ToC Gaming News Blog : All The Latest PC Gaming News

KP's 50MB Broadband

:finger: 

I see that Paddy Twat has bloody fallen asleep on his cunting keyboard again !

When will he learn eh ?  lol.  Cunt aint I moonz. :finger:

Sky have launched the sign up for Sky Player on Xbox 360. See links below to register.

http://www.skyplayer.com/xbox360 

Watch great Sky TV via your Xbox 360

Here is the Sony PS3 Yellow Light of Death coverage from BBC Watchdog.

“Thousands and Thousands of PS3 have gone kaput”

Even Sony admit thousands have died !!  To get it fixed, you have to pay £128 for a refurbished model, which only gets a 3 month warrantee. If it breaks down again after 3 months you have to pay £128 again !! Not to mention you loose all your data/games saves etc as they don’t return your console to you. You get some random refurbished model.

Suddenly the FREE Microsoft 3 year warrantee and detachable HD (so you keep all your important data) doesn’t seem so bad eh !!! lol.

Oh how the Xbox 360 owners laughed at the red faced Sony fanboys..

Many of you will looks at these images and touch yourselves at the sexiness that you’re about to see: the Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition Xbox 360. Everyone has been raving about the new exclusive bundle, but no one has yet to provide any images… until now.  Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on the Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition Xbox 360.

Those of you who aren’t aware of the newly announced bundle will be glad to know a bit about what’s in the box. Erhem. First, you’ll be blessed with a copy of the standard edition of Modern Warfare 2; secondly, Microsoft will be providing you with a whopping 250GB hard drive for you to store all your Xbox 360 goodies; 2 black Xbox 360 wireless controllers; and let’s not forget the Limited Edition Xbox 360 Elite console with an exclusive outer design inspired by Modern Warfare 2.  All the little nifty out-of-the-box things that any original Xbox 360 can do, this one can, obviously, also do.

The price tag for this baby is a ‘meager’ $399.99 and can be pre-ordered via Amazon.com. If you got the cash, I hate you. If you don’t, welcome to the club. If you’re biting your fingernails awaiting for the answer as to when this orgasmic limited edition console will be released, feast your eyes on this date: November 10, 2009. Whip out the KY, folks. We know you want to.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002I0HDLE

UK Link soon.

Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition 360 Already on Amazon - DualShockers

Microsoft is finally going to take advantage of the best form of advertising for the next release of Windows: word of mouth. The world's largest software maker has partnered with House Party, apparently the world's leading party organizer, to encourage technology enthusiasts to throw Windows 7 launch parties in their communities between October 22 and October 29.

Microsoft won't let just anyone host such a party though; the company is being very selective. If you're interested in becoming an official host, there's an application process you'll have to go through over at houseparty.com/windows7. Furthermore, the offer is only open to residents of 12 countries: Australia, Italy, Canada, Japan, Mexico, France, Spain, Germany, the US, Hong Kong, the UK, and India.

Chosen hosts around the world will be among the first to see, use, and share Windows 7 with their friends, says Microsoft. If you're selected as a host, you'll receive a special Signature Edition of Windows 7 Ultimate. You'll also get a Windows 7 Party Pack (contents currently unknown) to share with your guests, based on one out of four themes that you choose from: PhotoPalooza, Media Mania, Setting up with Ease, or Family Friendly Fun. US residents will also be entered for a chance to win a $750 mini-notebook computer. A total of 64 winners will be notified once all the parties are over (after October 30, 2009).

The first step of the application process is simple: you have to tell Microsoft about yourself, how the company can contact you, where to send the Party Pack, and finally pick a screen name and password (for checking the status of your application). After that, you have to confirm that "by applying for a host spot, you are agreeing to conduct yourself in the spirit of House Party—sharing a product you love with the people you love, through an experience that is fun, free, and exclusive" and that you will abide to five rules:

1. Submit only one application per household (per party)
2. Answer all questions accurately
3. Plan and host the best party you can
4. Share your party package with your guests, as intended
5. Not attempt to obtain extra party packages

Once you've agreed to all that, you have to answer six more questions (are you really surprised there are seven in total?). One of the questions of the survey is worth noting as it asks the participant what they are willing to do for the party. As such, it's clear what Microsoft will ask from party hosts:

• Host a party on any day between October 22 through October 29th, featuring Windows 7 Ultimate Operating System
• Invite at least 10 guests to join you
• Use a free party website to plan your party, invite guests, upload photos, read and post to a party blog, etc.
• Fill out an online survey after the party has happened

The second last step is to confirm a legal agreement, and then bam, you'll get a confirmation e-mail. You must then finalize the application by clicking a link. Now the rest is up to Microsoft and all you have left to do is frequently check the status of your application.

Microsoft has not disclosed how many hosts it plans to pick, but the website does insist that "host spaces are very limited." If this is the type of party you want to host, then by all means, hurry up and apply!

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be kicking off the official Windows 7 launch at an event in New York City on October 22, 2009, the day of Windows 7's general availability. It looks like Microsoft wants to turn what is normally a single launch day, into a launch week. Since the beginning of 2009, the media has been praising Windows 7, and Redmond obviously wants to keep that momentum going strong.

Get Windows 7 for free by hosting a launch party - Ars Technica

(The following is reprinted with permission from www.mentalfloss.com).

Miss Kitty Kramer, the first Kodak girl, is shown using the No. 2 Kodak Camera in 1890, in Rochester, New York.

Most of us spend a lot of time staring at a computer or TV screen, playing video games, or gabbing into our cell phones. The brand names for these products are all familiar, but where did they come from in the first place? Just what is a Nokia? Here's a look at the origins of some of your favorite tech and gadget companies' names.

1. Kodak: Founder George Eastman named the camera and film corporation in 1888. Eastman wanted a short name that was easy to pronounce and could only refer to his products. He later said that he favored the letter "k" because it "seems a strong, incisive sort of letter." Once Eastman decided he wanted the name to start and end with "k," he played around with combinations of letters until he found one that he liked in "Kodak."

2. Nintendo: Nintendo's name translates into English as "leave luck to heaven." The name made more sense before Nintendo got into the video game business; it opened in 1889 to make hanafuda cards, a type of Japanese playing cards decorated with floral designs.

3. Sony: When Sony got its start in 1946, it had a decidedly less catchy name – Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. Within a few years, the company's founders wanted a new name, so they combined sonus, Latin for "sound," with "Sonny," the term of endearment for a young boy. The newly coined word captured both the superior sound quality and small size the company was shooting for with its products.

4. Sega: Sega got its start in Hawaii in 1940 as Standard Games, a business that provided military bases with pinball machines to help amuse soldiers. In 1951, the company moved to Tokyo and renamed itself "Service Games" to reflect its business of importing coin-op machines for American military bases. In 1965, Service Games merged with another coin-op company, Rosen Enterprises, and shortened its name to Sega.

5. Nokia: The modern telecom giant hasn't always been involved in such tech-heavy fields. The company got its start in Tampere, Finland, in 1865 as a pulp mill and paper manufacturer. When owner Fredrik Idestam opened a second plant in Nokia, Finland, in 1868, he decided the town's name would suit his company, too.

The town takes its name from the Nokianvirta River that flows through it, which in turn takes its name from an archaic Finnish word referring to the small furry animals, mostly sables, which lived on the river's banks.

6. Cisco Systems: The recent addition to the Dow Jones Industrial Average takes its name from San Francisco, where it was founded in 1984.

7. Atari: The video-game pioneer takes its name the board game Go. In Go, atari is a term that indicates that a player's stone (or group of a player's stones) are in immediate danger of being captured by the player's opponent.

8. Toshiba: Toshiba formed following the 1939 merger of consumer products company Tokyo Denki with machinery firm Shibaura Seisakusho. By taking the "To" from the former and the "Shiba" from the latter, a new company name was born.

9. Sanyo: Sanyo's name means "three oceans" in Japanese; the company's founder wanted to sell his wares across the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans to reach the entire world.

10. Seiko: The watchmaker takes its name from a Japanese word meaning "exquisite" or "success."

11. Canon: When Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory started developing Japan's first-ever 35mm camera equipped with a focal plane shutter, the engineers dubbed the creation "Kwanon" after the Buddhist goddess of mercy. At this point the company's logo even included the thousand-armed goddess.

When the camera was ready to roll out worldwide in 1935, the company decided to tweak the name to "Canon" so it would be easier for international markets to accept.

12. Sharp: The electronics manufacturer got its start in 1912 as metalsmith Tokuji Hayakawa's personal outlet for his inventions, including a specialized snap buckle. In 1915 Hayakawa invented an improved mechanical pencil he dubbed Ever-Sharp, and to honor the fine point of his creation, Hayakawa started calling his company "Sharp."

13. Magnavox: The stalwart electronics company began in 1915 when Edwin Pridham and Peter Jensen created a moving-coil loudspeaker, which they named "Magnavox," Latin for "great voice."

14. Coleco: The video game kingpins of the 1970s and 80s (and the people who brought you Cabbage Patch Dolls!), Coleco was originally a company that sold shoe leather. The name Coleco is a shortening of "Connecticut Leather Company."

15. Motorola: Founder Paul Galvin named his company in a twist on the old naming convention of putting "-ola" at the end of phonograph and radio names like the Victrola. Since Galvin and his company were making car radios, he merged "motor" with "-ola" to get the name.

16. Samsung: Samsung got its start in 1938 when Lee Byung-Chull started the "Samsung Store" in Korea. The store initially focused on exporting dried fish and fruit, but it jumped into electronics in the 1960s. The name Samsung is Korean for "three stars," a nod to the lucky properties of the number three.

How 16 Electronics Companies Got Their Names - WSJ.com

Electronic Arts’ award-winning and best-selling Tiberium saga is coming to a powerful conclusion with Command & Conquer 4, which will introduce a multitude of innovations to the classic fast and fluid Command & Conquer gameplay, while retaining the core compulsions that fans have come to love over the series’ history.

Storyline

In the year 2062, humanity found itself on the brink of extinction. Tiberium, the mysterious, alien crystalline structure that infested Earth for decades and caused years of relentless conflict between the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of Nod, was close to rendering the planet uninhabitable. In the midst of this crisis, Kane, Nod’s prophetic leader, emerged from seclusion to deliver GDI the message that he had developed a system that could control Tiberium and harness its power. But he could not build this “Tiberium Control Network” without GDI’s cooperation. Thus, the two opposing factions—GDI and Nod—found themselves in a desperate and unlikely alliance to stop Tiberium from extinguishing mankind.

Now, after 15 years, the network is nearly complete. Tiberium is under strict control and our revitalized planet is on the cusp of a new age of prosperity and progress. It is only now that the world’s citizens begin to seriously ponder why Kane chose to help, and what he will want in return. These questions and more lead to the dramatic final act of the Tiberium saga.

Features

• The Epic Conclusion to the Tiberium Saga – Kane returns in the thrilling conclusion to one of gaming’s longest running storylines, told through gritty live-action cinematics. Choose to take on the campaign solo or team up with a friend and play cooperatively!

• Persistent Player Progression – The more enemy units you destroy, the more experience points you earn to progress your player profile! Level up to unlock new units, powers, and upgrades to make your army more powerful!

