 7800GT 'G70' core, the Asus EN7800GT packs in 256MB of GDDR3 memory. The card supports nVidia's Scalable Link Interface (SLI) for dual videocard gaming like all current generation nVIDIA parts. The bright blue videocard incorporates twin DVI connectors so users can attach digital LCD displays. Component output (HDTV, Y, Pb, Pr) and S-Video output comes standard via a breakout-box. The software package includes a couple of games and some multimedia applications. ATI All-In-Wonder X1800 XL @ viperlair.com [Nov-21-05] (0 Comments) The ATI All-In-Wonder X1800 XL isn't all about games of course, and the main selling point really is the X1800 XL combined with the myriad of multimedia features put into the product. Simply put, nobody from NVIDIA, Hauppage, Matrox, S3 or anywhere offers anything close to what the AIW family, let alone the AIW X1800 XL can offer. PowerColor Radeon X800 GT @ insanetek.com [Nov-16-05] (0 Comments) While it may not be the latest and greatest, the PowerColor X800 GT is a great investment if you are short on cash and want to playyour favorite games. With insane overclocking headroom, PowerColor's X800 GT is more than promising. Quake 4 @ ukgamer.com [Nov-12-05] (0 Comments) As with all Quake games, this is purely a run'n'gun carnage-fest, with added body parts. It's a violent one all right, but justifiably so when you consider Quake 2 was as well. We can't have a sequel's sequel being toned down for the masses, can we! So make no mistake, this is a visceral, action packed experience with, as I'm hesitant to reveal, a few twists and turns. Asus A8N32-SLI NF4 SLI X16 Motherboard @ pcper.com [Nov-11-05] (0 Comments) With a $75 premium, does the new NF4 SLI X16 chipset add enough tothe A8N32-SLI to justify buying it over last generation's SLI? If you planon gaming at resolutions of 16x12 and above only and have or will have7-series GPUs to run in SLI mode, then yes, I think the NF4 SLI X16 chipsetis going to be your best option. As we move forward in the world ofscalable graphics, I think both NVIDIA and ATI will find more reasons tosell us two GPUs besides increasing the frame rate of our games -- SLI AAbeing just the first of many. And those new reasons will no doubt requirelots of PCIe bandwidth. ATI Catalyst 5.11 Performance Analysis (X1K Edition) @ tweaktown.com [Nov-11-05] (0 Comments) We did mention in our regular Catalyst performance analysis earlier in the day that one of the most important additions to the Catalyst 5.11 drivers was the inclusion of the X1800XL and X1800XT. This makes it the first official driver to support ATI’s new series of graphics cards and we found from our sample drivers that there was a slight difference in performance in some games, such as Doom 3 and Half Life 2. Have ATI fixed the issues as we eluded they might? Biostar GeForce 6100-M9 TForce Motherboard @ tweaktown.com [Nov-09-05] (0 Comments) The integrated desktop graphics market is often one which is overlooked by many users. It’s generally understood that integrated graphics adaptors will never be as capable as their beefy standalone cousins, and so tend to get written off as being beneath the interest horizon. While this generalisation is certainly founded in truth, it is also true that apart from games and some high-level graphics rendering applications, there’s not much out there that really requires dedicated, high-end graphics cards. Diablotek nVidia GeForce 6600 256MB @ thinkcomputers.org [Nov-09-05] (0 Comments) The last time we took a look at a video card it was the Geforce FX 5700VE, a budget card that was able to play games well.Today we will be moving a step up to the GeForce 6600 from Diablotek. This is also a budget card selling for $119 (at time ofreview) from Geeks.com. This time we will be doing some video tests to see just how powerful this card is, and checking out some ofthe extra features of the card. So let's get started! Flexiglow Cyber Snipa Mouse Pad and Gaming Keypad @ atruereview.com [Nov-03-05] (0 Comments) Do you like first person shooter games such as Doom 3 and Metal ofHonor? If you do then you know the keyboard and mouse are the tools of thetrade. Are they the best tools though? What if you had a customizedkeyboard like the Cyber Snipa Gaming pad from Flexiglow that puts everyneeded key at the tips of your finger? This would improve your movement andweapon selection. Still your targeting and aiming would hold you back. Thatis why Flexiglow also produces the Cyber Snipa aluminum mouse pad to allowfor a quick, smooth movement with a mouse. In theory these items are great,but is the performance really worth the money? Let's find out. Samsung SP-R4212 @ overclockersonline.com [Oct-26-05] (0 Comments) Samsung's SP-R4212 has certainly been able to change my experience inwatching movies and playing video games. While it's not truly HDTV, for theprice you pay, it certainly gives you a great bang for the buck. Those whoare looking for an HDTV, Samsung has the model up from the SP-R4212 and ithas native support. Samsung SP-R4212 @ overclockersonline.com [Oct-24-05] (0 Comments) Samsung's SP-R4212 has certainly been able to change my experience inwatching movies and playing video games. While it's not truly HDTV, for theprice you pay, it certainly gives you a great bang for the buck. Those whoare looking for an HDTV, Samsung has the model up from the SP-R4212 and ithas native support. OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 1024MB Gold Edition Dual Channel (2GB) @ rbmods.com [Oct-23-05] (0 Comments) Todays games have started to require more power and one of the main things is ram. 1Gb or ram is required these days and 2Gb is almost recommended. We got a 2Gb kit from OCZ called PC-4000 1024MB Gold Edition Dual Channel that seems to be a very nice kit with decently low timings and 500mhz memory. We are of course going to test these out vs some high performing 1Gb kits to see if there is any difference in performance. Overclocking is also an important point to many so we will be testing this with lower timings and really heat these sticks up to see how high they can go. Sapphrire X1800XL @ bit-tech.net [Oct-18-05] (0 Comments) From an architectural point of view, there are some things about the architecture that we really like. We love the idea of HDR and Anti- Aliasing at the same time in more games, along with the option to enable Adaptive Anti-Aliasing and High Quality Anisotropic Filtering too. However, we are not quite sure about the performance of FP16 HDR and Anti-Aliasing together. The current games using the FP16 blend technique for HDR are Far Cry, Splinter Cell:Chaos Theory and Age Of Empires 3, which comes out very soon. We're expecting a patch for Far Cry to be released in the near future, but we've not heard anything about the other two games just yet. The patch for Far Cry should help to answer our initial questions regarding FP16 HDR and Anti-Aliasing at the same time, though. MMPORG just an addictive game genre? @ rbmods.com [Oct-14-05] (0 Comments) We all have once or twice heard about MMPORG games. For example WOW, EQ, AC2 etc etc etc. I could count several more online games which are of this type of genre. What I will discuss with you today is whether or not these games are bad and addictive? Are they just games or are they actually a lifestyle? Rag Doll Kung Fu @ techgage.com [Oct-12-05] (0 Comments) The Kung Fu game market is hardly large, so when onedoes pop up, it'snoticable. Kung Fu games also have their own uniqueness to them, buthere's a game that is even more so. This is a creation of Mark Healey,an indepentant game developer. Many people relate independant games tobeing sub-par or boring, but this is one game to tell them otherwise.Let's jump right in, and take a hard look at Rag Doll Kung Fu! HIS Radeon X800GT IceQ II Turbo @ viperlair.com [Oct-04-05] (0 Comments) From a performance standpoint, game experiences were consistently higher than a 6600GT, although in some games it was a close call. Doom 3 was happy to run at 1280x1024 although this was without any AntiAliasing or Anisotropic filtering. GameTrak Hardware @ hardware.gamershell.com [Oct-04-05] (0 Comments) Over the years gaming has been made accessible through a number of succes sful peripherals like joy pads, steering wheels, flight sticks and less s uccessful ones like virtual reality goggles and gloves that control movem ent. In this big sea of gaming accessories, it's difficult to be innova tive, but In2Games has done just that. They have concocted a device that lets you control movement in the game by moving your hands. Now you're probably thinking that this is nothing new, but the way In2Games has impl emented this concept is not like anything you've seen before. header @ hardware.gamershell.com [Sep-30-05] (0 Comments) As promised, Vivendi Universal Games has released the multiplayer demo for F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault and Recon), the game developed by Monolith (thanks:GameSpot). F.E.A.R is scheduled to ship on October 18th. The Future of Voice Communication @ bonafidereviews.com [Sep-27-05] (0 Comments) Can you see the vision? Johnny walking down the street with his new Skype[ish]-watch built with a tiny mic and speaker/headphone jack. He just bought Halo 6 and wants to tell his friend Billy all about it. So he dials up Billy and while he’s waiting to connect he hears a short ad for the soon to be released Xbox 720. Of course this ad was targeted due to his personal information stating him as a 17 year old male with an interest in electionics and video games. Once the ad is done he is connected to Billy on Billy’s tiny palm-sized Skype[ish] phone talking freely at will with high quality sound and perfect clarity. HIS X700 IceQ 128MB GDDR3 AGP Video Card @ xyzcomputing.com [Sep-26-05] (0 Comments) This review is going to take a look at the X700 IceQ video card from HIS. If you built a system a not long ago (probably more than 12 months), ther e is a good chance that your video card is not aging very gracefully. Th ere are a lot of reasons to consider a card like the X700 IceQ, but a main one is that cards like the ATI Radeon 9600 are having a lot of trouble wi th this generation's games and they are in need replacement. If you want to do this without breaking the bank you are going to need a solid, mid-l evel AGP card in order to get the most out of a game like Half Life 2. T his way your socket A, 478, or 754 computer can stay intact and you can cu re your gaming woes. PowerColor Radeon X800GT @ w ww.3dvelocity.com [Sep-22-05] (0 Comments) It's important to remember that mainstream users aren't people who don't want powerful graphics cards, they're people who don't NEED powerful graphics card. Give them the option to equip their systems with a polished, pixel-pushing games monster without them having to sell a kidney on eBay and you can bet they won't say no. Wheel, Wireless and Watercooling @ Hardware.GamersHell.com @ hardware.gamershell.com [Sep-19-05] (0 Comments) With an abundance of driving games available on today's market, rangin g from the arcade style of the Need for Speed series, to the racing simul ators of Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo, gamers willing to transcend t he standard controller are looking for a peripheral wheel that will provi de satisfaction in both performance and aesthetics. The Hip Gear Universa l Racing Wheel is not only appealing and appeasing in those terms, but it s versatility within various gaming environments will easily capture the hearts of racing fans everywhere. World Cyber Games US National Finals 2005 Coverage @ xyzcomputing.com [Sep-16-05] (0 Comments) Since 2000 the World Cyber Games has been organized by South Korea-based International Cyber Marketing. The WCG has become the world's largest co mputer and video game festival and is held in about 70 countries this year . The winners from each country meet in a host city in order to determin e the world champions in a specific game. Last