• Always on the Move – For the first time ever in the C&C series: a massive, mobile, all-in-one base, The Crawler, lets you pack up and move your base with your army for a new layer of strategic depth. Build units as you move across the field, and deploy whenever and wherever you choose!

• Choose Your Class – Choose from three unique classes from both GDI and Nod, each with its own specialized units and powers, for more strategic and combative options that match your play style of choice! Offense, Defense, or Support classes—which will you pick?

• Team Up and Take the Battle Online – Join your fellow commanders online and tackle your opponents in the biggest C&C multiplayer to date, featuring 5 vs 5 objective-based battles! Choose your favorite class and take online strategy action to the next level as you conquer objectives while pummeling your enemies. The all-new party system lets you move with your party of friends from one online battle to the next.

Command & Conquer 4 Revealed | Gamers Digest

Minor updates and new PhysX
Nvidia has released a new version of its WHQL certified Geforce driver, the Geforce 190.62 WHQL. The new driver supports the entire Nvidia GPU arsenal from Geforce 6, as well as Nvidia's ION and ION LE chips.
In addition to a bunch of bug fixes, the new driver brings couple of minor optimizations for Batman: Arkham Asylum and Darkest of Days games, support for Microsoft's new DirectX GPU Computing API: DirectCompute, complete with WHQL certification.
The new 190.62 WHQL driver also brings a new version of PhysX system software which is now updated to version 9.09.0814 WHQL.
You can download it here.

Fudzilla - Nvidia rolls out a new 190.62 WHQL driver

REDMOND, Wash. — July 22, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the next versions of its flagship desktop and server operating systems. With the completion of this development phase, industry partners are readying products in time for the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 worldwide general launches. Windows 7 will be generally available to customers around the world on October 22, and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be generally available on or before that date. As always, current customers of the Windows Volume Licensing program, Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers and TechNet subscribers will be among the first to get customer access to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in the coming weeks.

Microsoft will make the announcement on its Windows Team and Windows Server Blogs later today. More information about today’s news is available via the following links:

•Windows Team Blog, http://windowsteamblog.com

•Windows Server Blog, http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver

•Partner Web sites, http://readyset7.com and http://talkingaboutwindows.com/Default.aspx

•Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 for businesses, http://www.microsoft.com/windows/default.aspx and http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/R2.aspx

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.

Microsoft Releases Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: Industry partners are finalizing new products in time for the worldwide launch.

gdgt.com is a new site for gadget and hardware fans. Fill out your Have, Want, and Had lists and start sharing.

http://user.gdgt.com/Gunzta/

http://gdgt.com/

After weeks of scratching our heads as to why Microsoft would potentially leave thousands of customers browserless. OEMS would be able to install IE8 via a feature pack on pre-built PCs, but what about those who wanted to purchase a standalone copy of Windows 7E? CNet and Arstechnica originally speculated that Microsoft would offer IE via CD, FTP and retail channels.

But Paul from Geeksmack managed to get a hold of a Windows 7E Build and the feature pack for IE8. Turns out that the feature pack was actually a KB968771 standalone update. He also revealed that IE8 will be offered via a CD that will be bundled with Windows 7E.

In June, Microsoft announced that European copies of Windows 7 will not contain IE8 as a response to the criticism coming from EU antitrust regulators. A browser-less version of edition called Windows 7E will be shipped instead. However, this has forced Microsoft to not allow its customers to perform any in-place upgrades from Vista, which would leave some version of IE on the computer.

Windows 7E to come bundled with IE8 CD | Windows 7 Center

Microsoft have made the final Release Candidate available for download from either MSDN or the Microsoft Technet Beta Program. They even provide new product keys for you to use.

Well… what are you waiting for.. GO GO GO.. get downloading..

(Windows Live ID Required)

Windows 7 RC 32-bit

Windows 7 RC 64-bit

Wondering what's been happening to Medal of Honor since Airborne? Well, at the beginning of the year EA (MOH Publishers) admitted that they were working on "the best FPS ever". What is that First-Person Shooter you ask? It's almost certain to be the highly speculated Medal of Honor: Operation Anaconda. We knew that EA were working on a new FPS when EALA put a job online for an Art Director for what would be "to create the coolest piece of entertainment software the world has ever known". EALA also said it was the best FPS they had ever made..”

What is Operation Anaconda?

Anaconda was an operation where the US Military attempted to destroy al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the South East of Zormat, Afghanistan. The allies were victorious, but the Taliban managed to evacuate with up to 800 casualties.

How could this be a good game?

If the "best FPS ever" is Anaconda, then it has the potential to be huge. Possibly a competitor to Modern Warfare. EALA need to take the right amount of time to make the game perfect. The physics system in the game needs to be as realistic as possible to even compete with the brilliance of Modern Warfare. The storyline is another thing that needs to be perfect as Call of Duty 4's storyline was one that will go down in history for brilliance and Infinity Ward are planning for Modern Warfare 2's campaign mode to exceed that.

Online?

Of course there will be an online mode if the game is going to compete with other FPS'. It's whether EA take more time on the single player campaign or the online campaign. The online mode needs a good setup menu, as Call of Duty's is so simple, it works for almost everyone. New online games need to be created (new type of Search and Destroy or something a little like that).

So Medal of Honor: Operation Anaconda hasn't been confirmed yet, but if it is on it's way it has huge potential in the gaming world. Expect an announcement of the new EALA FPS in the coming months.

Next Medal of Honor could be Next Big Thing :: LivePlayStation - Latest PlayStation 3 News

Despite warning and requests from readers, N4G continue to help propagate the latest internet scam by actually running adverts for it on their site.  Many readers have been fooled into parting with the credit card details in a very polished looking Google related scam similar to the LA tribune scan from earlier in the year.

The scam works by attracting anyone interesting in working from home (that’s just about everyone right, especially in the current climate with so many people being laid off and loosing their jobs) by using a convincing looking newspaper style website running a story on the subject. Through out the article are numerous links to the honey trap site, which is heavily Google branded.  The site claims they want to take a small $1.87 payment to cover shipping, however what the credit card owner doesn’t know is that they are unknowingly and without consent signing up for a free 7 day trail of a lifetime subscription. Once the 7 days has passed, you will be charged $80 a month forever until you ring and cancel. Problem is they never answer their phones, so you can never cancel.  The only way to solve this is contact your card provider and get them stop your card, and re-issue a new one.

This is not acceptable for a well known and trusted news site to be running adverts like this, especially after being warned about the potential lose to their readers.

Last image taken 18/06/09 22:32 GMT

N4G.com : All the latest game news

LIVE on Xbox.com
E3 is the biggest event in the Xbox calendar and we’re giving you the best seats in the house! Watch the Xbox E3 Show live right here on Xbox.com from 18:30 UK. Prepare for some huge announcements!

Your ticket to the show...
Feel like you're there by getting reports, videos, photos, Tweets, and even sounds direct from the showfloor courtesy of our E3 Latest community blog! And join the chat with our 'What's Hot at E3' Twitter cloud.

Xbox.com | Xbox at E3

GPS systems could crash next year

Washington, DC - The world's GPS systems could start to fail next year, according to a report presented to Congress. This could cause catastrophic problems for aviation, 911 services and ordinary drivers, as well as the military.

GPS devices calculate their position by comparing time signals from at least four satellites. Because the Earth is spherical, a minimum of 24 satellites is required at all times. There are currently 31 operating, but many are way past their design lifetime.

The GAO predicts a one in five chance that the number will drop below 24 at times in 2011 and 2012, hampering accuracy. This could lead to blackouts and even misdirection of people all over the world.

The US Government Accountability Office (GOA) blames mismanagement and lack of investment. In recent years, says the report, the Air Force has encountered technical difficulties and problems with contractors. As a result, the program has overrun its cost estimate by about $870 million, and  the launch of its first new IIIA satellite has been delayed until November - almost three years late.

Presenting the report, Cristina T Chaplain, Director of Acquisition and Sourcing Management for the GAO, said that both the military and civilian users could suffer. "The military could see a decrease in the accuracy of precision-guided munitions that rely on GPS to strike their targets," she warned. "Intercontinental commercial flights use predicted satellite geometry over their planned navigation route, and may have to delay, cancel, or reroute flights. Enhanced 911 services, which rely on GPS to precisely locate callers, could lose accuracy particularly when operating in urban canyons or mountainous terrain."

From Voodoo to GeForce: The Awesome History of 3D Graphics

Try to imagine where 3D gaming would be today if not for the graphics processing unit, or GPU. Without it, you wouldn't be trudging through the jungles of Crysis in all its visual splendour, nor would you be fending off endless hordes of fast-moving zombies at high resolutions. For that to happen, it takes a highly specialized chip designed for parallel processing to pull off the kinds of games you see today, the same ones that wouldn't be possible on a CPU alone. Going forward, GPU makers will try to extend the reliance on video cards to also include physics processing, video encoding/decoding, and other tasks that where once handled by the CPU.

It's pretty amazing when you think about how far graphics technology has come. To help you do that, we're going to take a look back at every major GPU release since the infancy of 3D graphics. Join us as we travel back in time and relive releases like 3dfx's Voodoo3 and S3's ViRGE lineup. This is one nostalgic ride you don't want to miss!

S3 ViRGE

A virgin in the 3D graphics arena, S3 in 1995 thrust itself into this new territory with its ViRGE graphics series. Playing on the hype surrounding virtual reality a decade and a half ago, ViRGE stood for Virtual Reality Graphics Engine and was one of the first 3D GPUs to take aim at the mainstream consumer. While nothing compared to today’s offerings, early 64-bit ViRGE cards came with up to 4MB of onboard memory, and core and memory clock speeds of up to 66MHz. It also supported such features as Bilinear and Trilinear texture filtering, MIP mapping, alpha blending, video texturing mapping, Z-buffering, and other 3D texture mapping goodies.

Ironically, those same ‘cutting edge’ features took a toll on the ViRGE silicon resulting in underwhelming 3D performance. In some cases, performance was so bad that users could obtain better results with the CPU, causing the ViRGE to be affectionately dubbed the first 3D decelerator. Ouch.

Fun Fact: Just how far has graphic cards come in the past 15 years? Enough so that we've seen the S3 ViRGE selling for as little as $0.45 in the second-hand market.

Model: ViRGE
Date Released: 1995
Interface: PCI
Shader Model: N/A
DirectX: 6
Manufacturing Process: 0.35 micron
Core Clockspeed: 66MHz
Memory Bus: 64-bit

Model: ViRGE VX
Date Released: 1995
Interface: PCI
Shader Model: N/A
DirectX: 6
Manufacturing Process: 0.5 micron
Core Clockspeed: 50MHz
Memory Bus: 64-bit

Model: ViRGE GX
Date Released: 1997
Interface: PCI
Shader Model: N/A
DirectX: 6
Manufacturing Process: 0.35 micron
Core Clockspeed: 66MHz
Memory Bus: 64-bit

Model: ViRGE DX
Date Released: 1997
Interface: PCI
Shader Model: N/A
DirectX: 6
Manufacturing Process: 0.35 micron
Core Clockspeed: 66MHz
Memory Bus: 64-bit

Model: ViRGE GX2
Date Released: 1998
Interface: PCI
Shader Model: N/A
DirectX: 6
Manufacturing Process: 0.35 micron
Core Clockspeed: 66MHz
Memory Bus: 64-bit

ATI Rage 3D and Rage II

Well before Radeon ever became synonymous with ATI, the Canadian-based graphics chip maker was best known for its 3D Rage line. Released in 1995, the original Rage 3D didn't have a whole going for it, such as slow EDO RAM, a 32-bit memory bus, and a max memory of just 2MB.

A year later ATI released the Rage II, and while the upgrades seem minor on paper, performance was significantly improved. The new chipset traded in 2MB of EDO memory for up to 8MB of SDRAM and widened the bus to 64-bit, while also increasing the core clockspeed from 40MHz to 60MHz.. Support for DVD playback was also added, and the Rage II.

Rendition Verite 1000

Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, Rendition emerged in the mid 1990s as a fabless semiconductor manufacturer whose goal was to compete in the high-end videocard market. Throughout the company's tenure, Rendition managed to get a leg up on the competition by working with John Carmack to develop the first 3D-accelerated version of Quake (VQuake, or Verite-accelerated Quake).

VQuake was designed to take advantage of the Verite 1000 chipset, which was launched in 1996. A year prior, Carmack stated "Verite will be the premier platform for Quake." The card came capable of bilinear filtering, perspective correcting, and a basic pipeline configuration of 1/1/1 (textures/pixels/Z).

Poor 2D performance proved problematic for the board, as did programming for the Verite. It was the latter which Carmack would later say led to iD's decision to move away from proprietary APIs to OpenGL.

Model: Verite 2100
Date Released: 1996
Interface: PCI
Shader Model: N/A
DirectX: 2
Manufacturing Process: 0.5 micron
Core Clockspeed: 25MHz
Memory Bus: 64-bit

3dfx Voodoo1

Like a modern day Greek Tragedy, the rapid rise and untimely demise of 3dfx can best be described as a wild roller-coaster ride that most enthusiasts wish would have never ended. And in a way, it didn't, as 3dfx had a tremendous hand in shaping the 3D market as we know it today. But every good story needs a beginning, and this one starts with the original Voodoo card, or otherwise known as the Voodoo1, released in 1996.

The Voodoo1 launched 3D gaming into the limelight, even if the add-in card's implementation was less than graceful. While other videocards fused both 2D and 3D functionality onto a single board, the Voodoo1 concentrated solely on 3D and lacked any 2D capabilities. This meant consumers still needed a 2D graphics card for day to day computing, which would be connected to the Voodoo1 via a VGA pass-through cable. Only when a compatible 3D videogame was detected would the Voodoo1 then wake out of its slumber and flex its gaming muscle.

It's hard to imagine such a design being successful today, but consumers were willing to cope with the costly inconvenience at the time because the Voodoo1 put every other available 3D card in a headlock and gave them a noogie.


Voodoo1: No Shader Model, DX3 support, 0.5 micron, PCI, 50MHz core, 64-bit

Model: Voodoo1
Date Released: 1996
Interface: PCI
Shader Model: N/A
DirectX: 3
Manufacturing Process: 0.5 micron
Core Clockspeed: 50MHz
Memory Clockspeed: 50MHz
Memory Bus: 64-bit
Transistors: 1 million

Source MAXIMUMPC

Here is a new video from Gametrailers TV of the Call of Duty World at War Map Pack. Maps include Knee Deep, Nightfire, and Station. Also included in the map pack is a zombie map called Verrückt (Zombie Asylum). The release date is sometime this month.

N4G.com : Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack Trailer

Great news for our users - Version 4 for both ESET Smart Security and ESET NOD32 Antivirus has now been launched and we are providing a FREE upgrade to all our existing customers.

The new version builds on ESET’s ThreatSense®‚ the industry’s most accurate proactive technology for detecting viruses and other malware and adds over 20 new capabilities improving malware detection‚ enhancing system diagnostics/ recovery and improving management. The latest release continues ESET’s tradition of delivering ultimate security with fast‚ transparent operation and minimal load on system memory‚ disk or CPU. ESET’s unrivalled ability to deliver industry-leading proactive malware detection and high system performance can literally extend the life of PCs and laptops while improving their security.

ESET’s new detection and diagnostic features safeguard users from deceptive forms of malware by digging deeper into the operating system files and encrypted browser traffic identifying and eliminating hidden malware threats. The latest version also includes advanced self-defence technology that protects against any malware specifically designed to disable antivirus or anti-malware solutions which would leave the user completely unprotected. Together‚ these new features enable consumers and businesses to proactively block most new malware attacks before they can compromise systems to damage or steal data.

ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 and ESET Smart Security 4 Business Editions also feature a full-range of management capabilities. These include support for high-end databases‚ fine-grained control of endpoint security and even greater scalability for large‚ dispersed networks. ESET Business Editions include version 3.0 of ESET’s Remote Administrator which enables businesses to remotely deploy and manage ESET software.

ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 and ESET Smart Security 4’s new‚ industry-first security features include:

Advanced Archive Scanning This new feature makes ESET’s consumer products the first to allow experienced users to fully customise scanning and ”deep dive”  archive files created with popular compression formats‚ including .RAR‚ .ZIP and others. Comprehensive controls allow users to define archive scanning with scanning depth‚ maximum scan time‚ and maximum file size.

Removable Media Access Control Gives consumers removable media security for USB flash drives and CDs – protection previously extended only to businesses. The feature gives administrators the ability to allow or block mounting of removable media. If removable media is allowed‚ dangerous files like AUTORUN.INF are scanned for threats.

ESET SysInspector Newly integrated into ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 and ESET Smart Security 4‚ this powerful system diagnostics tool quickly discovers hidden/potentially dangerous rootkits without running a full antivirus scan. It can also reveal hidden changes to the operating system‚ web browser‚ registry and applications. The scan results are standardised and can be reviewed by IT personnel‚ speeding up malware analysis and removal.

Download Your Purchased Home NOD32 or Smart Security

Microsoft released the release candidate for Windows Vista SP2 (Vista SP2 RC) to the public yesterday. You can now download it from the Microsoft TechNet website. However, before you install Vista SP2 RC, here are ten essential facts about the latest update to Windows Vista:

1. SP2 RC doesn't include a lot of visible razzle-dazzle, but....
2. .. it's designed to make your system work better with the latest hardware...
3. ...and to clean up after itself.
4. It includes over 600 hotfixes to help your system work more reliably, but there are a few glitches to watch out for.
5. You're not ready for Vista SP2 RC if you don't have Vista SP1 installed.
6. vLite-streamlined Vista SP1 won't work with SP2 RC
7. Vista SP2 RC is available in a bunch of installation flavors, but if you want to get it via Windows Update right now, you have some extra work to do.
8. You can help Microsoft make the SP2 installation process better, but nobody's forcing you to do so.
9. Yeah, your desktop will remind you you're running a pre-release program
10. Don't forget - RCs don't last forever

Now, let's dig into the details.

Why Install SP2 RC? (Hint: It's Not About the Razzle-Dazzle)

Unlike Vista SP1, Vista SP2 isn't going to make a big difference in the look and feel of Vista. In its FAQ, Microsoft admits that SP2 was "primarily developed with Windows Server 2008 in mind..." (Windows Server 2008 shares a common code base with Windows Vista). So, why install SP2 RC on your Vista SP1 system?

While you won't get sizzle, you will get steak, as SP2 RC give you a chance to preview benefits such as:

Improved hardware support for new technologies:

• VIA Technologies' Nano 64-bit processors (a popular choice for ultra-compact HTPCs)
• The most recent version of Bluetooth, Bluetooth v2.1, and Windows Connection Now (WCN) Wi-Fi configuration via the Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless (a previously OEM-only update)
• Blu-Ray Disc recording; you won't need to buy a separate Blu-Ray codec anymore

Improved performance and responsiveness for:

• Wi-Fi connections after resuming from sleep mode

• The RSS feeds sidebar

New (and "new") software components:

• Windows Search 4.0
• Compcln.exe

Windows Search 4.0 isn't exactly new to Windows Vista users (it's been available as a separate download for Vista and XP users for awhile), but it's now included in SP2 RC.

What's new in 4.0? Besides a lot of management and tuning features for big corporations, you can access index results on remote PCs running Windows Search 4.0 and see remote files show up in search results - very handy if you forgot where you stashed your favorite digital photos or music downloads. It also permits users with sufficient permissions to index and search encrypted files. 

Compcln.exe, a command-line utility that removes files that have been replaced by SP2 updates (Screenshot).

Two important notes:

• You must open the command prompt in elevated mode (run as administrator) before you can use Compcln.
• You should not use Compcln on your system if you want to uninstall SP2 RC when the final release comes out.

If you want to try Compcln.exe after you install SP2 RC and don't want to reinstall Vista from scratch, make sure you make a full backup of your system first (you can use Complete PC Backup in Ultimate and Business editions, or a third-party image backup with other editions).

How to Find Out What Compcln Removed

If you want to use Compcln to remove older files, why not find out exactly what it removes? Here's a fun experiment to try using Compcln.exe (borrowed from Windows Vista SP2 RC and Windows Server 2008 SP2 RC Test Focus Guide; the underlined text should be entered into the command prompt window):

1. Capture the installed components state by running the following command:

Run dir “%windir%\” /b/s/a:-d>files_before.txt

2. Run compcln.exe in an elevated command prompt to remove the staged components superseded by SP install:

Run %windir%\system32\compcln.exe

3. Capture the installed components state by running the following command:

Run dir “%windir%\” /b/s/a:-d>files_after.txt

The difference between files_before.txt and files_after.txt is the list of items that were removed  by compcln.exe.

Hotfixes Galore

As with previous service packs, Vista SP2 includes lots of hotfixes: 651 (plus 39 security updates). While the security updates were previously available via Windows Update, only 34 of the hotfixes were previously available via Windows Update. Here's how they break out by category:

All - 1
Applications - 3
Base Technologies - 133
Computer Management - 34
Core Virtualization - 7
Data Services - 12
Desktop Shell - 55
Desktop Technologies - 67
Drivers - 55
Feedback/Supportability - 1
Graphics - 1
Localization - 1
Multimedia - 31
Networking - 55
OS Deployment - 8
Printing and Imaging Technology - 18
Security - 35
Server Technologies - 63
Storage - 54
Tools - 2
Windows Installer - 1
Windows Portable Devices - 1
Uncategorized - 12

Here are a few examples:

• Improving XPS printer speed (KB954051)
• Fixing DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL errors (KB955734) 
• Solving problems with video playback problems with video containing multiple resolutions or when resuming Windows Media Center Live TV from standby (KB951685)
• Solving PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA error caused by some OpenType fonts (KB957187) 
• Solving computer lockup when capturing Windows Aero desktop with Print Screen (KB954436)

For a complete list of security and hotfixes included in Vista SP2 RC, visit Hotfixes and Security Updates in Windows Server 2008 SP2 RC and Windows Vista SP2 RC for a link to an Excel 2007 spreadsheet.

Everything You Must Know about Vista SP2 Release Candidate | Maximum PC

When Windows 7 is released later this year or in early 2010, many PC users who upgrade will be coming from Windows XP. Unlike Vista users, they can't do an "in-place upgrade," in which the new OS overwrites the old one, preserving their installed applications, preferences, and data. Instead, they'll have to do a clean install, which means they have to back up their data, install Win 7 (either deleting or XP or installing as a separate environment), reinstall their apps, restore their data, and re-create their preferences.