year's grand finals were held in San Francisco and featured 642 gamers from 59 different countries. This year's grand finals will be in Singapore, but before gamers can get there they must compete in the national championships. In addition to th e prestige of a being crowned champion, gamers will also be competing for a number of prizes and cash purses. This is coverage of the US national finals, held in New York City. OCZ PC-4000 1024MB Gold Edition Dual Channel (2GB) @ techgage.com [Sep-13-05] (0 Comments) Being the hardcore gamers that we are, the need for morethan 1GB ofmemory is becoming evident. Last year, 512MB didn't cut it, especiallywhen playing top games like Half-Life 2 and Doom III. Now, current andupcoming top games are demanding more than 1GB, like BF2 and FEAR.Today, we are taking a look at a 2GB kit that is designed specificallyfor gamers. :S3 Graphics announces Chrome20 series @ hexus.net [Sep-08-05] (0 Comments) They're going after the mainstream market; after the users whowant to buy a graphics card, install it, and be able to go forth andplay all their games at their monitor's native resolution at defaultgraphics settings. S3G haven't been quiet without reason, they'vebeen working on putting together a product which might help themscore some of that mainstream market share. *fixed title* "SNES- As Good As Console Gaming Is Going to Get" @ xyzcomputing.com [Sep-03-05] (0 Comments) It is my opinion that console gaming peaked with the Super Nintendo Enter tainment System (SNES). Though it has just 16-bit graphics and a CPU whi ch can't even power one of today's cell phones, this is arguably the bes t console gaming system of all time. What is so great about the SNES=3F First of all there is the system itself. The SNES came packaged with two controllers and Super Mario World. Many systems, including Genesis, inc luded just one controller and consumers had to buy another one if they wan ted to play against one another. As for Super Mario World, the included game, it is one of the finest video games of all time. Though some would say it was impossible to successfully follow up Super Mario Brothers 3, t his game did just that, even surpassing in it some ways. The system also features a simple, yet sound, design. Modding the Xbox in 10 Minutes @ techfreaks.org [Aug-29-05] (0 Comments) Xbox modification has come a long way in the past couple years. Withthe introduction of the TSOP mod, potential modders no longer had toshell out money for a modchip; rather just bridge two points on the Xboxmotherboard. Now one doesn't even have to open up his Xbox. Welcome tothe world of soft modding. Using code exploits in certain games, a useris able to load a phony gamesave that will boot into a Linux basedoperating system and allow a user to mod his Xbox... in under ten minutes. Liberality For All P @ thinkcomputers.org [Aug-17-05] (0 Comments) Enough of that... I am writing this piece to introduce somethingthat I think a lot of people should know about. It's going to piss a lot ofpeople off and make a lot of people laugh as well from what I have seen sofar of it. In the wake of all of what is going on with video games and more,I can see where the 'Liberals' are trying to take us. They are trying forthe Orwellian 1984 etc. They want to control all of us, in what we see,hear, and do. Look around, the UN is trying to do it all over the world,they are trying to be the World Police. Look at the corruption in the UN,and they want to tell all of us what to do? They want to be our conscience?Anyway, It's a new comic book called 'Liberality for All Gigabyte GV-NX78X256V-B Geforce 7800GTX Videocard @ pcstats.com [Aug-05-05] (0 Comments) Old games of yesteryear look primitive compared to the stunning games of today and visually it's hard to go back and play those old favorites. Today, if you want the best videocard on the market regardless of price, it's definitely going to be something based on the nVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX core. The GV-NX78X256V-B is backed up by 256MB of GDDR3 memory and supports VIVO as well as component output, and is fully SLI compatible. Included in the package is also a pretty good software suite which includes two full version games and some multimedia software. Assembly '05 report @ metku.net [Aug-03-05] (0 Comments) Assembly '05 is one the of largest demo- and lan-parties in the world. Held now for the 14th time and gathering around 5000 visitors in four days from over 20 countries.Coders, graphics artists and other demo scene people competed in over 20 different categories with the prizes totaling over 70.000 USD. Every year there are thousands of gamers battling each others on the 3000 computer LAN and this year the national World Cyber Games (WCG) qualifications were held in this arena as well. ATI Radeon X300 SE HyperMemory 128MiB @ hexus.net [Aug-01-05] (0 Comments) My evaluation of such low-end hardware using the latestgraphically challenging games might seem pointless at first glance.Look twice and you'll see that while both HyperMemory and TurboCacheboards were generally really unhappy with the latest games, analysisof UT2004 shows that in older games (and to some extent new ones atvery low resolution) they'll do fine. If your aim is to build areally cheap PCI Express-based gaming box for the kids, or to use acard as a stop-gap solution before you pick up something morepowerful, they do fine. Bigbruin.com :Sunbeamtech Fireline and Blue Flame Optical Mice @ bigbruin.com [Jul-30-05] (0 Comments) Probably the biggest concern with mice, especially if you are a gamer, is how well they track. This is where both the Fireline and Blue Flame seemed to excel. Due to the 800 dpi engine, both mice tracked flawlessly. I used both mice in several first person shooter games such as Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Far Cry, and never once experienced any tracking issues of any kind. Movement was very precise and accurate with both mice. Sapphire Hybrid X700 Pro 256MB PCI-E @ overclockersonline.com [Jul-26-05] (0 Comments) Overall, you shouldn't expect amazing results with an X700chipset powered video card. The performance for a hard-core gamer wouldbe mediocre as newer chipsets and technologies have increased theexpectations of what a video card should do. With SLI, and Crossfire inthe works, this card looks basic. That said, I feel this card is quitecapable of running any game with very high detail up to and including1280x1024. Let’s face it, you will not be able to play games at1600x1200 and AA turned on with any card in the $150 price range. HIS X800XL IceQ Turbo @ viperlair.com [Jul-20-05] (0 Comments) When comparing the performance to cost ratio I think you'll have a tough time finding a card that performs as well at this price. It ran all of the current popular games well at the midrange resolutions (1024 X 768 and 1280 x 1024) of course if you insist on running at 1600 x 1200 with max AA and AF you might want to consider looking at a more powerful, and generally MUCH more expensive card. TechConnect's of MSI's NX7800GTX @ tcmagazine.info [Jul-15-05] (0 Comments) nVidia are on to something with their series 7 cards, and as soon as developers wrap their heads around the GPU's multiple cores and clocks, we're bound to see some stunning real-time graphics in both games and multimedia presentations. PowerColor RADEON X800 XL 512MB @ hexus.net [Jul-12-05] (0 Comments) What do you want from a =A3290 video card today? Is itperformance, performance, and yet more performance in present games,or is it a deal of futureproofing at the expense of, you've guessedit, performance. PowerColor's X800 XL 512MB pricing treadsdangerously on X850-class water, which is a great deal faster inalmost every conceivable gaming scenario. GameConnect's of Juiced @ tcmagazine.info [Jul-12-05] (0 Comments) At first glance Juiced might seem a clone of Need for Speed Underground, and although it’s true that Juice Games was inspired by its success, the differences between the two are very obvious. Certain features are far better implemented and it shows that a lot of work was put into not making the same mistakes... Bigbruin.com Article:Gaming Graphics Glossary @ bigbruin.com [Jun-29-05] (0 Comments) Graphics cards, like so many other tech components, seem to require their own language to describe the functions and features they provide. This Tech Tip will take a look at a handful of terms related to graphics cards, and some more specifically related to graphics cards as used for video games. Project Nighthawk @ thebestcasescenario.com [Jun-14-05] (0 Comments) Cableorganizer.com, the leader in cable management solutions, recently announced the unveiling of its Project Nighthawk, the latest custom computer masterpiece created by renowned modder Paul Capello. Perfect for flight simulators and any other demanding role-playing games, Project Nighthawk gives players a new dimension of excitement. The Next Generation of Console Gaming @ asegames.com [Jun-06-05] (0 Comments) E3 was supposed to show us what we've all wanted to see and tell us what we've all wanted to know about the next home consoles from the big three: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. All I've been left with after all the hype is past us is a bad taste in my mouth and a bunch of promises that are sure to be less than fulfilled. All three companies have been building up the hype for their respective machines for years now, and we all hoped that this year's E3 would finally give us the gory details we wanted, and for the most part they left us wanting more. Some people think that is a good marketing strategy, while others (like myself) feel ripped off by yet another lame waste of time and energy. Battlepad Sortie Mouse Mat @ thinkcomputers.org [Jun-06-05] (0 Comments) Another thing I said, I was skeptical about was the size and beingable to keep the mouse on the pad. Using this pad, your movements track verywell so your not rolling over a huge surface, movement is well contained tothe pad. I played a few different games (Warhammer40k:Dawn of War, UnrealTournament 2004 to name some) and also some applications, I had no problemskeeping my mouse on the pad at all. bit-news: ATI talks Xbox 360 in London @ bit-tech.net [May-25-05] (0 Comments) Speaking at a press conference in London, ATI technology specialist Rene Froeleke told journalists that Microsoft had specified that games must run at the 1280x720 resolution at 4xAA with no slowdown. Every single game will be supported at this graphical specification, which we think is great news for gamers playing on big-screen TVs. New gaming article at bit-tech.net @ bit-tech.net [May-24-05] (0 Comments) The actual tactical play itself can become incredibly involving. The slow-paced gameplay really gives you time to think about your moves, and one has the feeling of outwitting your enemy far more than in an RTS, which can all too often feel like a race. If you’re the kind of gamer that enjoys the Total War games, then this will definitely appeal. 