For Windows XP users who avoided Vista because of its many problems, that upgrade work may seem as adding insult to injury, making it harder for them to finally adopt a new version of Windows. Through its PR agency, Microsoft confirms to InfoWorld that there will be no "in-place upgrade" option for XP users, but it declines to explain why not. "More materials on your question are in the works," the spokesman says.

[ Can your PC run Windows 7? Find out with InfoWorld's free Windows Sentinel compatibility checker. | See our experts' first looks at Windows 7. ]

Why a clean-install requirement may make sense

But there may be good reason not to support an in-place upgrade, suggests Michael Silver, a Gartner analyst who follows Microsoft technologies. That's because viruses, registry errors, and other performance-sapping flaws in the user's Windows environment would be carried over into Windows 7; something that would not happen with a clean install.

Business IT typically does clean installs on user systems to avoid these issues, Silver notes, so the lack of an in-place upgrade will be a nonissue for most enterprises.

Consumers and small businesses are the ones who tend to prefer the in-place upgrade option, Silver notes, and they're the ones who may be annoyed by the clean-install requirement if coming from XP. "Microsoft is in a bit of a no-win situation here: Support the upgrade and live with whatever bad experiences users have or don't support the upgrade and make it harder for people to do it," Silver says.

"Most users will be better off doing the clean install anyway," he says, so he recommends that even Vista users avoid the in-place upgrade and proceed to the clean install.

Silver also notes that users who did not upgrade to Vista often have hardware that can't run Windows 7 or Vista (typically, PCs from 2006 or earlier), so they would likely get a new computer at the same time with Windows 7 preinstalled, which means reinstalling their apps, preferences, and data anyhow.

A precedent for providing in-place upgrades for earlier generations

When Microsoft shipped Windows Vista, it offered XP users the choice of an in-place upgrade or a clean install, but users of earlier Windows versions could do only a clean install. So the requirement for Windows XP and earlier users to do a clean install of Windows 7 follows that precedent.

But when Microsoft shipped Windows XP in late 2001, it gave not only users of the predecessor Windows 2000 but also users of the earlier generations (Windows 98, Windows Millennium, and Windows 98 Second Edition) the in-place upgrade option. In some ways, the situation then was similar to that situation today. Microsoft Millennium was a technical failure that customers avoided, causing Microsoft to issue Windows 98 SE. Then came Windows 2000, replacing the OS kernel and much of the architecture, which meant it needed newer hardware and was incompatible with many peripherals and applications. So most users stuck with Windows 98 or 98 SE, and Microsoft eased the path to XP by allowing in-place upgrades for them all.

Technically, the shift from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is small, so it should be easier to support an in-place upgrade from XP to Windows 7 than it was from Windows 98 to Windows XP. But Silver cites the performance and security issues that an in-place upgrade preserves as a reason that Microsoft may have chosen not to do so this time.

Silver contrasts Microsoft's situation with that of Apple, which lets users do an in-place upgrade three versions back (from Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, 10.3 Panther, and 10.4 Tiger) to the current Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. "This is an area -- efficiency, ease, and success of upgrade -- where Apple has an edge," he notes, due to its greater control over the hardware and the more focused reach of the OS.

Is Jumping from XP to Windows 7 too Complicated? - Business Center - PC World

Last month, we took a tour of Microsoft's "fake" retail store. Meant to show what it would look like "if" Microsoft ever decided to open a dedicated store. Like the ones they're now actually opening.

The company have announced that, yes, they're going to follow Apple into the dedicated retail space, and will be opening an undisclosed number of stores across the US. The chain will be overseen by David Porter, formerly of Dreamworks Animation, who was hired by Microsoft this week to act as vice president of retail stores.

No word yet on what the stores will actually sell, but since the concept store was full of Xbox and Games for Windows stuff, we'd be expecting the actual stores to follow suit.

Microsoft to open own stores [Reuters]

Source : Microsoft: Yup, Microsoft Are Opening Microsoft Retail Stores

Despite the Xbox 360 demo now being live, Ubisoft have just let us know that the PS3 version of the HAWX demo has been delayed, until February 26th, citing a “late discovery of an unexpected issue.”  Ubisoft apologise for the situation.

[Ubisoft's Twitter Feed]

Source : HAWX Demo Delayed | TheSixthAxis

Andrew Weymes of The Nightly Gamer writes: The demo for Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X hit Xbox Live a couple of days ago and it's surprisingly good, especially for a game that hasn't garnered much hype. For those that haven't heard of the game, be sure to give the demo a shot. It may even entice gamers who aren't into flight simulation games. Read the full article to get a more detailed explanation of what The Nightly Gamer thought about the demo.
Flight simulations games are kind of the niche' genre in the world of video games. Many of them feature very difficult control schemes that tend to turn off the average gamer. H.A.W.X certainly has a difficult control scheme to master if the setting is on expert, but the normal setting is quite easy to get accustomed to.
The demo consists of two missions, one of which is a training mission and both can be played online. As explained in the first mission, there are two ways of controlling your jet. When assistance is on, the camera angle is either directly behind the jet or looking through the cockpit. With assistance on, the game feels like almost any other flight simulation game. However, with assistance off, the game feels entirely different. Many manoeuvres become available without the assistance on such as breaking quickly and swinging your jet around behind pursuers. The camera is much different without the assistance on and settles very far from the jet itself. Both ways of playing are enjoyable, but having the assistance on seems to make the combat feel a little more exciting despite not having as many moves available at your disposal.
The graphics are similar to every other Tom Clancy game released. They get the job done, but aren't anything to be awestruck from. The jets are nicely detailed, but the cityscape is relatively unimpressive. It's a pity that Tom Clancy games all seem to share these graphical traits, because the gameplay is almost always solid.
The sound in the demo is probably its weakest aspect. The voice acting is decent, but the jets had a very poor sound quality to them. At times they would crackle through the speakers and it was quite unpleasant. Hopefully, this problem will be fixed in the retail version of this game.
The H.A.W.X demo was a pleasant surprise. The gameplay is certainly fun and exciting, the graphics are above average, but the sound quality was pretty bad. Flight simulation fans should certainly give the demo a shot. For gamers that aren't big fans of the genre, H.A.W.X may help change their minds. Being able to play each mission online is going to add a lot of replayability to the retail game and there are other multiplayer modes that weren't available in the demo. H.A.W.X may get lost in the shuffle of the stellar games coming out in February and March, but the demo certainly wasn't bad. In fact, it was much better than expected of a game with little to no hype.
Written by Andrew Patrick Weymes

H.A.W.X Demo is Surprisingly Good

If you haven't noticed, Killzone 2's been scooping universally huge review scores, with a Metacritic average of 92. The first ten or so reviews came in at a in-no-way reactionary 100%, before a few websites dare to break ranks and give it, er, 96. So when Edge Magazine's 7/10 review score was released, some internet fan sites reacted with customary restraint - dismissing Edge's writers as contrary, doom-peddling, attention-seekers and labelling their review as 'wrong', as all subjective opinions tend to be. Oh, good.
You can read The Edge review here.
Or read Metacritic's Killzone 2 page.
How did the internet's more committed game sites react to Edge's score? PSX Extreme (no clues there) weren't very happy, claiming "we advise all of you to ignore the desperate-for-attention, we're-going-to-prove-our-elite-status so-called "review" from Edge that has the entire Internet talking."
Click to read PSX Extreme savages Edge.
So while the pot dusts itself off...
Popular, sensible, games blog Kotaku were more measured, suggesting "In modern day review terms, in which the scale typically runs from 6 to 10, with 6 being nigh unplayable and 10 being "perfect," we have a problem on our hands. Or do we?
No. We don't."
">Kotaku defends Edge.
Kotaku continues, "One of the neat things about Edge is, it has a hard-on for innovation. Even neater, it uses the entire range of the scale, not just just comfortable 6 to 10 zone. Clearly, when reading the written critique of Killzone 2, the issues it takes with the game's characters, story (or lack thereof), and gameplay clichés, the numerical score provided to it - seemingly the most contentious aspect of the review - begins to make more sense."
Our take? Who cares. You'll know what you think when you've played it - and in the meantime can make up your own mind *thanksverymuch* whether Edge's review is, as suggested, madness. If you even care. Edge's anomalous score is sort-of irrelevant, as it exists within its own internal universe, not the '80% is a bad score' world of metacritic-moulded consensus and ardent fan sites, so the only debate is whether Edge's words, and opinions, correlate with your feelings about the game. Or are consistent within Edge's own universe, which is a thornier issue we're not willing, or qualified, to explore.
Do Edge's opinions agree with ours? Largely, yes. Did we give it 70%? No. Make of that what you will.
Pah. Let's cheer ourselves up by reading what the world's biggest Killzone 2 fans had to say about the game. While Edge's score does stick out, we're slightly more excited by some of the more expressive writing below, including suggestions that Killzone 2 makes you feel like being in an actual war, and may cause you to fill your pants, or make your eyes pop - which may, or more likely not, be true. To make things more fun, we've 'reviewed' some of the reviews below, which makes us feel clever.
Note: We're aware this is a cheap, tongue-in-cheek, pop at other people's work, and may involve the trajectory of stones in a fragile, transparent, living space but if any inexplicably offended website is considering doing the same to us, we'd just like to add: we've never made a mistake or mis-spelled a word. Ever.
I'll say it again: Killzone 2 is the best console first person shooter ever. It will be bested one day, and that is as it should be, but this game has set the proverbial bar so high we reckon it'll be the king for a good long while... Hail to the king, baby. [Feb 2009, p.66]
Score: 100
OPM Australia
PSM3 says: "Invoking the voice of God to qualify the stark staring obvious is an effective, if unusual, literary device, WHICH IS AS IT SHOULD BE. Eh? Who was that? Never mind"
It took a long time for Killzone 2 to finally come out, but after diving head first into the game, there's no doubt in my mind that it lives up to the hype and is a must-play for FPS fans. [Mar 2009, p.70]
Score: 100
Gamepro
PSM3 Says: "An interesting twist on the 'stating the obvious' genre, but mixed metaphors prove a poor substitute for the voice of God"
Probably the tastiest part of the Killzone Cocktail is the Multiplayer. Imagine if Call Of Duty 4 and Team Fortress 2 had a baby, which they then abandoned and as a result had to learn a few new tricks to survive. That's what Killzone Multiplayer is like.
Score: 100
G4 TV
PSM3 says: "The who's in the what now? We'll try the cheese. The Ch-ee-se."
With its unparalleled graphics, incredibly well-paced single-player campaign and in-depth multiplayer offerings, Killzone 2 has established its place among top-tier console shooters. Expectations on Killzone 2 had reached ridiculous proportions; here's one of those cases where the game actually lived up to them.
Score 100
1UP
PSM3 says: "This we actually understand and commend. Which limits our ability to say anything funny, or slightly less unfunny, than usual. But fetch the sieve, thine prospectors of comedy, because this next one is GOLD. Gold we tells ye"
It seeps action from every angle and makes you question whether you are actually in the middle of a war zone thanks to it's stunning effects and sound. If you want eye popping, pant wetting action then this is most certainly the game for you.
Score: 95
Wonderwall Web
PSM3 says: "The good news is, Killzone won't actually make your eyes pop, or promote involuntary bladder movements unless you were suffering an alarming, unprecedented, prior medical condition. We're just off for a quick blast on multiplaye... YAAARRRGH! Pfffffs... POP! P-O-P!"
While Killzone 2 does walk on mostly well-trodden ground, it does so with a keen attention to style and detail, pushing beyond the gray-and-red color schemes that define its competition while encouraging gamers to put a little bit of thought behind every bullet they hurl.
Score: 90
Wired
PSM3 says: "A disappointing lack of medical disasters sully an otherwise sensible review"
But without the first game's ambiguities, a sense of humour or even an ounce of intrigue, its story stinks. It's so slight you could play the levels in random order to little ill-effect, and it assumes knowledge of everything and everyone, not once recognising the real-world echoes of its premise: an allied invasion of an enemy the allies themselves created.
Score: 70
Edge
PSM3 says "THIS SCORE IS WRONG! DON'T BELIEVE THE HATERS WHO WROTE THIS SO CALLED 'REVIEW'!!! Er... and... ah... anyone who says Killzone is rubbish should... have their eyes... popped... or something which is... erm... AS IT SHOULD BE. Yes, that's better."
Oh, and if you want to hear what we think about Killzone 2 (Warning: Contains 'wrong' opinions)...
Click to download PSM3 Podcast#15 here.
Have a great evening,
PSM3

Source : PSM3 Blog: KIllzone 2 review 'scandal': Edge vs The World - PSM3 Magazine

Hello Heroes,

You will be happy to know that we will start the Battlefield Heroes Closed Beta tomorrow, February 11th.