2005 E3 Booth Babes - Day 2 @ thetechzone.com [May-21-05] (0 Comments) However, according to the Interactive Digital Software Association (the owners of E3) interactive games are played by just as many girls as boys. So this begs the question, if 50% of your market is female how come E3 booth babes are 100% girls? TechConnect's review of the Athlon64 4000 @ tcmagazine.info [May-18-05] (0 Comments) We've been testing this processor intensively for over two months now, in all kinds of extreme conditions, with over half a dozen motherboards and twice that many graphics cards, in both single-card and nVidia SLI mode, with games and productivity suites, and now we're through and ready to tell it like it is. MSI NX6600GT-TD128E @ Viper Lair [May-10-05] (0 Comments) MSI has put out a very good product with their NX6600GT. It looks good with the red PCB and the MSI standard gold heatsink. The cards performed flawlessly through a barrage of tests with absolutely no hiccups, and I've been using them for tons of games for hours in my main machine for at least a good month. Albatron TC6200Q @ Viper Lair [May-05-05] (0 Comments) The TC6200Q is right in between the performance of the 915G and the PCX5750. It does beat the PCX5750 in our Splinter Cell tests, but in everything else it has a good margin in both directions. It is playable at 800*600 in both UT2004 and Half Life 2, but not really playable at any of the other resolutions/tests. With the actual game tests, this card can play the games we had at 1024*768 with medium to high quality settings. Various News Items [May-04-05] (0 Comments) Vantec NexStar 3 Drive Enclosure @ ThinkComputers.org ATI X800 XL 512 MB GPU Preview @ pcper.com ATI's Radeon X800 XL 512MB graphics card @ techreport.com XGI Volari V3XT @ bit-tech.net World Cyber Games Case Modding Competition: new feature @ bit-tech.net The introduction of 512MiB consumer graphics hardware @ hexus.net Aspire X-QPACK Aluminum Mini Case w/ 3 Windows Video Review #563 @ 3dgameman.com The Olympic Image: High Tech Beijing or Primitive Vancouver @ futurelooks.com [Apr-24-05] (0 Comments) While Beijing is trying to create the image of a tech savvy nation for their Summer Games in 2008, Vancouver’s Winter Olympics in 2010 is getting primitive. After unveiling a new logo tonight, I’m left wondering if it’s the right image or not. Thunder 8 Gaming Pad @ atruereview.com [Apr-24-05] (0 Comments) Our mouse is our life blood when it comes to playing games and navigating the computer. Any way to enhance using a mouse makes us better. Optical mice have made us look for texture and reflectiveness over a pretty picture on a rubber pad. That is why gaming pads are all the rage now. X-Ray produces the Thunder line of gaming pads to aid our experiences with a mouse. This review will look at the Thunder 8 gaming pad and Zero Friction mousekates for the mouse. ASUS A8N-SLI Premium @ Viper Lair [Apr-19-05] (0 Comments) In single card mode, the race is close with the A8N-SLI Premium taking most of the application tests, and flip flopping with the K8T890 in the gaming tests. Turn on SLI though, and the race will not even be close provided your games can make use of it. PCI Express 101 @ Viper Lair [Apr-08-05] (0 Comments) For those who are looking for an upgrade to their system, PCIe (short for PCI Express) is a great technology to take advantage of. However, if you are looking to have the best possible graphics, there is no reason to splurge on a motherboard just with PCIe as AGP 4x and 8x should provide ample bandwidth for any intensive games you run, including Doom III / Half Life 2 and other soon-to-be released titles. Mass Confusion Rules the Graphics Market @ cooltechzone.com [Apr-08-05] (0 Comments) I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough with the games ATI and NVIDIA are playing with their customers these days. Yes, I am referring to the abundance of X800 series, X850 series and 6800 series products that are flooding the market. I am sure you got a whiff of what I am trying to imply by placing the word flooding in quotes. I have discussed the lack of availability issues in my graphics card evaluations before, so I don’t think I have to go through that again. We all know the poor state of product availability and while it is improving, it’s still far from perfect. The ironic thing is that both companies will bring in new products this year and with availability already scarce with current generation of graphics adapters, it’s needless to say that ATI and NVIDIA will have a lot of catching up to do. Sansun Silencer LED Keyboard Review @ ap0calypse.com [Apr-03-05] (0 Comments) One of the things I find most satisfying is playing my favorite game in total darkness with nothing but my headphones on. That way I can fully immerse myself in the games environment. The problem with that though is trying to find my keys if I accidentally slip off. Illuminated keyboards help alleviate that exact problem, and while illuminated keyboards are not new to the market, the use of LEDs to light them is. Today I am going to introduce you to just such a keyboard from newcomer Sansun Industries. Icemat Siberia Multi Headset @ atruereview.com [Mar-25-05] (0 Comments) In an ideal gaming environment, we would be able to setup high quality speakers and play in glass-shattering glory. Unfortunately, we are not always in the ideal environment and the use of rattling speakers is not always practical or allowed. Whether it be complaining neighbors, roommates, or fellow LAN gamers (imagine every gamer at a LAN party with speakers at full blast ;-); this is where headsets come in. Headsets allow you to game without disturbing those around. They also have a microphone for games that utilize it. D-Link DGL-4300 Wireless 108G Gaming Router @ Viper Lair [Mar-25-05] (0 Comments) D-Link has brought to market a product that is both powerful and easy enough for most to understand (as long as you are willing to read the manual some). Not only have they provided you with a rather complete list of supported games, they have given you the ability to manipulate this with your own settings if you so desire. News: 64-bit computing in theory and practice at TR @ techreport.com [Mar-23-05] (0 Comments) LISTEN TO THE HYPE ABOUT 64-bit computing, and you could get the idea that the move to 64 bits will make all of your games run twice as fast, replace blocky 3D models with smooth, photorealistic replicas of the human form, and transform the average PC into a wonder-box that can resequence your dogs genome in its spare cycles so he wont pee on the rug anymore. On the other hand, listen to the anti-hype about 64-bit computing, and you could be forgiven for wondering why anyone even bothered--probably just a conspiracy to get us to buy new stuff we dont need. XFX geFORCE 6600GT AGP Video Card Review @ Futurelooks [Mar-23-05] (0 Comments) Are you looking to upgrade your video card to run the latest games without breaking the bank? We think we've found the card for you. Coming in both AGP and PCI Express configuations, the XFX 6600GT gives you brilliant performance, at an affordable price. Altec Lansing GT-5051 @ Overclockers Online [Mar-19-05] (0 Comments) The GT5051 speakers are a hit and miss affair for gaming, some games sound great, others less so. What is for sure is that 5.1 gaming is a major advancement to gaming and should be utilized as much as possible in the future. However, in most cases you’d be better served by an actual 5.1 setup if space permits. While there is nothing detracting here for the most part, there is too much missing to consider them as a real gamers’ gaming speaker. AMD Dual Core Processor Plans @ PC Perspective [Mar-17-05] (0 Comments) In a more detailed look at the advantages dual core Athlon 64 processors will have over in the digital home and multitasking, there is still nothing mentioned of gaming. That is because the FX line of processors from AMD is going to remain single core for at least all of 2005. With all current games and probably all games in the coming year remaining single threaded, AMD says the gamer will not see a major benefit in the move to dual core processors. Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders for Xbox Review @ Futurelooks.com [Mar-17-05] (0 Comments) It is not often that you hear about Real Time Strategy games on consoles. But when you do, they are usually plagued by control issues and end up sucking. Does the same hold true for Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders? Come and check out how it fares! EVGA e-GeForce 6200 TC Video Card Video Review #546: @ 3dgameman.com [Mar-17-05] (0 Comments) The EVGA e-GeForce 6200 TC Video Card is based on the NVIDIA NV44 Chip and comes with 64MB of DDR memory. The TC stands for TurboCache which essentially means it takes system memory automatically for a total of 256MB. While this is certainly not a product for the hardcore gamer it does play all the latest games. It would be an excellent inexpensive quality product for a HTPC. Watch the Video to find out more... Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 Review @ gruntville.com [Mar-09-05] (0 Comments) Wireless, once a despised and often cursed technology in mice due to its flakiness, has greatly improved over the last few years and is becoming more and more popular as folks look for ways to achieve a “cleaner” desk area. When I first took the plunge into wireless with the purchase of a Logitech MX700, I came away very happy. While the tracking wasn’t quite up to par for fast-paced FPS games such as Unreal Tournament 2003/2004 like its wired brethren, it’s larger size and overall layout was a definite plus in the comfort department. As much as I liked the wireless MX700, I ended up delegating it to desktop use only. When it came time for a few rounds of Unreal Tournament or Call of Duty, I found myself reaching back for my wired IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0. Reviving Old Computer Games @ thetechzone.com [Mar-08-05] (0 Comments) Remember the good old days of gaming, when there were only 5 pixels in the protagonist and your imagination could turn them into a heroic figure of Schwarzenegger proportions? When the enemies and the heroes were distinguished by colour and you only needed one button on the joystick? Well times have changed and technology has moved on. Pulling my old Commodore 64 or Atari out of the back of the cupboard and setting them up often takes more time than the nostalgic pang lasts. I’ve also noticed that some of my old disks are starting to age and become corrupted. Enter the Internet. AGP/PCI-E Graphics Card Group Test (13) @ spodesabode.com [Mar-07-05] (0 Comments) By covering the complete range of cards from the oldest and cheapest mid range models that can still keep pace with the latest games, up to the very latest high end cards, we hope to give a useful perspective on the issues of relative performance and value for money. LTB USB Pro 5.1 Headphone Set Review @ Moditory [Mar-07-05] (0 Comments) The LTB USB Pro 5.1 Headphone Set is on the review table today. After thorough testing with DVD's, music, and of course games (all of which include lengthy wearing time) the verdict is quite good. The USB Pro allows for the headphones to be used for 5.1 Surround Sound on a PC or Mac that doesn't even have a sound card. Just grab a system that has a USB port on it and you're good to go. Check it out. Various News Items [Mar-07-05] (0 Comments) Mushkin 1Gb PC4400 @ Rbmods Review: Mutant Mods Modding Gear @ Bigbruin.com SPX500 ATX Power Supply @ A True Review Fanless Power Supply Roundup @ XYZ Computing The Future of Video Games @ The Tech Zone MonsterGecko PistolMouse FPS @ atruereview.com [Mar-05-05] (0 Comments) Ever since computer games became popular, arguably the most popular genre is the first person shooter (FPS). Advancements in graphics make each generation of these games more realistic; thus, enhancing our submersion into the games. But as good as the graphics are getting, there is still one element of FPS gaming that is vastly unrealistic, the computer mouse. While the mouse is the best way to control the onscreen aiming, its design does nothing to enhance the realism of the games. With this in mind, MonsterGecko created the PistolMouse FPS. Just what is the PistolMouse FPS and how will it enhance your FPS gaming experience? Read on and find out. Mid-Range PCI-Express shootout @ Bit Tech [Mar-02-05] (0 Comments) Today, were taking a look at 3 mid-range graphics boards that are all hoping for a spot in new PCI-Express system builds. We have a BFG card based on the 6600GT chipset taking on boards from HIS and Club3D based on the X700Pro. We use real-world game testing to benchmark the games in todays top titles to find out the gameplay experience these cards will deliver you. Leadtek WinFast A400 GeForce 6800 @ Steamed Turtle [Feb-27-05] (0 Comments) Today we'll be looking at another card from Leadtek. The WinFast A400 TDH. That's just their fancy name for the vanilla nVidia GeForce 6800, the non-ultra. In the 6800 line there are basically three cards out, the non-ultra, GT and ultra. Unlike the GT and ultra this card has only 12 pixel pipes and 128 Megs of video memory. It also runs at the slower clock speeds of (325,700MHz). That should be plenty fast, however, to play all your favorite games at the frame rates you desire. Let's take this card back to the lab and see what she'll do. Abit radeon x600pro-uguru @ origo3d.com [Feb-27-05] (0 Comments) origo3D has posted another review. The last week we take a look at the Abit RX600pro-uguru videocard. The x600pro is a low budget card and we wanted to know, how good the performance in benchmarks and games is. Albatron Trinity 6600GT PCI Express @ Viper Lair [Feb-03-05] (0 Comments) For a mid range card with 128mb, I was expecting Doom 3 and Far Cry to require an 800x600 resolution for acceptable frame rates, but this wasn't the case; all the games tested ran at 1024x768 with some FSAA and AF without issue, and in some cases a few even broke into playable at 1280x1024 (albeit without FSAA or AF). Various News Items [Feb-03-05] (0 Comments) OCZ PC2-4200EB Platinum Rev 2 Ltd @ cluboc.net Seasonic S12 500W Power Supply @ BigBruin.Com Rediscovering The Web With Mozilla Firefox @ The Tech Zone Water cooler heatsink system investigations & tests review. @ a1-electronics.net Cheaters Taking Over our Games? @ ipkonfig.com HIS X700Pro IceQ Turbo VIVO @ Viper Lair [Feb-02-05] (0 Comments) 3D performance was very good in most of the games tested. This card can play any current game at 1024*768 without any real problems, especially when overclocked. The DirectX tests showed that this card can play at 1600*1200 with AA and ansiotropic filtering in older games such as UT 2004. How To Create Your Own Computer Games @ thetechzone.com [Dec-30-04] (0 Comments) I’ve always loved video games, ever since I first played them on a friend’s computer in the afternoon after elementary school. There’s something almost magical about the fact that we can move images around and interact with virtual worlds, a living fantasy presented for us to interact with however we please. I’ve also always wanted to make games myself but, until recently, didn’t have the technical knowledge to do so. Now, I’m a second year software engineering student, so if I weren’t able to code a game without too many dramas there’d be something drastically wrong. But what about the common person: the person for whom the term ‘memory leak’ conjures up images of their grandfather, ‘pipeline’ is where the water flows, and ‘blitting’ is unheard of? Well, everyone can get in on the game creation process, and you don’t even need to learn ‘real’ programming to do so Logitech z680 Surround Sound Speakers @ TechTastic [Dec-29-04] (0 Comments) Today's computers have become more and more multimedia capable then they have in the past. Users can enjoy watching TV, DVD movies, and listening to CDs on their computers. And with the mass appeal of the MP3 and WMA formats and video equivalents DIVX, XVID, MPEG, etc, audio and video is easily available to anyone with an internet connection. Even today's games have seen a benefit for better audio with the introduction of Dolby, DTS, THX, and Surround Sound in games to make them even more immersive. ATI All in Wonder Radeon X600 Pro PCI Express 256Meg Videocard Review @ Tweaknews [Dec-24-04] (0 Comments) The All in Wonder X600 pro in its' stock form would be deemed a safe buy if you were interested in full course buffet of multimedia features with a small side order of gaming. Although the card will easily handle older games with relative ease and acceptable framerates, I would not purchase this card if you were interested in playing the best games... Chaintech GeForce 6600GT AGP Review @ OCModShop [Dec-23-04] (0 Comments) I am very impressed with this video card, I didn't think that it would make such a huge improvement. This is the kind of upgrade that makes spending the money worth while. Before the 6600GT I used the 5700 Ultra in my personal system and it simply wasn't cutting it. Many of the games I would play were choppy with good image quality or ran ok but looked unimpressive because of the lacking AA and AF. This card is also very overclockable to give you more than you paid for which is always great. All of the necessary accessories are included to take advantage of everything this card offers and the software bundle is great. If you are looking to upgrade your video card but cant afford a 6800 and don't want to make the jump to PCI-Express this may be exactly what you are looking for. HEXUS.net Review: Rock Quaddra 64 3.7 Laptop @ HEXUS.net [Dec-21-04] (0 Comments) All in all, Rock's Quaddra 64 3.7 is a tasty desktop-replacement laptop that oozes power. An AMD Athlon 64 3700+ makes short work of 2D tasks and a 128MB Mobility RADEON 9700 takes most games in its stride. For the asking price of Ł1408 (inc. VAT) I'd like to see Rock specify 802.11g Wireless connectivity as standard, and, perhaps, a touch more system RAM. Christmas is just around the corner. Perhaps it's time to ask Santa for something special, courtesy of Rock? FUTUREMARK Interview @ 3dvelocity.com [Dec-05-04] (0 Comments) While it is true that people play games and not benchmarks, it really does not mean that only games can be used as benchmarks! Both games and synthetic applications can be designed well or poorly to serve as a benchmark. You really have to determine these case by case. There are good game benchmarks and there are bad game benchmarks, similarly, there are good synthetic benchmarks and then there are bad synthetic benchmarks. Diamondback Precision Gaming Mouse reviewed @ hi-techreviews.com [Dec-04-04] (0 Comments) The gang over at Razer Inc., the same people that have brought us items like the Razer Viper - which at the time had the highest resolution of any mouse available on the market and the eXactMat - a two-sided, longer-lasting Anodized Aluminum mousing surface that when used with the Viper became a true deadly duo had one more surprise for us this last October. On October 7th at World Cyber Games (WCG) 2004 held in San Francisco, where their newest creation the Razer Diamondback was released and named "The Official Gaming Mouse of WCG" The Razer Diamondback is the world's first optical mouse with a precision of 1600 dots-per-inch (dpi), this is roughly 400 dpi more than the closet competitor. When combine with Razer's highly tunable software you end up with a mouse that is ideal for gaming, photo manipulation, or just surfing the web. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Review @ gameconnect.info [Dec-04-04] (0 Comments) I bet that the folks at Troika are getting really tired of not being able to finish their games properly. Arcanum was riddled with bugs at release, just as the Temple of Elemental Evil could have definitely used another six months in development. Bloodlines suffers from the same premature release syndrome, and it's a true crying shame, since this was a game that could have really sucked, but in all the right ways. Sid Meier's Pirates @ hi-techreviews.com [Nov-29-04] (0 Comments) How would you like to go back to the 17th century and take command of Man-of-War and set sail to plunder anything that got in your way? With plenty of fighting to go around both on the sea and on land as well. With success there is a very high chance you will be promoted, gain respect and get the girl and of course there is always the gold. If you think you would be interested in this position then checkout the latest addition to Sid Meier's increasing list of knockout games. This time around it goes by the name of Pirates! Albatron Trinity Geforce PCX5750 PCI Express Videocard Review @ Tweaknews [Nov-23-04] (0 Comments) The Albatron Trinity PCX 5750 would be the perfect card for someone in need of a videocard which is faster than budget, but not as expensive as mainstream. The card was always completely stable during normal use and oddly during overclocking and I never once had one single artifact throughout my extensive gaming and benchmarking. The card took a licking and kept on ticking. Image quality was always very good, gaming speed was acceptable if you keep out of the games full of eye candy and the card was very easy to install and setup. How To Build Home Theater PC @ The Tech Zone [Nov-17-04] (0 Comments) So I concluded my new place needed a media room with a home theater in it and being the hardcore computer guy that I am decided a normal run of the mill home theater setup just wasn't going to do. This is where the idea for building a Home Theater PC or HTPC came in. The ability to watch TV, DVD movies, surf the web and play 3D games on a big plasma screen was just too tempting to pass up. Half-Life 2 Graphical Performance Evaluation @ TheTechLounge [Nov-17-04] (0 Comments) Just over one year ago, on September 30th, 2003, one of the greatest games of all time was to be released. As you probably know, the game I speak of is Half-Life 2, and unfortunately it was not released on time. Despite the fact that Valve missed the deadline by over a year, HL2 still breaks a lot of ground. For five years this game has been under development, and for good reason. HL2 promises to be a revolutionary new game that delivers more than any other game ever could. One of the most exciting things about HL2 is the new physics system which allows you to interact with everything in the environment. Couple that with some amazing characters, weapons, and vehicles and you're in for one hell of a good time. SilverStone LC06 Mini-ITX Case @ 3dvelocity.com [Nov-16-04] (0 Comments) There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the idea of the PC as a domestic entertainment device. It has all the necessary power and flexibility to do justice your DVD's, to pipe high quality music around your house or to keep pace with some dedicated games consoles. What it has tended to lack though are an effective control system, a less layered operating system and a selection of attractive enclosures. TCTools: ATI Optimized driver 1.7 @ tcmagazine.info [Nov-14-04] (0 Comments) 24 hours before Valve unlocks one of the most anticipated games ever, TechConnect hooks you up with two new sets of ATI drivers that meant to boost Half-Life 2 & Counter-Strike source performance by about 5-20% and ofcourse it also improves OpenGL for old and new games by about 20%. Altec Lansing AHP712 Headset @ Aftermath [Nov-14-04] (0 Comments) The lastest PC games hitting the shelves are causing us to upgrade our main components to keep up with the major graphical changes, but to fully apreciate the quality of these new games we are also having to upgrade our audio devices. Without a decent set of headphones you could be caught in a tricky 1v1 battle - and end up losing because of poor sound quality. This is where Altec Lansing step in to lend a helping hand. MSI RX700PRO-TD256E @ HEXUS [Nov-10-04] (0 Comments) MSI has done a decent job in turning an RV410 GPU into a fully-fledged retail package. Ł160 or so buys you a competent midrange graphics card and a bundle to rival the best. Too often manufacturers overlook the bundle but MSI hasn't made that mistake. There's games aplenty and documentation is excellent. The choice you have to make is which PCIe GPU to go for. Both NVIDIA and ATI make compelling cases. If you decide that an X700 PRO best fits your needs and budget I can heartily recommend MSI's RX700PRO. Various News Items [Oct-26-04] (0 Comments) Forceware 70.41 Download @ tcmagazine.info nForce4 Special @ amdboard.com Pentium4 at 1066MHz System Bus @ tbreak.com Cooler Master Real Power 450W @ InsaneTek Altec Lansing XA2021 2.1 Speaker System Video Review #495 @ 3dgameman.com News - SilverStone SST-TJ06 Temjin 6 @ overclockersonline.com JetArt XCool NP5000 Notebook Cooler @ overclockers.com.au PCI-Express: First