If you already have a Beta Key from the earlier Beta phase or activated your Beta account already, you will be good to go. You will NOT need to sign up again*. Starting some time tomorrow, you will be able to Beta test Battlefield Heroes.
You will also receive a new email with guidelines and instructions in case you still need to activate your account, (re-)install the game, etc.

If you don't have a Beta Key yet, please keep in mind that we’ll be giving them out in the fairest way we can, which is as follows:

Battlefield Heroes Closed Beta starts February 11th | Battlefield Heroes - Free to Play, Cartoon Shooter

It focuses on the studio's bid to be authentic in the re-creation of the game's locations and units, so it's one history buffs will enjoy

The upcoming 360 and PC tactical-action game sees you taking control of either Japanese or American WWII forces and fighting in battles from Pearl Harbour right through to Okinawa in 1945.
Its two single player campaigns span 28-plus missions featuring air, sea and underwater combat, plus the tactical landing of troops in battle.
Battlestations: Pacific is "coming soon".

News: Battlestations: Pacific dev diary - ComputerAndVideoGames.com

As the late, great, Kenny Loggins once sang, "Ride into the Danger Zone!" What? Kenny Loggins isn't dead? Awkward. Moving on... On February 11, a demo for Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. will hit the Xbox Live Marketplace for Live Gold members.
The demo, which tracks experience and includes three unlockable fighters to test drive fly, allow up to four Mavericks to play cooperatively. It sports two missions for the upcoming air-combat game: In Operation - Off Certification, one of the game's training missions that showcases maneuvers and tactics used throughout the adventure, and In Operation - Glass Hammer, another training mission that teaches pilots how to blow stuff up in the air and on land. Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. lands in stores this March.

Source : HAWX demo barrel rolls onto Xbox Live Feb. 11 - Joystiq

Battlefield 1943 Pacific is just like ... well, other Battlefields. That's a compliment, by the way. 1943 is no janky spinoff. It's small in scope, sure, but it offers (and even improves upon -- read: no more health packs!) the core experience of its disc-based brethren. This is visible -- even playable -- in a pre-alpha build (XBLA version) on the New York Comic Con show floor.

We got our hands on the Wake Island map, one of three in the downloadable game, which is modeled on the actual geographic location with a few gameplay-enhancing improvements. 1943's color palette is distinctly vibrant, clashing against the epic destruction that ensues once a match begins. As featured in Bad Company last year, the Frostbite game engine's destructible environments are exploding and imploding in 1943 as well, with buildings reduced to mere foundations as players carelessly toss grenades, launch rockets and even bomb from the skies (bombers can be somewhat controlled from within specially-marked, protected bombing HQs). Destruction is a gimmick -- but a good one.

1943 is limited to Battlefield's now classic Conquest Mode, where teams must capture all the flagged territories around the map. Once captured, these territories become spawn points, with one designated as the "frontline," indicating where the most action is taking place. More calculating players can choose to spawn closer to home base (say, an aircraft carrier) and ride a boat to shore or hop in a fighter plane.
Calling to mind Warhawk (on PSN), 1943 features two layers of play: first-person shooting and air combat. Admittedly, our only flight ended in a quick, spiraling dive into the sea, but, theoretically, a squad of fighter planes could do some major damage to an opposing team. We stuck to the ground, though, sniping, rat-tat-tatting, or simply tanking through the enemy. You know the drill.
And that's 1943. A familiar kind of fun, served small -- an appetizer portion of a game. At $15-20 (we're told), 1943 will fall into the pricier tier of downloadable titles (on PSN, XBLA and PC), but justified by its inherent replayability -- supported by a "stamp and postcard" rewards system -- in addition to Trophies and Achievements. But the real draw is a social one. 1943 is team-based, and developer DICE promises to improve upon the squad system featured in Bad Company. In this sense, teams are split into three, four-player squads (24 total match players), surely a perfect opportunity for several friends to get together, if just for a few rounds. DICE is also focused on developing a functional "party" system, essential for any respectable team shooter; but that technology is not complete in this stage of development.
Still, Battlefield 1943 Pacific looks to be on track for its scheduled summer release. Not a blockbuster by any stretch of the imagination, but a solid featurette to enjoy before you launch whatever you have in your disc drive. Keep your radars locked.

NYCC 09: Battlefield 1943 Pacific hands-on (XBLA) - Joystiq

It's a convention sometimes used in action films -- the unlikely protagonist saves the day by applying combative skills he gleaned during his long sessions with teh Haloz -- but it's a convention apparently rooted in reality. In his latest book, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, author and modern warfare buff P.W. Singer relates the story of a young man who became an expert drone pilot within a short period of time -- all thanks to the hours he'd logged on his trusty Xbox.
The eighteen-year-old soldier was a high school dropout who failed to qualify for the original position in the armed forces he'd applied for. It was suggested he try his hand at drone piloting, and according to Singer, "because of playing on video games, he was already good at it." So good, in fact, that he was brought back from Iraq to become an instructor at a training academy. Jeez, the only game-related useful skill we've ever picked up is our uncanny ability to name all 493 pokémon, and that impresses far fewer people than you might imagine.

Source : Soldier became ace drone pilot by training on video games - Joystiq

We didn't know anyone wandered into Far Cry 2's expansive, hojillion-hour-long single-player campaign and somehow managed to make time to check out the game's multiplayer offerings, but apparently there's a sizable community of online FC2 players out there. This group has been calling for more realistic match settings for quite some time -- players can apparently catch more lead than Sonny Corleone and walk away with little more than a scratch and an interesting story.
Their pleas have been answered -- in a recent post on the FC2 community blog, the game's developers announced a patch which will, in addition to rebalancing the weapons in all multiplayer modes, add a more realistic "hardcore setting" to all match types. This mode will boost the damage for all weapons (ensuring speedier demises) and will let players tweak the "spawn times" (but not the "spawn rates", whatever that means). They didn't specify which platforms the patch will be landing on -- hopefully, they'll be affording a hasty death to all three.
Update: The update is coming to "all platforms". Huzzah!

Far Cry 2 patch to add 'Hardcore' multiplayer mode, rebalances weapons [Update] - Joystiq

Subjective reviews are always the toughest to write, so when I got my hands on the NVIDIA's GeForce 3D Vision kit for wireless stereoscopic 3D gaming just days before launch I didn't want to rush it. After I came back from the Consumer Electronics Show I started to game daily with the glasses to see what they were all about. It also gave me time to see where the industry was going in terms of 3D Technology. Hollywood has already begun to make major efforts towards bringing 3D movies to consumers and if you watched Super Bowl XLIII you more than likely saw the 3D commercials. It looks like 2009 will be the year for 3D and it should be no big shock that companies like Intel and NVIDIA have started to run with the idea. In 2008 the big marketing push from NVIDIA was CUDA and PhysX and now that nearly every enthusaist knows about those two technologies it is time to roll out something new.

What exactly I will be looking at today is called the NVIDIA 3D Vision Bundle. The NVIDIA 3D Vision Bundle consists of a Samsung Syncmaster 2233RZ 22" 3D Gaming LCD Monitor and NVIDIA 3D Vision Stereoscopic glasses. This $599 bundle will give you an out-of-the-box immersive 3D PC Gaming experience as long as your system has a GeForce 8800 or higher gaming graphics card. The Samsung Syncmaster 2233RZ, in conjunction with NVIDIA’s advanced software, automatically converts over 350 games to stereoscopic 3D without the need for special game patches. That means you don't need to buy any more expensive game titles to play in 3D, but as you can tell 3D gaming is not inexpensive due to the bundle cost. GeForce 3D Vision uses game profiles similar to SLI profiles and since NVIDA has close relationships with developers they can ensure nearly all games will work and are as immersive as possible at launch. This means that you will not have to wait for weeks after a new game launches to be able to play it in 3D! Price aside, stereoscopic 3D will add a whole new level of realism to your gaming.

The heart and soul of the this bundle would be the high-tech active shutter glasses, designed with top-of-the-line optics, deliver double the resolution per eye and ultra-wide viewing angles than passive glasses. In addition, the new 120Hz LCD monitors unlock crystal-clear, flicker-free stereoscopic 3D gaming that provides 60Hz per eye.

Let's take a peak inside the box and see what GeForce 3D Vision is all about!

The 3D Vision Glasses

Opening the 3D Vision retail box you quickly find out that no expense was spared as it is very nicely put together. Included inside are the glasses, IR transmitter, cables and software. If NVIDIA wanted you to feel like you invested in something great they did a good job here as it is one of the nicest packages that I have opened for a while.

NVIDIA included a very nice green lens cleaning cloth that is actually needed to keep the glasses clean while gaming and a nice black carrying case to keep the glasses safe from scratches when not in use. The lenses on the GeForce 3D Vision glasses do contain real glass, so be sure to handle them carefully and store them properly.

I was shocked to find that not one, but four cables were included to hook up the glasses to the PC and then the TV to the PC. The cables included are a DVI-to-HDMI cable to connect your PC to a DLP 3D-Ready TV, two USB cables (one for charging the glasses, the other for the IR transmitter) and a VESA 3-pin stereo cable that is used to connect a DLP TV to the IR emitter. The good news here is if you are just playing on the Samsung Syncmaster 2233RZ 22" 3D gaming LCD monitor you just need the two USB cables as you won't be connecting it to a DLP 3D-Ready TV.

The bundle also included very nicely put together quick-start guide and tips & tricks book that were both super easy to follow. NVIDIA also included a disc full of drivers and a demonstration disc that show cases just what the NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision experience is all about.

Since there are more than one nose type NVIDIA included three nose bridge pieces that you can pick from to use with the glasses. These nose bridges are attached to the 'pegs' seen in the photo above and can be changed out quickly if more than one person will be gaming on the same computer. The nose pieces also lift the glasses away from your face, which means that if you wear glasses that you can indeed wear them under the NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses. 