looks and the future @ ocmodshop.com Logitech X-620 Speakers @ My Guy Games Western Digital WD360 36GB SATA Hard Drive Review @ The Tech Zone Latest Antivirus and Spyware Tools Roundup (10-26-2004) @ tcmagazine.info HEXUS.net Preview: ATI's Radeon X700 XT and Radeon X700 PRO Xtrac Ripper XL Mouse Pad @ TechTastic.ca SilverStone Timjin 5 Case Review @ OCIA.net Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO @ Rbmods Albatron Trinity PCX5750 @ Viper Lair [Oct-25-04] (0 Comments) In current games such as Serious Sam SE and UT2004, this card can play 1024*768 without any real problems, and for the most part you can enable AA and ansiotropic filtering while still keeping playability. Newer games such as Splinter Cell also are playable at 1024*768, but only without the extra quality settings enabled. New games such as Doom 3 and Far Cry are playable at 800*600 without AA and ansiotropic filtering, but I wouldn't really suggest going beyond that. ASUS Extreme N5900 @ Viper Lair [Oct-21-04] (0 Comments) Overall I like the Extreme N5900, it is a good looking card, plays the newer games at very respectable rates and falls into a price point a lot of us can afford. One bright spot is that the ASUS Extreme N5900 is available now. However, it is a matter of time before we start seeing the GeForce 6600 series (as well as ATI's X700) come to market, and based on what we've seen, those cards are going to be a lot faster than the N5900. Various News Items [Oct-18-04] (0 Comments) Test of pre-production model of a GeForce 6800 LE card from Leadtek @ 3DChip Review of Toshiba PDR-M70 3.3 MP Digital Camera @ bonafidereviews.com Aspire X-Navigator @ Envy News Etymotic High-End Earphones Roundup - ER-6i, ER-4P, and ER-4S Models @ CoolTechZone Jetart AK-1000 Water Cooling System @ cluboverclocker.com ABIT AA8 DuraMAX - LGA 775 Motherboard Review @ cluboverclocker.com TRIBES Vengeance Review @ My Guy Games Interview with Marketing Manager Danny Lee from XGI! @ tcmagazine.info Raidmax Cobra 822 ATX Case Review @ BigBruin.Com AMD Athlon64 - 64-bit vs. 32-bit, A Head On Comparison @ pcstats.com OCZ PC4000EL Gold Edition review @ ocmodshop.com OCZ PowerStream 520 Power Supply @ 3dvelocity.com OCZ DDR PC-3700 Gold Revision 3 Memory Video Review #492 @ 3dgameman.com NASCAR 2005 Review @ My Guy Games @ My Guy Games [Oct-14-04] (0 Comments) My Guy Games has posted our NASCAR Chase for the Cup 2005 Xbox review today. Various News Items [Oct-13-04] (0 Comments) Swiftech H20-120 Water Cooling Kit @ Envy News Soltek K8AN2E-GR nForce 3 250GB Motherboard Review @ overclockers.co.nz Building The Ultimate LAN Party Computer @ The Tech Zone Review of Fable @ bonafidereviews.com Etymotic ER-6 Isolator Earphones Review @ CoolTechZone Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 Review @ My Guy Games GlobalWin Jefi Water Cooling "Aquarium" @ A True Review FSP Group's Cooling kit @ PyroPort.com Toshiba Pocket PC e400 Review @ HardExtreme.org 2 Days Left in OCIA.net's CoolerMaster Giveaway HEXUS.net Review: GeCube Radeon X800 PRO Abit AA8-3rd Eye motherboard review @ ocmodshop.com WinXP Media Center 2005 Presentation review @ tcmagazine.info Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude @ gameconnect.info Thermaltake Fanless103 @ Rbmods Raidmax RX-520XPW 520W Power Supply Video Review #490 @ 3dgameman.com Epox EP-5EGA+ 915G Motherboard Review @pcstats.com Various News Items [Oct-12-04] (0 Comments) DangerDen TDX @ overclockersonline.com Jetart JAP416A CPU Cooler @ 3dvelocity.com Wireless A/V Spycam Review @ OCIA.net Asetek WaterChill Power Kit Water Cooling Review @ BigBruin.Com Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude PC Review @ My Guy Games Topram 1GB SD Card Review @ hardextreme.org MSI K8T Neo2 FIR AMD Athlon 63 939 motherboard review. @ a1-electronics.net Apple iPod Mini Review @ The Tech Zone Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Review @ gameconnect.info HEXUS.net Review: BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra Overclocked Albatron PCX5750 review @ ocmodshop.com Various News Items [Oct-11-04] (0 Comments) World Premiere! Abit SV-1A Socket 939 motherboard with PCI-X and integrated ATI Rage XL Graphics @ amdboard.com PimpRig Review // VL System LIS 2 Premium VFD Mushkin PC3200 V2 Enhanced Latency DDR Review @ overclockercafe.com CS: Source Review @ My Guy Games D-Link Home Networking Soltuion @ MHW Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO review @ ocmodshop.com SimpleTech PC3700 Nitro Series Memory Review @ CoolTechZone Logitech Frequency Directed Dual Drivers (FDD) Technology Explained! @ CoolTechZone Dual Monitor How To @ The Tech Zone HEXUS.net Feature: NVIDIA's GeForce 6200 Launch AGP-e Slot on 915 boards compared @ t-break HEXUS.net EXCLUSIVE: ECS 915P-A Motherboard -- LGA775, DDR1 & 2,AGP & PCI-E Counter-Strike Source Review @ gameconnect.info [Oct-10-04] (0 Comments) The first thing one will notice upon launching the game is the huge graphical upgrade from previous iterations of the series. Valve has been graphically improving its games for some time now; but after the higher-poly models released for Half-Life Deathmatch and Team Fortress Classic, the High-Definition pack released with Blue Shift and the upgraded map geometry and texturing in Condition Zero, the aging Half-Life engine has become a bottleneck. Valve has taken the freedom the Source engine brings and created new maps and models to breathe new life into an old game. The new grenade explosions are fantastic - particularly the flashbang’s blinding and dizzying effects. Beginners Guides: Upgrading Win98 to Windows @ PCSTATS.COM [Oct-09-04] (0 Comments) Today's computers really don't get the best out of Windows 98. Games and software have started the transition to being 2000/XP compatible only, and it's only a matter of time before the operating system loses its viability completely. If you have a newer computer with Windows 98 installed, it's high time you considered updating your operating system to Windows XP. In this article, we will explore the procedure of upgrading a Windows 98/ME system to Windows XP. We will cover your upgrading options, what you will need to do in order to prepare for the upgrade, changes you can make to ensure the upgrade goes smoothly and how to troubleshoot any problems that might occur. Various News Items [Oct-08-04] (0 Comments) Dell Optiplex GX280 Review @ 3dvelocity.com InsaneTek Case Modding Contest - One week left EverQuest II Preview @ My Guy Games Star Wars Battlefront PC Game Review at Auphan Online @ auphanonline.com Updated Computer FAQs @ TechFreaks Coping with a Serious Data Loss @ The Tech Zone Latest Bios updates - Friday, October 8 - 37 in total! @ tcmagazine.info 44 Screenshots of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes @ tcmagazine.info SONY 710 Double Layer 16x DVD Recorder @ CDRinfo.com CS Source Screenshots @ Techconnect.nl PimpRig Review // Cable-Safe Cable Manager BTC 9128CRF Wireless Office Keyboard Kit @ Hi-Techreviews.com GeIL Ultra-X PC3200 Memory Review @ pcstats.com Various News Items [Oct-07-04] (0 Comments) ABIT AG8 Motherboard (Socket 775) Video Review #488: @ 3dgameman.com Antec TruePower 330W Power Supply @ pcstats.com Rounders Collectors Edition DVD Review @ Ascully.com Viper ATX Gaming Case @ AMD Review Vantec NexStar NST-350UF External HD Enclosure Review @ MODTHEBOX.COM CoolerMaster October Contest @ OCIA.net Ultra Products Brand Mod Gear @ BigBruin.Com Ultra XConnect 500 Watt Power Supply @ OCIA.net NBA Live 2005 Review @ My Guy Games Steelpad's Steel Grip @ TechTastic.ca David vs Goliath - FX5900 PCI-E vs AGP Gaming Comparison @ overclockers.co.nz Article: BFR Consumer Price Guide @ bonafidereviews.com EverCool NP-201 notebook computer cool pad review. @ a1-electronics.net IBM ThinkPad X40 Review @ The Tech Zone Intel IGP Chipset Overview: ATI 9100 Pro IGP vs. Intel GMA 900 @ hardcoreware.net Thermaltake Jungle 512 review @ ocmodshop.com Gigabyte GO-U0128B USB Flash Drive Review @ pcstats.com Various News Items [Oct-06-04] (0 Comments) Soltek EQ340IM QBiC SFF PC Review @ pcstats.com OCModShop contest - 3 AC Ryan modding packages @ ocmodshop.com AC Ryan Contest @ OCIA.net OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Platinum Revision 2 @ 3dvelocity.com PimpRig Review // UV X-Connect 500W Modular PSU OCZ Platinum: Limited Edition vs. Enhanced Bandwidth @ insanetek.com 8Com Wireless BH220 Bluetooth Headset @ A True Review Logitech X-530 Speakers Review @ CoolTechZone Nostromo SpeedPad n52 Review @ My Guy Games 500 Watt Ultra X-Connect Power Supply Review @ The Tech Zone Review: Zensonic Z710 Wireless Headphones @ hardavenue.com DVIco FusionHDTV DVB-T Digital TV Tuner Card @ overclockers.com.au Various News Items [Oct-05-04] (0 Comments) Streamzap PC Remote Control Review @ Ascully.com Rosewill R710N 17 TFT LCD screen @ Rbmods Apple 4th Generation iPod Review @ The Tech Zone Ricoh Caplio GX Review @ pyroport.com GeIL Ultra Platinum PC3200 Memory Review Gigabyte GA-8I915P Duo-A Reviewed @ Hi-techreviews.com ABIT AA8-DuraMAX Motherboard (Socket 775) Video Review #487 @ 3dgameman.com BigBruin.Com Review: Ezonics Esound 5.1 6-Channel USB Headphones Sims 2 Review @ My Guy Games Chaintech AA6800 Turbo Review @ overclockercafe.com The Paperless Office Editorial @ The Tech Zone CrazyPC's Vampire Mid-Tower Case @cluboverclocker.com SWISSMEMORY USB Victorinox 128MB Drive Review @ HardExtreme.org Various News Items [Oct-04-04] (0 Comments) Madman's Guide to Linux: Volume Three - Updating @ Gurureview Ultra 4 in 1 USB 1.1 128MB Drive / MP3 Player Review @ ap0calypse.com Contest @ ap0calypse.com Gigabyte 3D Rocket Cooler Pro @ insanetek.com News: HDD Eyez -mod @ MetkuMods HEXUS.net Review: ASUS AX800XT/2DT PCI-Express Viper Mid-Tower Case @ A True Review Review of Samsung SyncMaster 192MP 19" Multifunctional Display @ bonafidereviews.com Abit first dual-Opteron motherboard @ amdboard.com Aspire X-Navigator Case Review @ overclockercafe.com SF2100 3D Slot Fan @ 3dvelocity.com Asus P5GD2 Deluxe review @ ocmodshop.com Yeong Yang Technologies' Mars YY-5603 @ ClubOC BigBruin.Com Review: Logisys Glacier Dual LED Fan 500W Power Supply Mountain Mods Twice 7 Case @ Viper Lair Call of Duty: United Offensive Review @ My Guy Games Wednesday stuff [Sep-30-04] (0 Comments) RFID Chip Editorial @ The Tech Zoone Ultra MP3/128MB USB Flash Drive @ Viper Lair 3DMark05 First Look @ tiscali.co.uk X-Ray Technology Thunder8, Thunder9, & Aqua3 review NZXT Guardian Crafted Gaming Armour Review @ Gurureview OCZ PowerStream 520W Power Supply w/Adjustable Rails Video Review #485 @ 3dgameman.com Ten Steps to a Secure PC - Updated! @ pcstats.com Jetart JACSD1 VGA Cooler Kit @ 3dvelocity.com OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 3 Memory Review @ CoolTechZone Temjin 5 Case review @ Techware Labs Burnout 3: Takedown Review @ My Guy Games Toodis Mpal 400 Ultra Compact AV Player @ A True Review InsaneTek Contest - 2 Weeks Left @ insanetek.com Silverstone SST-FP54 Review @ OCIA.net SilverStone SST-ST30NF Aluminum Power Supply Review @ MODTHEBOX.COM SilverStone LC-02's Cooling Problem @ TechFreaks ATI Radeon X300 Reference PCI Express Videocard Review @ Tweaknews [Sep-28-04] (0 Comments) What I will be stating is that if you are moving to the new Intel LGA775 specification or the new Athlon64 PCI Express motherboard and you just need a basic 2D videocard, the X300 based alternatives on the market will make you more than happy. If you are even considering gaming, do yourself a favor and upgrade to an X600 if you want some decent playable framerates on any of the more recent or newly released games on the market. Various News Items [Sep-28-04] (0 Comments) BigBruin.Com Review: A-Top Technology X-Blade ATX Window Case Plextor PX-712A DVD Writer Review @ CoolTechZone Lite On SOHW-1633S 16X DVD Burner @ A True Review GeIL Ultra Platinum PC4000 dual channel kit review @ ocmodshop.com Full Spectrum Warrior PC Review @ My Guy Games Correction FSW PC Review @ My Guy