The IR Emitter (transmitter) is how the wireless glasses get the signal from the PC and is the key to making stereoscopic 3D work. This little emitter should be located with direct line-of-sight between the 3D Vision glasses at a minium of 1.5 feet in order to ensure that the glasses know when to 'shutter' in order to give you 3D images. The button with the NVIDIA logo on it is the power button. The button always glows NVIDIA green, but when the on/off button is pressed it glows bright green.

The back of the IR emitter had has two I/O connectors; one mini-USB connection for communications with your computer and the other is a VESA stereo cable port for use with a 3D-Ready DLP HDTVs. As previously mentioned both connections are only required if you are using a  3D-Ready DLP HDTV. Since we are using the Samsung 120 Hz LCD panel only the USB connector is needed.
The thumbwheel seen in the middle of the emitter above is used to adjust the  stereoscopic depth (depth of the 3D image) while gaming. By turning this wheel you can adjust how extreme the 3D image is as everyone likes a different setting.  Using the deepest setting gives me a light headache, so I personally had to tone it back to be able to enjoy hours of gaming.  After using the glasses for a month, I also found that I liked different depths on differnt games, so I got to know this thumbwheel very well.  The green LED located directly below the thumbweel is the power indicator light and is only green when the power is connected (the USB cable). I'm not sure why NVIDIA included power indicator lights on both sides of the emitter, but i'm sure they have some logic to this.

Taking a closer look at the NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses we can see just how far we have come when it comes to looking good. These 3D glasses are hands down one of the better looking models that I have ever seen and while you'll never see them on the runway during Fashion Week in New York they will not leaving you feeling like a super geek. If they still do then keep in mind that you are using these for gaming and you can always close the door to make sure your 1337 glasses don't make your friends laugh. The bulge next to the left lens is the IR receiver and is what needs to make direct line-of-sight with the IR emitter.

To turn the NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses on you need to press the power button located on the left frame rail. Once the glasses are turned on an indicator light will start to glow and it is of course another green light. The GeForce 3D Vision glasses hold approximately 40-hours of gaming per full charge and once the glasses have less than two hours of battery life left the light will start to flash red. When the light goes out you need to hook it up to the USB cable to charge the glasses.

Speaking of charging the glasses the picture above shows where the mini-USB cable needs to connect in order to charge the battery that is located inside the frame rail. It takes roughly four hours to charge the glasses for 40 hours of gameplay, so be sure to top them off between gaming sessions and you'll never need to do a full charge.

3D Vision Driver Installation and Setup

Installation of the NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision software and drivers is a breeze and the process is nearly identical as installing a graphics card driver. The driver disc that came with the GeForce 3D Vision kit included a 3D-enabled version of the Detonator GPU driver and a 3D Vision software installer. During my 30-day test drive of GeForce 3D Vision three drivers were released, so be sure to check with NVIDIA to download the latest drivers for the kit. The most recent driver at the time this was written was called GeForce 3D Vision CD v1.04 (GeForce GPU driver v181.22, GeForce 3D Vision driver v181.25).

Once you start the install be sure to install GeForce Graphics driver first and restart the computer when prompted. When your system reboots, the GeForce 3D Vision Software Installation automatically restarts to continue the install.

Once system restarts you will install the GeForce 3D Vision driver and as soon as that completes the GeForce 3D Vision Setup Wizard begins. The Setup Wizard takes you through installing the IR emitter, setting up your display, and configuring the wireless glasses.

The first step tells you to use the USB cable that was shipped with your equipment to connect your IR Emitter to your computer. Once it connects the GeForce 3D Vision Ready light on the emitter glows green when the emitter is connected. When updating my drivers over the past month I found out that you need to unplug the emitter when updating drivers as on the last update it glowed red and I had to uninstall the 3D drivers and re-install them before it would glow green again.

The next menu allows you to select your gaming environment. Read through the three gaming environments listed on the screen and select the one that best fits your current hardware configuration. Our test system was a single gaming computer in a room with no other consumer IR devices, so we selected the first setting and moved on.

On this setp the GeForce 3D Vision Setup evaluates the display connected to your computer and identifies if it is a 3D Ready display. Your screen reflects the display you have connected. Our Samsung 3D 120Hz LCD was detected with no issues.

Now that the monitor is ready to go, we can synchronize the glasses to the IR emitter that you have already plugged in during the first step. Once you power on the glasses the dull green light on the IR emitter should turn bright green and that verifies that your glasses are working and communicating with the IR emitter.

This screen is used to verify that your hardware is properly configured to view Stereoscopic 3D effects and that your glasses and emitter are functioning properly. This test makes you close your right eye and look at the large image on the screen, then you have to select what image you see with your left eye. You repeat this for the other eye and them move on to the next step.

The flicker test is up next and while the glasses are still on, see if you notice any flicker in your peripheral vision. If you do, this is due to room lighting issues, and I had serious issues with flicker during the day-time with the blinds open. The first time I used GeForce 3D Vision it was on a sunny day and my blinds were unable to get the room dark enough to make the flickering go away. NVIDIA allows you change the refresh rate to reduce the flickering, but it didn't help for day-time use. You can then select from the following refresh rates:

• 120 Hz refresh rate: For use in North America when lights are on.

• 110 Hz refresh rate: For daytime and when lights are off.

• 100 Hz refresh rate: For countries with 50 Hz lighting and when lights are on.

You are now asked to look at a medical test image to verify that you can see stereoscopic 3D. If things are working correctly you should see a 3D box jump out of the blocky image.

If you successfully passed the medical test, the Setup complete screen displays and you are ready to start gaming!

NVIDIA Control Panel for Stereoscopic 3D

NVIDIA has provided tools for you to customize your GeForce 3D Vision experience and these tools can be accessed through the NVIDIA Control Panel.

In the control panel you can enable and disable stereoscopic 3D by checking or unchecking a checkbox. The next setting, and undoubtedly the most important, is the depth amount in a game. This is the is the depth that the farthest object is placed in a scene. When GeForce 3D Vision is first installed on your system, the Depth is set at the default of 15%. If you are new to 3D gaming, 15% is a good point to start with. Viewing depth at a higher setting can be uncomfortable to some users. As you use GeForce 3D Vision, your eyes will become more accustomed to viewing stereoscopic 3D and you can incrementally increase the depth amount without eye strain. After using the glasses for a couple of weeks I found myself set to ~80% for the depth scale, so don't worry about starting out at just 15%.  It should be noted that you can also change the depth amount by adjusting the thumbwheel on the back of the IR emitter or using the keyboard shortcuts. This means you have three methods of changing the depth of field, which is nice.

To configure a game in real-time you must be familiar with the keyboard shortcut keys. You can use the default setting or you can change the shortcut keys to suit your particular liking. To see the default keyboard shortcut key settings, go to the NVIDIA Control Panel and select the Set up stereoscopic 3D task in the left window pane. Click on the click on the 'Set Keyboard Shortcuts' button and you will see the menu that is shown in the picture above. To change a shortcut key combination, select an action and click in the adjacent box displaying the shortcut. Press your desired key combination. The keystrokes are displayed in the box. Click OK to save your settings and exit the menu. The driver saves the settings in the registry.

The cross-hair sight in a first-person shooter (FPS) game is usually positioned at screen depth when viewed in stereoscopic 3D, making it difficult to aim. In some games, NVIDIA has created a configuration that puts the in-game laser sight at the correct depth. For those games, no user configuration is required. For all other FPS games, NVIDIA provides a selection of 3D laser sights that appear on the targeted object. The laser sights work in properly configured first-person shooter games with screen-centered sights. To change the laser sight from the Set Up Stereoscopic 3D screen, click on the Change 3D Laser Sight button to display a list of possible laser sights.

During any fullscreen 3D application, you can capture stereoscopic 3D screenshots by pressing ALT-F1. The images are saved in the folder current Windows active user folder [Windows Vista Hard Drive] / [Active User ] / Documents and Settings > Documents > NVStereoscopic.IMG. In order to view a 3D photo, simply double-click the .jps file and you’ll be able to see the stereoscopic image using the picture viewer. When you first launch the image in the picture viewer, you’ll see the original 3D image, but if you click it again you'll see the left eye and right eye frames represented in the manner illustrated above. The stereoscopic 3D capture function seemed to work on all of the games that we ran in 3D, so you have a quick and easy way to save game images in 3D!

The Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ

The Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ 120Hz LCD display is the monitor that came bundled with the GeForce 3D Vision kit.

The Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ is the very first 3D monitor that Samsung has brought to market. The Samsung 2233RZ, which is obviously 100% compatible with GeForce 3D Vision and will be available for purchase in April 2009. This 22" monitor alone carries an MSRP of $399, so you can see the largest expense of GeForce 3D Vision is the monitor and not the gaming glasses or the software needed to make it work.

Samsung 2233RZ Monitor Product Specifications:

• 1680 by 1050 Native Resolution
• 300 cd/m2 Brightness
• 20,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio
• 170^o/160^o (CR>10) Viewing Angle
• GTG 3ms (3D) / 5ms(2D) of Response Time
• 120Hz Dual Engine
• HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection)
• DVI-D (Digital Interface)

The Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ is a 120Hz LCD monitor that is required for crystal-clear, flicker-free stereoscopic 3D gaming as it provides 60Hz per eye. You must have a 120Hz monitor that supports 3D for it to work with GeForce 3D Vision. The very first feature listed on the retail box is "3D Gaming Monitor", so if you want to go with a different monitor be sure that it supports 3D gaming! This monitor is also ENERGY STAR compliant, so if you do your part for the environment you have nothing to worry about here.

The Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ bundle comes with the stand, DVI cable, power cable, driver disc, installation guide and a cable holder/sorter to keep the cables looking good behind your desk.

I use a pair of Samsung SyncMaster 204B monitors in the office and I switched one of them out in order to test the Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ and I'm super impressed. The Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ makes my old Samsung 204B look weak and a few years back the 204B was one of the top of the line swivel monitors. In the picutre above you can see a difference over six feet away! Both monitors are on auto settings with nothing defined, so this is what you get when you turn them on for the very first time. After using the Samsung 2233RZ I want to get rid of both of my 204B, but for a $399 monitor it does lack a couple things I would like to see for a monitor coming in in 2009.

For starters is only has a single DVI input! For a $399 monitor I expected on seeing maybe something like an HDMI input, but who uses that right?  The second thing is that it is a 22" LCD monitor, which means that it only supports up to 1680 x 1050 native resolution. I would have much rather seen a 24" monitor with a 1920 x 1080 native resolution as at this price tag I'd like to have a monitor that can do more than just 3D games! With internal Blu-Ray drives now reaching below $80 on sale it only makes sense to invest in a monitor that can support true HD. My final gripe is that the stand is not four-way adjustable (height, pivot, tilt and swivel) like my old Samsung monitors could.  I have some more pictures and comments on this monitor in the forums, so check it out if you want more information on it.

All gripes aside the Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ is an amazing lCD monitor that blows away the image quality and brightness on anything I have ever seen before. You really have to see one of these monitors in person to believe it. If you are interested in looking at other monitors you might want to consider the Viewsonic FuHzion VX2265wm as it supports GeForce 3D Vision as well.