Games FSW PC Review @ My Guy Games Corsair Vs512mb400c3 @ Rbmods Corsair Vs512mb400c3 @ Rbmods Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 High Speed USB Memory Review @ The Tech Zone Various News Items [Sep-24-04] (0 Comments) Corsair PC2 5400 Pro DDR2 and the sky @OCC VIA K8T890 - PCI Express Reaches AMD @ pcperspective.com Fable Review @ My Guy Games Antec Slk 3700 case @ Rbmods SilverStone LC-02 Case @ TechFreaks Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-5300 Review @ COC AC Ryan's Slogan Contest - One week left! - Enter now and win cool AC Ryan Prizes!! HEXUS.net Feature: VIA's PCI Express plans for late 2004 Matrix Orbital MX412 USB LCD Review @ MODTHEBOX.COM Steelpad S&S @ Steamed Turtle [Sep-17-04] (0 Comments) If you are a gamer, you know that a good mouse pad is part of successful gaming. Ever since the introduction of optical mice, gamers around the world have been seeking depthless and smooth surfaces. The mouse pad sector has grown big, as you can obviously see if you've been following our reviews lately. In games, mostly in First Person Shooters, a high quality mouse is a necessity for reasons we have already beat to death. Inno3D GeForce 6800 VGA Review @ OCC [Sep-11-04] (0 Comments) It has been run into the ground that NVidia's GeForce 6800 line are the cards to have for great game play in Doom3. Sure, I like Doom3 but I also like lots of other games. Even more than that, I like not having to spend a car payment on a video card to play those games. I think this is the dilemma many of us face when its time for an upgrade. At present, the prices of the ATi Radeon 9800XT and GeForce 5950 are looking pretty good with new cutting edge products on the market driving their prices down. Do I want to spend my money on yesterday's killer card or on scaled back version of the bleeding edge of technology? Doom 3 and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Giveaway @ hardwareaccelerated [Sep-08-04] (0 Comments) Hardware Accelerated is giving away a Jaton 3D Force NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Video Card along with a copy of ID Software's Doom 3. The video card delivers amazing performance under Doom 3 as well as most other games. So what's the catch? Well first off you have to be a member of our forums. To be eligible you must also make a post in the contest thread, and that's it. The more you post the better your chances of winning are. Keep in mind one thing, hilarity is recommended. Tell me why you NEED to play Doom 3 and why you CAN'T play it now. Does not playing Doom 3 give you the runs? Let us know! Good luck! Various News Items [Sep-06-04] (0 Comments) Swirly copper @ dansdata.com Abit AV8 AMD Athlon 64 socket-939 motherboard review. @ A1E Logitech Z-3 Speaker Review @ The Tech Zone HEXUS.net Feature: ABIT Hardware Festival ATI Radeon X800 Pro Videocard Review @ Ascully.com ECTS 2004 Roundup @ pcreview.co.uk ASE Games Re-Opens @ aselabs.com ECTS 2004: First Time Perspective @ HEXUS.net TwinHan VisionDTV USB-Terrestrial Digital TV Tuner Review @ Gurureview Exclusive Review: Armari's InertX PF5080 @ HEXUS.net Wildtangent Removal @ I Am Not A Geek [Sep-05-04] (0 Comments) WildTangent was founded in 1998 by Alex St. John, the principal creator of Microsoft's DirectX multimedia platform. From the beginning, the company's mission has been to enable the delivery of the richest interactive content experiences online using the least amount of bandwidth. To that end, the first version of WildTangent's technology platform, Web Driver 1.0, was released in September 1999. Since then over 50 million people have adopted the WildTangent Web Driver® to enrich their online experience. This is an online gaming package that is installed by a number of third party applications and even OEMs, ISPs and AIM. The games aspect of this is really rather cool. The being installed without you asking for it isn't cool at all. Various News Items @ (specify) [Sep-03-04] (0 Comments) Thermaltake TWV480 Total Watts Viewer PowerSupply @ BigBruin.Com Thermaltake Xpeaker Review @ OCIA.net Article: Attaching Heatsinks with Thermal Grease and Thermal Adhesive @ d-silence.com Chenming 602A Aluminum Enclosure @ COC Razor Viper Mouse Review @ COC Zalman Reserator 1 Fanless Water Cooling System Review @ MODTHEBOX.COM Cooler Master's Declaration to Clear Rumors about Wave Master Victorinox SWISSMEMORY Knife @ A True Review Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939 Motherboard Review @ pcstats.com Gamestars Live Coverage! @ HEXUS.net Eksitdata USB virtual HDD key @ Rbmods Show report: EGN + GSL 2004 @ accelenation.com HIS Excalibur X600XT VIVO Limited Edition @ Viper Lair [Aug-31-04] (0 Comments) Gaming performance is mid range which is what the card is designed for. Modern games will run at about 1024x768 very happily with mild AA and AF applied. Older games will have no trouble, but the latest games such as FarCry and Doom III will push the card to its limits. If you are serious about playing either of those two then you would be better served by looking at a higher specification card. ASUS Extreme AX600XT/HTVD @ Viper Lair [Aug-27-04] (0 Comments) ASUS put together a comprehensive packaging that covers a wide audience, depending on what you need. For gamers, the ASUS Extreme AX600XT/HTVD provides very good performance with many of today's popular titles, without sacrificing image quality in doing so. Many games are playable at 1280 resolution, with image quality cranked up high, though 1600 is something I would reserve for the higher-end cards. OCZ 2GB PC3200 Performance Series Dual-Channel Kit @ HEXUS.net [Aug-19-04] (0 Comments) If you can honestly find a meaningful use for 2GB of unbuffered memory, OCZ's Ł400 dual-channel pack is as good as any. We'd pair it with AMD's new S939 Athlon 64 FX-53 and ATI's Radeon X800 XT PE. That would lead to a multi-purpose system that's equally at home with the most demanding of games and adept at handling professional image and rendering applications. For most users, though, it's one of those options you select when deciding on your dream system. 2GB of system RAM has its uses, sure, but they are few and far between for most of us HIS Radeon 9550 VIVO 128MB @ Envy News [Aug-16-04] (0 Comments) The 9550 is not the purchase that hardcore gamers will consider. Casual gamers will enjoy the fact that at the “low” stock speeds, games such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Unreal Tournament should play very well in moderate resolutions. Where this card excels is in the Home Theatre PC niche. The output to TV, especially HDTV, provides a crystal-clear picture that must be seen to be believed. Tack on the video-in capabilities and a software bundle that makes the whole video experience a much easier affair, and you've got a great value for not much money. Time Warp Computer Pricing at OCAU @ Overclockers [Aug-04-04] (0 Comments) Of course, after spending $8499 on your TRS-80, you'd want to accessorise it. Acoustic couplers must have been selling like hotcakes in 1983 after Matthew Broderick used one in War Games. Or, $5999 gets you an 8.6MB hard drive capable of serving data up at 4.34 megabits/second while drawing 140W of power. ESPN NFL2K5 Review @ My Guy Games [Aug-03-04] (0 Comments) For twenty bucks you can’t really do a whole lot these days. It will buy you some McDonalds, or a case of beer and a pack of smokes to entertain yourself for a night. It just doesn’t stretch as far as it used to. Sega hopes to change that thinking with ESPN NFL 2K5. Spiderman 2 Xbox review. @ My Guy Games [Aug-02-04] (0 Comments) Treyarch and Activision bring us the latest in the Spiderman video game universe with Spiderman 2. Most have seen the movie by now, or had no desire to if they have yet to, so now is your chance to play it. With superhuman movies every where we turn now, and a game to match, how does Spiderman 2 stand up? Sign up for Boise Fright Fest 04! @ cluboverclocker.com [Jul-30-04] (0 Comments) The sign up page is done, the 20,000 square foot room at the mall is reserved, the pizza is ordered, and the prizes are rolling in!!! The only thing left is for you to SIGN UP! We've got about $6000 in prizes on hand right now, with much more on the way, so don't you dare miss out on this one. Be part of the largest LAN Party to ever hit the state of Idaho! Meet face to face with computer hardware and game reps from companies like Micron, Dream Catcher, Rampage, OCZ, and more. Compete in intense tournaments featuring Painkiller, BF Vietnam, Doom 3, Rise of Nations, and more. Take place in drawings for free hardware and games throughout the 3 day long fest. Reserve your seat now! How to trouble shoot your DVD @ The Tech Zone [Jul-28-04] (0 Comments) You really enjoy those DVD movies and games and the last thing you need or want is to experience problems with your DVD drive. To prepare for the possibility of having your DVD drive leaving you out in the cold one morning, we will discuss problems that may cause DVD failure as well as the procedures you should take to correct these problems. Maxtill G-pad Mouse Pad @ BigBruin [Jul-26-04] (0 Comments) The Maxtill G-pad is just the right size for my likings. I never once ran off the pad no matter how wild the gaming action got. There obviously are no bench marks to be run on a mouse pad so everything is about the “feel” you get from the pad and mouse combination. With the combination of the Padmates on the bottom of my mouse and the Maxtill G-pad, I felt much more accurate and in control in all the FPS games I played. HIS Excalibur 9550 VIVO @ Viper Lair [Jul-16-04] (0 Comments) Should you decide the 9550 is for you, then you really can't go wrong with the HIS Excalibur 9550 ViVo Edition, and since the iFan version doesn't add to the sound levels at all, that's the version I would personally go for. HIS have a great overall package here, a decent card and without useless software/games added, everything included is actually useable. Nyko Air Flo PC Game Pad @ A True Review [Jul-14-04] (0 Comments) When people think of game pads, they normally associate them with console gaming systems. Fact is, there are plenty of games on the PC that should be played with a game pad. Sports and racing games are two types that come to mind. If you are into these types of games then you should look into a quality game pad instead of a mouse and keyboard. A common brand name of gaming pads is Nyko. They design game pads for gaming consoles as well as the PC. The difference between their pads and other companies is that a fan blows cool air over your hands reducing sweat. Jade Empire Preview @ My Guy Games [Jul-09-04] (0 Comments) In the ancient, mysterious world of the Jade Empire, you train under your master's watchful eye and learn powerful martial arts and mystical powers. When danger threatens, you travel across the world, from the harsh mountains of the Land of Howling Spirits to the lush gardens of the Imperial City. Only by mastering the greatest fighting styles and defeating the most powerful enemies will you earn your place as a master of martial arts in the world of Jade Empire. Chronicles of Riddick Review @ My Guy Games [Jul-07-04] (0 Comments) Vin Diesel is a bad ass - let’s face it. The ability to play a game based on a movie that is not just a clone of the movie script with FMV sounds even better. This usually follows with a mediocre game that in the end is just shit. With the ability to play as Vin it sounds like a perfect fit. In the end though how does it stand up? Zalman Theatre 6 5.1 (Review) @ ipKonfig [Jul-05-04] (0 Comments) The computer audio market has grown dramaticly since the days of the beeps and bonks of the 80's genre games. Today, there are powerful 5.1 surround sound audio systems that will move your pant legs with the sound of explosions and rifle fire. The problem is that with a really nice speaker system, there are times when you don't want everyone around you hearing the noises. Not to mention, carrying a 5.1 surround sound speaker system to a lan party would be rather difficult and rather impracticable. Logisys Optical Wheel Mouse @ PimpRig [Jul-03-04] (0 Comments) Playing some games to get the feel for the mouse was a bit uncomfortable. The shape just didn’t feel right to me. Even though there is four plastic feet on the bottom, when I would slide to the left the mouse wanted to tilt left. After I sanded down the feet a little it stabilized a little more but the mouse still wanted to role left actually lifting off the mouse pad. Corepad Glass Mousepad Review @ Ascully.com [Jun-28-04] (0 Comments) The mouse I use for day to day operation is the Razer Viper 1000DPI optical mouse, this is probably one of the most accurate mice on the market and is primarily designed for gamers and graphic design wizards. The mouse performed perfectly on the Corepad actually surpassing my expectations, the Icemat we reviewed some time back had trouble with super fast movements but the Corepad held true through many games of Vice City and UT2004. Razer Viper Optical Gaming Mouse (Review) @ ipKonfig [Jun-28-04] (0 Comments) Today's games require a lot of processor and memory usage with more features for a more realistic game play, and then some. Games are becoming more popular with extra gadgets as well, like headset/microphone devices, and high-end mice. DVD Player Mod: The Stealth HTPC @ Extension Tech [Jun-26-04] (0 Comments) The initial idea for this mod started to form earlier this year while I was at a friend's LAN party. After drinking plenty of Bawls and playing games all night, we talked a little bit about mods (my Lian-Li is lightly modded, but everyone else's cases were stock). I briefly brought up the idea of a music server PC in a stereo or VCR, but it was more a passing thought at the time. A few days later, however, I put some more thought to the idea, and noticed all of the expensive HTPC cases that were starting to float around. Most of these cases attempted to fit into the general home theater look so that the HTPC wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. "What could fit more into an entertainment setup," I said to myself, "than a regular DVD player?" Following the mantra of stealth but cool, the DVD Player Mod was born. Razer Viper Optical Mouse @ Viper Lair [Jun-22-04] (0 Comments) I should point out the obvious... a piece of hardware will not convert you from a lousy gamer to a great gamer. If your gaming skills are lacking, and you pick up a fancy mouse, you'll end up being a lousy gamer with less money in their pockets. The Viper definitely has its advantages over other mice, such as the higher sensitivity and precision, and it can give you an edge if you play a lot of fast paced action games. Immersion TouchWare Gaming Software @ moditory.com [Jun-19-04] (1 Comments) Force Feedback is a great feature, but few games support it. Immersion Corporation's software now allows you to add Force Feedback to any game. Zalman ZM-RS6F 5.1 Headphones Review @ XtremeTek [Jun-14-04] (0 Comments) As demand for high-performance audio merges into the mainstream, 5.1 surround sound is now considered a mandatory item for a great many consumers. With companies such as Logitech, Creative, and Klipsch selling 5.1 surround sound systems, it is easy to find a package that satisfies various needs. However, there are times when the surroundings do not permit the user to enjoy their surround sound system without disturbing others. One could buy a pair of ordinary headphones, but they obviously will not perform as well, especially in computer games where reactions depend on spatial sounds. Gigabyte GA-7VT600-RZ Motherboard Review @ pcstats.com [Jun-10-04] (0 Comments) Most of the computer hardware community has been focusing on Pentium 4 and Athlon64 CPUs, but we shouldn't count out the trusty ole AMD K7 just yet. In fact there are probably still more users with AMD Athlon or AthlonXP based systems than there are Athlon64's! And as there are no killer applications or 64-bit operating systems (or games) on the market, why should an average user upgrade, other than perhaps for bragging rights? Chaintech Geforce FX5500 256Meg Videocard Review @ Tweak News [Jun-07-04] (0 Comments) Chaintech's FX5500 is a great little video card with lots of spunk. The 256MB DDR will help boost your system so that you can play newer games (look how well it did with Jedi Knight II). It's a solid card which performed quite well in our benchmarks. Considering the extra RAM and the fact that it's a 128-bit card, I had expected it to outperform the 128MB 64-bit 9600SE in each test… granted Radeons have consistently performed better than NVIDIA chips in certain benchmarks. WAR - WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? @ Bit Tech [Jun-04-04] (0 Comments) I love my WWII games. But should I? There’s just something about the shoe-horning of such a momentous, terrible, horrifying events into a pieces of commercial entertainment that makes me feel deeply uncomfortable. bit-news Blackmesa HL˛ @ Bit Tech [May-26-04] (0 Comments) Half Life 2 is one of the most anticipated games thus far in the 21st century, but we still await its unveiling. Bit-tech forum member and ace modder Piloux brings you a taste of things to come with his stunning Blackmesa HL2 case mod. Matrix Orbital MX512 4x20 VFD Review @ GruntVillE [May-08-04] (0 Comments) The fifteen button overlay is quite a large step up from the previous 7 keyed ones; for those confused few out there counting, yes the Matrix Orbital logo in the top left is a button as well. Although none of these are necessary to make the display function they come in quite handy providing your display is mounted within arms reach. Apart from the obvious pre-coded Winamp and volume control applications these keys can also be custom mapped to your liking. I for one, use them to switch between various informational screens while in games or watching DVD's. All of the custom mapping is easily accomplished via the included LCDC software. Chaintech GeForce FX5500 256MB Review @ IPKonfig [Apr-29-04] (0 Comments) Video cards seem to be rising in price, averaging around $500 USD for top of the line graphics cards. This can definitely hit the wallet or purse hard, and leave you wondering what you just purchased. The fact is, those high price video cards have a lot of value built in with all their features, but is $500 really justified? Chaintech's latest FX5500 video card tries to give the consumer a few more of those added features. You won't find bundled software, like games, or a tweaked-out graphics card. Instead, you'll get its Summit line graphics card without bundled extras. You will, however, find 256MB of DDR memory, something not commonly found on such cards. VL Sys L.I.S 2 Premium Indicator @ PC Unleash [Apr-27-04] (0 Comments) You may not able to play PS2 games on it, but with this mod you will have a computer that looks like one. There are many mods that we can create with our imagination, visualizing how we might go about making them. However, the actual process of producing the mod is a very different story. It takes an incredible amount of time and patience to finish a masterpiece. War Times Review @ COC [Apr-22-04] (0 Comments) Daniel is back with his first game review in over a year. To kick things off, Daniel has a look at War Times. War Times is a Real Time Strategy game that is set in the World War II era. You can play as either the Axis Powers with Germany and the Soviet Union or the Allies with USA and Great Britain. Each superpower has their own strengths, units, and even dialect when they respond to your command. They also have different types of troops, buildings, and vehicles. Should this be your next RTS game? Find out here. Home Entertainment PC MOD @ Pc Unleash [Apr-16-04] (0 Comments) The computer is not getting more compact, but it is becoming more essential to our recreational life. We have heard of HTPC, which stands for "Home Theater Personal Computer". But today we would like to introduce the HEPC which stands for Home entertainment personal computer. It is here to replace your old audio with a futuristic look, but it still has all the features to explore the internet and play games. NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra (NV40) Preview @ pcperspective.com [Apr-14-04] (0 Comments) With countless hours of gaming under our belt and the embargo lifting from this card a few short hours from now, we can safely say that it is nothing short of exceptional. NVIDIA has made tremendous progress in image quality and has managed to raise the performance bar to new heights at the same time. It is a shame such a strong marketing campaign was spent on NV30 because this card could have surely lived up to all the hype. Having benchmarked more graphics cards than I can even begin to recall, the only time I can remember being this impressed with a card was with the launch of the original GeForce DDR. As monotonous as benchmarking graphics cards can be seeing the same scene over and over, I found myself dying to try higher settings and new games in order to see what this card could do. With the next generation software titles taking things up a notch, it is nice to see that the hardware is following suit. GameRiot Spring 2004 Tour Coverage @ GruntVillE [Apr-12-04] (0 Comments) Think of high-end gaming machines by Alienware fitted with Athlon64 3400's and FX-51's paired with an Asus SK8N, 1GB or more of memory, nVidia 5950 Ultra's, 80GB SATA drives with a huge LCD monitor and these machines are loaded with the latest and hottest games in the industry. As if that weren't enough, you're surrounded by more LCD monitors attached to an X-Box each with all of the latest console games loaded and ready for you to push start.” LAN Addict and Dreamcatcher Games Painkiller Giveaway! @ LAN Addict [Apr-12-04] (0 Comments) (1) One signed Painkiller Game! * (3) Three retail copies! * (5) Five Soundtrack CDs! * (5) Five Posters! LAN Addict and Dreamcatcher Games Painkiller Giveaway! @ LAN Addict [Apr-09-04] (0 Comments) Rules: * Contestant must be (13) thirteen years of age or older * Must be a resident of the United States or Canada * No more than one entry is permitted. * Dual entries are disqualified. * LAN Addict has final say on winners. * Rules may change at any time with or without notification. * E-mail addresses will be used for contest related items only, unless otherwise indicated. * Contest ends on April 23rd 2004 * Winners will be announced April 26th 2004. * Winners MUST respond via e-mail to receive prize. Visit http://contest.lanaddict.com/ to enter! Chaintech Apogee 5700 Ultra Video Card Review @ GruntvillE.com [Mar-29-04] (0 Comments) The new released video games all seem to be heading towards sharper more life-like graphics. This is great news to most of us, but I know there are still a few of you out there clinging to that old GeForce III card. You probably have a sign on your rig that reads, “You can take my old NVidia from me when you pry it from my cold dead system!” Now, while I admire your loyalty to a product that has treated you faithfully, I'm still going to have to shake you back into reality. Halo, Halflife2, Doom3… these are the games of the future, and they all look fantastic thanks to the new DirectX 9 effects. So what does this mean for those of you using older cards? It means that unless you think 15 stuttering frames per second is the cutting edge then it is definitely time to upgrade. Albatron FX5900XTV @ Rbmods [Mar-27-04] (0 Comments) Another video card review today for you guys! This time it's the Albatron Fx5900XTV on the test bench and we will compare it to some other cards on the same speed level. We will test it with a few popular games and benchmark to see how this card can perform. We will not forget the overclocking part so don't worry :) Gigabyte GV-N57U128D FX5700 Ultra @ Envy News [Mar-24-04] (0 Comments) Gigabyte isn’t one to rest on their