Game Performance - Left 4 Dead

Set in the immediate aftermath of the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead  offers four expansive "movie campaigns" that challenge you and your fellow survivors to battle thousands of swarming zombies as you travel across the rooftops of an abandoned metropolis, through rural ghost towns and pitch-black forests. In addition to the movie campaigns, Left 4 Dead features a Versus mode that allows you to play as the Boss Zombies. Left 4 Dead  is also one of the first games to be developed with 3D features in mind, so this is one of the best titles to test out the GeForce 3D Vision glasses on.

Since our test system has an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX960 processor, 4GB of DDR2 1066MHz memory and an XFX GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 graphics card inside running Windows Vista 64-bit SP1, I figured that we could crank up the graphics to make the game look excellent.  With the Anti-Aliasing set to 16xQ CSAA and the filtering mode at Anisotripic 16X I was ready to see how running a game in 3D impacts performance.

The frame rate of the game took a significant performance hit when stereoscopic 3D was enabled in the control panel. I found ~60% performance decrease when steroscopic 3D was enabled, so if you like to play games with the image qualities cranked up you will need a high-end gaming graphics card as you can tell from the chart above. I also tested various depths to see if that impacted performance, but it didn't seem to have an impact. Just for fun I enabled double buffered vertical sync in Left 4 Dead and performance again took a dive, so be sure to disable this function for better performance as it is enabled by default in the game.

The 3D Experience and Conclusion

When it comes to gaming in 3D the experience is truly beautiful and I'm not trying to sugar coat it. I've been playing PC games since the late 1990's and this is by far the most significant advancement that I have ever seen. When AGEIA originally announced PhysX technology back in 2006 it was only available on limited number of game titles and demos. When the dedicated PhysX cards hit the street they retailed for close to $300 and for how much you paid it really didn't make sense to run out and buy the product. Now three years later PhysX software is widely adopted by over 150 games, is used by more than 10,000 developers of all types and is supported on Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PC. It takes time for developers to adopt new technology and what makes GeForce 3D Vision so impressive is that it is supported on over 350 game titles right now. NVIDIA was able to support an insane number of game titles right off the bat as they were able to make a driver 'wrapper' for their own drivers. Since NVIDIA makes their own graphics drivers they can quickly and easily come out with 3D game support. This should mean that stereoscopic 3D should take less time to catch on compared to previous technologies like PhysX.

"Unlike some other stereoscopic 3D solutions which rely upon a driver “wrapper” which can dramatically decrease performance and adversely affect compatibility, GeForce 3D Vision makes use of NVIDIA’s own graphics driver. In doing so, NVIDIA is able to leverage the same resources and relationships from The Way It’s Meant to be Played program to ensure the best possible stereoscopic 3D gaming experience.

In the same manner that NVIDIA’s driver has SLI profiles which have the ideal settings for a specific game, GeForce 3D Vision relies upon a custom profile for each game. Because no two titles are identical, NVIDIA has researched the optimal stereo settings for each game and made it a default within the driver. When you install a game and want to see what it looks like in stereoscopic 3D, you do not have to waste time configuring settings and trying to figure out what looks best. When gaming with GeForce 3D Vision, you simply start the game and begin playing in fully immersive stereoscopic 3D.

The NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D control panel includes a compatibility list that specifies the level of stereoscopic 3D compatibility for hundreds of games. In addition, this information will be available online at www.nvidia.com/ged3d" - NVIDIA PR

One other thing that really improved the gaming experience is that when you start-up a game for the very first time there is an on-screen text message giving you tips on how to adjust game settings to those known to give the best 3D gaming experience. In Left 4 Dead for example it tells you that setting the film grain to off provides a better stereoscopic 3D effect, which it does. By providing tips when the game launches, NVIDIA has improved the game play experience by just letting gamers know what works best.  NVIDIA has done a really great job at making stereoscopic 3D a complete package and it worked great on the dozens of game titles that I have tried it on over the past month. Some games are better than others, but it works on them all.

"The issue of having varying experiences with different games is easy to explain. Few (if any) games on the market today were designed with stereo in mind. As a result, when we identified an issue with stereo within a game we would have to lobby the developer to go back and fix the problem. In some cases, we're able to get the developer to make the fix and release it (along with other fixes) in a patch. However, in other cases the developer is already working on another title and doesn't have time to make the fix. In those cases, we have to work around the problem. These situations are why you sometimes need to disable a feature or lower a quality setting in order for stereo to work properly with a specific game. Moving forward, we have enabled all major developers with GeForce 3D Vision and are involved with a game's development at the earliest stages. In doing so, the game is ensured to work in stereo and the developer can also add stereo enhancements like out-of-screen effects. In the future, you'll be able to play these games without any degradation of image quality or features. Stereo will simply "work"...Developers are excited about stereo and there is some major gaming news surrounding GeForce 3D Vision coming in the near future. Note: Blizzard just released the World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.0.8 that has all the new stereo goodness! http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html" - NVIDIA PR

As you can tell NVIDIA is really working with game developers to make GeForce 3D Vision get better as time goes on, so with every game patch and graphics card driver release it only means that 3D gaming will get better!

When it comes to pricing, NVIDIA is currently listing the GeForce 3D Vision kit for $199 direct from their site, or you can find it for $178 on Google Shopping. This GeForce 3D Vision stereoscopic gaming kit (NVIDIA item 942-10701-0003) includes everything inside the box, but does not include a monitor or HDTV. The GeForce 3D Vision kit that I reviewed here today includes the monitor and is sold under part number 942-10223-0000-000 which includes the kit with a Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ 22" widescreen 120Hz LCD monitor for $598. Once again you can find this same package at retailers like CompUSA for roughly the same price.

It is a shame that the economy is doing badly, but economies like that of America thrive off consumer spending and launching a product like this might be perfect to get people out and spend some money. You have to see it to fully understand how great gaming in 3D is, but I can honestly say that it is the best thing to happen in gaming in years. Hard to believe that PhysX technology came out three years ago and that not much has really happened since then.  If you want a game changer this could be what you have been waiting for.

Legit Bottom Line: NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D has come out with guns blazing and it looks good, real good!  If you are getting bored of PC gaming in general 3D gaming will invigorate your gaming appetite and make you wonder why it took this many years to come to market. 

Legit Reviews - NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision Review - Our Thoughts After A 30-Day Test Drive

The ToC Server Vista Sidebar widget for World at War.
Features:

• Shows number of players currently on the server.
• Shows if the server is full.
• 1 Click connect.
• Clan members can connect via private slots using password.
• All new WW2 look.

Download from the links below.

32_BIT_VERSION
64_BIT_VERSION
Chose to open and install the file when prompted.

The ToC Server Vista Sidebar widget for World at War - T.O.C. Clan Forums

A now removed entry in the New York Comic Con show exclusives pages has revealed Electronic Arts' plans to announced a new Battlefield game at the expo.
EA has already confirmed a sequel to Battlefield: Bad Company is in the works, but this is a different title. It seems EA plans to go back again to the WWII era as the page mentioned above revealed that EA will give away "Battlefield 1943: Pacific Postcards" at 4:00 pm on Friday, February 6th.

Feb. 4th, 2009 6:03 pm

Battlefield Pacific 1943 Announcement Leaked - Xbox

Halo Wars demo now on Live

Microsoft just posted the Halo Wars demo on Live. Go go go.

Here’s the link if you want to queue it from the web.

It’s 1Gb in size.

VG247 » Blog Archive » Halo Wars demo now on Live

Face it: We're all geeks here, and that means we all have a measure of social awkwardness. But how much are we talking here? Teaspoons or gallons? Find out with the GSAT.

Taking the test is simple. There are 50 statements. Mark down one point for yourself for every one that applies to you. At the end, score yourself. We can't solve your problems, but at least we can help you figure out just how bad your problems are. And that's something, right?

• The GSAT
  1. I own and wear t-shirts featuring the logos of computer/operating system manufacturers.
  2. I am over the age of 22 and live with my parents.
  3. I am, according to the medical definition, obese.
  4. On an average day more of my human interaction happens on message boards or in blog comments than with actual other people.
  5. I have ended real friendships over arguments about computer or product choices.
  6. I very seriously and passionately try to talk people into buying or switching to my OS/phone/product of choice.
  7. I commonly use very specific technical jargon without considering whether or not the person I'm talking to understands it.
  8. I hold an engineering or IT degree.
  9. I have made a member of the opposite sex sit and watch me play video games for an hour or more.
  10. I play with my phone at restaurants.
  11. Almost all of my jokes are actually just catchphrases or references to The Simpsons, Family Guy, Borat, or any other popular comedic film or show.
  12. I have a medical problem that makes me sweat a lot.
  13. I live or have lived for an extended period completely nocturnally, sitting at my computer all night and sleeping all day.
  14. I generally do not leave my home if it's not necessary for work or food retrieval.
  15. I have over 50,000 Xbox 360 Gamerpoints.
  16. I work in electronics retail.
  17. I generally am only friends with other Apple people/Windows people.
  18. My sense of humor is more in line with 4chan than any other comedic source.
  19. I hang out exclusively with members of the same sex.
  20. I own and wear a cowboy hat, Kangol hat, fedora and/or bowler.
  21. I am the dominant talker in most conversations I have.
  22. I think the Star Wars trilogy/Star Trek series is the greatest thing ever put to celluloid and will argue all night about it.
  23. When I hang out with my friends, we usually play Risk, Axis and Allies, Dungeons and Dragons and/or Settlers of Catan.
  24. I have a level 80 character in World of Warcraft.
  25. I've dressed up as a video game character/manga character in public on a day other than Halloween.
  26. I say internet acronyms such as LOL and BRB out loud.
  27. I own a sword, nunchucks and/or throwing stars.
  28. I'm an obsessive collector.
  29. I make my own image macros.
  30. I am really, really into my cat. Like, really.
  31. I have corrected someone's spelling or grammar on a message board or in blog comments.
  32. I have authored and obsessively updated Wikipedia entries about cartoons from the 80's.
  33. I breathe through my mouth, mostly.
  34. I've read all of the greatest novels ever published, all of which happen to be graphic novels.
  35. I suffer from halitosis and/or a laziness-based aversion to dental hygiene.
  36. I vote for politicians based on their stance on net neutrality.
  37. My dream girl has eyes the size of dinner plates, is part robot or, optimally, both.
  38. I am a very active member of a private, invite-only BitTorrent tracker with extremely strict ratio/bitrate requirements.
  39. I regularly ingest caffeine through unconventional means.
  40. I'm convinced that I would be happier if I worked on the Starship Enterprise.
  41. I do things for the "lulz."
  42. I always have the last word in online arguments. Always.
  43. I wear sweatpants more than any other type of pants.
  44. I am a guy and I have a ponytail.
  45. I believe that it's the rest of the world that's awkward and I actually have everything pretty much figured out.
  46. I have a hard drive exclusively dedicated to porn.
  47. I write letters to companies and consumer interest blogs whenever I feel that I've been wronged.
  48. I'm married in Second Life but single in real life.
  49. I read Gizmodo more than the New York Times.
  50. I am offended by this test.
• Now, for the scoring. Simply add up your points and click on where you fall below to get your diagnosis.
  -0-10 Points
  -11-20 Points
  -21-30 Points
  -31-40 Points
  -41-49 Points
  -50 Points
• Always.

Source : GSAT: The Geek Social Aptitude Test

Today Microsoft confirmed the six flavors of Windows 7—here's the rundown of the packages, plus some insight as to why it's better than the Vista jumble.