laurels. They have insisted on giving the consumer what they want: A great card at a great price. And not only have they done that, but they have also included some fairly recent games, two of which I didn’t have (which is very odd for me). I also still can’t get over that Gigabyte included PowerDVD 5, that’s a major plus in my book as I have about five PowerDVD 4 discs lying around gathering dust that were stuffed in other manufacturer’s boxes. Chaintech Apogee AA5700U Videocard Review @ PCstats [Mar-20-04] (0 Comments) Let's be utterly frank for a moment, the AGP slot's days are numbered. That being the case, there are still many millions of AGP motherboards in the world, while virtually no computers in the hands of consumers use PCI express yet. It may be some time before the balance swings in favour of PCI Express, so videocard manufacturers are continuing to produce their products for consumers looking to upgrade older machines. After all, it is all about playing the games we like at the best possible visual quality isn't it? Mainstream graphics cards are often talked about in publications, and while the industry slang is an accurate depiction of the FX57000 videocard, I'm sure most consumers are really only interested in improving the FPS and appearance of their game, for the most economical outlay of cash. In that respect, the nVIDIA GeForceFX 5700 and GeForceFX 5900XT class videocards bode well. Viewsonic A90f+ Review @ Techbox [Mar-16-04] (1 Comments) One feature I have enjoyed is the "Ultrabrite" button. I have never seen this on a monitor before. Basically it gives you two brightness modes. One the darker looking of the two is said to be for reading text documents and surfing the web. The second and brighter of the two is for viewing videos, multi media, or playing video games. Altec Lansing 251 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers @ Hardextreme [Mar-12-04] (0 Comments) Looking for a quality speaker system? Picking out a speaker system is not as easy as you think. There are many options available on the market depending on your needs. Speaker systems can range from sub $100 to as high as a few thousand dollars. Manufacturers have speaker systems developed for gamers, music lovers, etc. It's confusing to pick out a speaker system. One may think but I listen to music and play games so what is the right solution for me? Altec Lansing's site is laid out very nicely and has a music and gamer category with suggested models layed out. The Altec Lansing 251 5.1 surround sound speaker model is marketed as one of their gaming models. I have always been a fan of Altec Lansing speakers. They seem to pack performance into their speakers at relatively inexpensive prices. Trust FF380 racing wheel @ Rbmods [Mar-06-04] (0 Comments) I have always wanted to play car games with a racing wheel that had force feedback and finally I got one from Trust for a review. Trust sent me their FF380 Force feedback steering wheel with pedals and everything. I can tell you that I will try this product with some Need for speed and Colin Mcrae of course. Well keep reading to see what we really think of this product. PCU's special edition monthly computer for march @ Pc Unleash [Mar-05-04] (0 Comments) Well, so you have decided to build you own PC huh? If you have been sitting in a closet for the past 5 years then I will give you some more info on today's technology. As we get to the next generation of 64 bit processors we start having more and more advances in technology, just think, almost 2 years ago Nvidia released their Geforce 4 lineup! With the to-be releases Half Life 2 and Doom III, they probably won't play on your grandmother's PC, and even though those you may feel set on your hardware for these games, don't be surprised if you have to upgrade again soon!. Graphic cards gaming benchmark: Farcry Demo @ Pc Unleash [Mar-03-04] (0 Comments) We are going to benchmark video card performance using one of the newest games, Farcry. Farcry has released its demo version couple weeks ago. The single-player demo for Crytek's tropical first-person shooter provides a player with the opportunity in exploring a vast island level on a mission to attack a mercenary base. This demo version of Cryteck presents a great artistic detail on the background. The game players will be astonished by the realistic presentation of the sea shore and islands throughout the game. The company is releasing this game in the end of March Leadtek FX5900XT video card @ Rbmods [Feb-29-04] (0 Comments) XT cards are cheap but they still perform very well. We will look at a FX5900XT card from Leadtek tonite and we will compare it some other cards that we have reviewed before. This seems to be a pretty good card with alot of games and software that you can test the card with. We will not forget to try some overclocking of course :) Let's have a closer look so stay tuned. Black IceMat 2 Mouse Pad Review @ GruntvillE.com [Feb-28-04] (0 Comments) I have now used the ICEMAT for 6 months, and it still remains my favorite mousing surface. My Black ICEMAT is still in perfect shape and shows no signs of wear, even after traveling to many out-of-state LANs. In the review of the original ICEMAT, my chief complaint was the small size. At 10 x 8.3, the ICEMAT was small. When gaming, I would occasionally fall off the edge of the ICEMAT, which is a huge disadvantage while playing fast-paced online games. Once again, a company has listened to their customers. The makers of ICEMAT developed the new Black ICEMAT 2, and of course, they made it HUGE! ATI Radeon 9600XT 128Meg Videocard Review @ Tweak News [Feb-25-04] (0 Comments) The 9600XT certainly is the mainstream card to buy. I tested it in many games while I was working on this review, from Vietcong to Morrowind to Need For Speed: Underground and then some. With tweaked-out settings, and the highest texture settings, my testbed never slowed down once, not even in the worst sandstorm in Morrowind. I was floored by its performance and never thought that my All-In-Wonder 9700Pro looked any better. DVD movies were crystal clear, and the output to my television was as good as my AIW. Another major bonus with this card is the bundled Half-Life 2 coupon. What this means is that you take the retail price tag of $199 and subtract the game price of $50, and now you're only paying $149 for this card... and that, my friends, is how you justify such a purchase to your wife! Lion King 1 1/2 DVD Review @ Ascully.com [Feb-25-04] (0 Comments) Let me start by saying these are some of the best extras I've seen on a movie in the kid category. These are quality features that kids can actually enjoy, not just insanely boring, half-assed games that only work on the PC. Almost everything is accessible via the DVD player on your TV. There is some DVD ROM content, but I don'tThey are not fantastic in terms of DVD offerings, but I have to give credit where credit is due and they did put more effort into this DVD than one would imagine for a straight to video/DVD movie. (pats Disney on the back) Hollywood and Game Developers? (Article) @ ipKonfig [Feb-25-04] (0 Comments) Please excuse us for sending this out twice, only 1/3 of emails went out :( ipKonfig.com writes: Hollywood Video games, now there's an oxymoron--or is it? Today's games are heading for a major change, one that's beneficial for players. Hollywood is now getting deeply involved with game designers to achieve more realistic games, introducing favorite actors and characters such as James Bond. The added value? Entertainment! MSI FX5950 Ultra @ Rbmods [Feb-24-04] (0 Comments) Tonite we are having a look at one of the heavy weight champions amongst video cards. MSI sent us their FX5950 Ultra video card for a little test run. This card seems to be a monster by just having a look at the cooler on the card itself. We will compare it to some other commoon cards that are popular on the market at this moment. We will test this in some games and some overclocking of course so this should be interesting. Hollywood and Game Developers? @ IPKonfig [Feb-24-04] (0 Comments) Hollywood Video games, now there's an oxymoron--or is it? Today's games are heading for a major change, one that's beneficial for players. Hollywood is now getting deeply involved with game designers to achieve more realistic games, introducing favorite actors and characters such as James Bond. The added value? Entertainment! ATI Radeon 9600 XT Review @ Ascully.com [Feb-23-04] (0 Comments) We all know what the latest and greatest graphics cards are capable of doing. We get to look at a lot of different solutions here at Ascully.com and one thing we have noticed is that you definitely get what you pay for. That's what our reviews like to show. Today we are strictly concentrating on a mid range card. We have not looked at many of these cards. We tend to stick to the higher end of things, but more and more this price bracket of graphic solution is becoming just the thing to stick in our machines to play those demanding games. As you all know we have a great relationship with the masters of PC graphicdom, ATI, and I was thrilled when a shiny new RADEON 9600XT landed on my doorstep just the other day. Let's take a look at what some are calling the second coming of Christ for those who worship mid priced graphic cards Competition Time @ Bit Tech [Feb-23-04] (0 Comments) Fancy winning a powerful new Sparkle graphics card to play all those new games on? How about a Matrix Orbital MX212 LCD Display to make you stand out as "l33t"? What about a subscription to CustomPC magazine to keep you updated on the hottest mods? Now is your chance... Help us celebrate 10,000 forum members with our amazing prize giveaway! Zalman Surround Sound Headphones "Theater 6" Review @ Twisted Mods [Feb-19-04] (0 Comments) I listened to music and played games for many hours to put them to the test. After playing Desert Combat for about an hour with my old headphones, I switched to the Theatre 6 headphones. The difference between the old headphones I was using and the Zalman set is like night and day! The speakers create low frequency effects very nicely, especially in Desert Combat. With music, they did perform well, but there was not as much of a noticeable difference as with games. This is because games take advantage of the 5.1 channel capabilities of the headphones, while music is only two channel stereo (left and right), which does not use the true potential of the Theatre 6 headphones. fuZe Mousepad Review @ COC [Feb-13-04] (0 Comments) Testing a mousepad means I have to torture myself by playing games and doing other mouse intensive tasks. However, this is a chore that I endured to bring you a new review on a new product. The fuZe mousepad is an improvement over a previous product call the Giganta. It's a quick read so go on and check it out at Club Overclocker! X-arcade unit @ Rbmods [Feb-05-04] (0 Comments) Tonite we are going to have a look at a very different product! You might have seen this before, however not very many other sites have reviewed this gadget thus far. It's an X-Arcade two player unit. This is a product that gives you the ability to play games and have the old arcade feeling. It works with most consoles if you buy a adapter which only goes for around 20$. We have tested this on a PC and a Playstation 2 so stay tuned! CES 2004 and Cyber-X Games Coverage @ GruntvillE.com [Jan-21-04] (0 Comments) On January 8th-11th 2004 Las Vegas was the home to not only the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Las Vegas Hilton, and Alexis Park, but also the Cyber X Gaming Competition (at the Stardust) and the Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) (at the Venetian and Sands Expo Center). With over 110,000 people in town for CES and several thousand very colorful characters for the AEE it was a hopin’ town, and I, DickNervous, was in the middle of it all.” 687 results. New search. |
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