At first glance, the version breakdown does look a lot like Windows Vista. There are five six SKUs of Windows 7: Starter, Home Basic (developing markets only), Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate. But there are a couple reasons it's less horrendous than the Vista situation.

• Consumers are really only picking between Home Premium and Professional. There's no more Home Basic in the civilized world, which was a gimped version of Vista that didn't have Aero or Media Center that a lot of consumers unwittingly got stuck with. Ultimate, for the most part, won't be very visible to the average guy says Microsoft. So you'll only get Ultimate if you know that's what you want from the start (meaning you're likely tech savvy enough to wade through the SKU muck). Regular people won't ever see Starter or Enterprise. Basically, you'll walk into Best Buy and pick either Home Premium or Professional, whether you're buying a new PC or a copy to install. It's a lot more like the Windows XP Home and Professional dichotomy.

• Professional has all the same media and entertainment features as Home Premium. With Vista, if you wanted the pro-class OS and needed media features like Windows Media Center, you had to buy Ultimate. Now, it works more like a true hierarchy—Professional and Enterprise have every feature that's in Home Premium, plus the business-y features. And then Ultimate is a step above them.

The Upgrade Question
Microsoft wouldn't discuss pricing, but the general sense was that there will be full retail packages of Windows 7 alongside upgrade editions for Vista users. While they didn't come out and say it directly that XP would require a full retail package, Microsoft said that, as in the Windows 7 beta, going to Windows 7 from XP will require a clean install and "that will be reflected with the packaging." There will be migration tools and stuff, but it looks like they'll be paying more to upgrade than Vista users. Update: Mary Jo Foley confirms XP users can buy an upgrade license, even though you'll need a full install.

Now for a quick runthrough of every version.

Windows 7 Starter is for emerging markets mostly, but also for some netbooks as an option. It's pretty gimpy, and only runs three apps at a time, though it'll have the new taskbar, Device Stage and jump list. Since Home Premium (and even the Ultimate beta) runs pretty well on netbooks, most of them are probably going to stick with that, so don't worry too much about it.

Windows 7 Home Basic is for developing markets only, and Microsoft didn't even tell me anything about it, so forget about it. [This info was added in an update.]

Windows 7 Home Premium is the standard consumer offering of the OS with Aero Peek, Media Center and all the other cool features we've been talking about, and what most people will be running, whether they're on a desktop or a netbook. It's better at media than Vista Home Premium, since it ships with DVD playback and codecs like DivX out of the box. In case you're wondering why Microsoft kept the "Premium" tack-on despite the extinction of Basic—it's because in market testing, Vista users thought they were getting downgraded, going from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home.

Windows 7 Professional has everything that Home Premium does, but with business and "enthusiast" features like file encryption, location-aware printing and advanced backup.

Windows 7 Enterprise is for businesses buying OS licenses in bulk, so you probably won't have to worry about it (unless you're paid to). It's got everything Professional does, but with a few additions like BitLocker full-disk encryption and direct access capability, so you don't have go through a VPN for remote access.

Windows 7 Ultimate is, as you might have guessed, the ultimate version of Windows. Unlike Vista, where it was the combo of Home and Business with a couple added features, this time, it's like the end user version of Enterprise—in other words, the Enterprise version that regular people can buy. It has BitLocker, notably, and a few other advanced features. It seems like visibility of this will be low, outside of a few "special promotions" from vendors occasionally, to minimize confusion.

Not quite as clean as we'd have liked it, but if Microsoft does a good job with education and people really only have to pick between Home and Professional, it'll be a lot smoother ride this time around. Since they're keeping the upgrade vs. full version setup intact, hopefully they'll follow our advice and sell it to Vista users very cheaply. We'll find out when they reveal pricing in the coming months.

Source : Windows 7: All the Flavors of Windows 7 Explained

The Xbox 360 demo for Resident Evil 5 was downloaded 1.8 million times in the week following its January 26 release in Europe and North America, setting a new record. In fact, Microsoft says the demo surpassed 1.3 million downloads in its first three days.

And while Microsoft merely referred to Resident Evil 5 as being "among the top demo launches on the service," the previous known record holder, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, took eight days for its demo to reach a million Xbox Live downloads.

During those initial three days, the free zombie-shooting demo was restricted to Xbox Live Gold members. After January 29, it was made available to all Xbox Live members, with the PlayStation 3 demo available today via the PlayStation Store.

The strong North American and European performance follows that of the earlier Japanese demo, which was downloaded by 53% of Xbox Live Gold members in Japan.

Developed by Capcom, Resident Evil 5 hits PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 13.

Resident Evil 5 Demo Breaks Xbox Download Record - Shacknews - PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads

Installation and Initial Thoughts...

For this quick preview, we used a Foxconn Bloodrage Caw i7 motherboard (review forthcoming), Akasa’s Nero cooler, a Corsair HX1000 PSU, two SATA hard disks (a 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black and a 300GB WD VelociRaptor) and a SATA optical drive. As this is not the usual test kit (as is being used elsewhere), any cooling testing wouldn’t have been comparable and so we’ll leave that for another day.
Building a PC inside the Raven is a fairly frustrating process. For every welcome piece of design, there’s another to annoy. While we could neatly cable the front panel wiring around the rear of the case, the power cables just can’t be organised nearly as well for example.
The holes in the motherboard tray through which you can route some cables aren’t wide enough for the EPS12V plug or the 24-pin ATX plug so these can’t be tidied around the back. We were also annoyed that the drive bays and the motherboard tray are attached along their full length, which severely restricts how you can route and tidy cables in this area. You have to rely on the two small slot holes, which struggle to accept chunky or numerous cables.

Click to enlarge

Graphics card power cables aren’t well catered for either – they’ll always be on show, though we opted to tuck them toward the back of the main chamber. We also hit problems attaching our SATA optical drive, as it’s just too far away from the SATA ports on our motherboard. We shudder at the thought of trying to organise EIDE cables neatly in the Raven.
Similarly, there’s not much space to stuff excess cables from the PSU. We’ve opted for the small space above the PSU, though we risk cables falling lose and clogging the fan that’s directly above the PSU. The alternative is to shove the cables beneath the other intake fan, and risk clogging this should the cables come loose...
A little compartmentalisation here would have done wonders. As such, this is far from the best cable tidying job we’ve ever done.

Click to enlarge

The odd thing about the Raven is that it doesn’t even show off its innovation very well. The side window is modest, and not positioned well to show off your ‘crazy’, vertically aligned expansion cards. Given that this is an interesting and key innovation of the case, it’s rather odd that the window doesn’t make more of a big deal of the vertical card arrangement.
The problem could be that the case isn’t long enough, but it could do with being a bit longer anyway to allow better cable routing. And it’s not as if this isn’t a big, iconic, good-looking case – we won’t begrudge it taking up a little more desk space. We’ll have to wait to see just how cool the unusual orientation of the expansion cards keeps hot PC hardware, but we welcome your thoughts from this initial look on the comments below.

bit-tech.net | Preview - First Look: SilverStone Raven RV01

Boeing is seeing a glimmer of progress in its work toward fielding laser weapons.

The defense industry giant on Monday said tests of its Laser Avenger system in December marked "the first time a combat vehicle has used a laser to shoot down a UAV," or unmanned aerial vehicle. In the testing, the Humvee-mounted Laser Avenger located and tracked three small UAVs in flight over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and knocked one of the drone aircraft out of the sky.

Boeing didn't go into much detail about the shoot-down. In response to a query by CNET News, it did say this much about the strike by the the kilowatt-class laser: "A hole was burned in a critical flight control element of the UAV, rendering the aircraft unflyable."

cnet

Nvidia and AMD planning to handle AI in 2010

Nvidia and ATI graphics cards to handle AI from 2010

The companies revealed that they are working on GPGPU-accelerated AI in games, and gamers might see the first results early in 2010.

Nvidia and AMD are working with games and middleware developers to take the most common AI routines - which spend over 90% of their time performing simple visibility and path finding queries – away from the CPU, and across to the graphics card to process instead.

Competing solutions?

Nvidia's director of product management for PhysX, Nadeem Mohammad tells Custom PCthat: "You can always imagine CUDA as loads of processors running the same program but not the same instruction, and ideally on the same data set but with different input parameters,'

"So, in the context of AI, the data set consists of the whole game world, and the parameters going into it are the individual bots – that's one way of neatly parallelising the problem. If you look at it in that context then any AI program could be accelerated."

An AMD rep added that: "some middleware providers are looking at this in terms of packaging up a GPU AI library for games, while some developers are looking to transfer their own existing AI code from CPU to GPU."

The only potential problem, as Kotaku so neatly sums up, "is whether ATI and Nvidia would bother to actually standardise this, or whether we'd end up with two competing solutions that would split the developer community and make the whole thing a royal pain in the ass."

Gaming AI to move to graphics cards | News | TechRadar UK

Windows 7 BETA vs. Windows Vista SP1 SSD Performance Compared

Continuing on with our early Windows 7 beta coverage, we move onto Solid State Drive (SSD) performance.
The topic of SSDs itself is rather interesting, but when you team up the increasingly popular flash memory technology with Microsoft's next operating system, Windows 7, things move up to the next notch on the excitement level - for us around here, anyway - but probably you too, if you are reading this.
&lta href='http://www.tweaktown.com/phpadsnew/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a695f25f' target='_blank'>&ltimg src='http://www.tweaktown.com/phpadsnew/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=186&ampamp;n=a695f25f' border='0' alt='' /></a>Microsoft made some fairly bold claims during its WinHEC conference last year that Windows 7 (W7) would include optimizations that are designed to improve the performance and reliability of SSDs. The operating system is supposed to be able to detect the use of SSDs and once identified, change some settings, compared to the way traditional magnetic hard disk drives are handled.

One of the first changes upon detection is turning off defrag. Because SSDs store data differently, defrag tools will have little to no effect on performance improvements. This is also especially because SSDs are much faster than normal hard drives. The second optimization is the "Trim" feature, which is designed to keep the SSDs unused storage area as free as possible, hence creating more room for device wear leveling. There are probably other subtle tweaks under the hood of W7 as well, but we haven't got all the details in as yet.
We have gotten hold of the Windows 7 BETA and today we are going to compare the performance of single SSD as well as RAID 0 SSD in W7 and Vista SP1. Keep in mind this is just a first look; Microsoft may still and probably will provide further performance optimizations for SSDs under the final shipping version of W7 and this is merely a look at the performance difference so far. We didn't even install any new drivers on our W7 beta install - just ran with what was built-in, so it is a good raw look at things currently as they stand.
Read on and find out if your SSD experience is going to be improved or not under Windows 7. It has been a hot subject in the storage world lately and hopefully we can find out some answers today!

Test System Setup
Processor(s): Intel Q9450 quad-core @ 3.2GHz
Motherboard(s): MSI X48 Platinum (Supplied by MSI)
Memory: 2 x 2GB Patriot DDR3 1600MHz
Hard Disk(s): 2 x Western Digital 300GB VelociRaptor in RAID 0 (Supplied by Western Digital)
Operating System: Windows Vista SP1 64-bit and Windows 7 BETA 64-bit
Drivers: Latest Windows Updates (Vista), Intel INF 1.1.15 (Vista)
We installed Vista SP1 with all the latest updates and Windows 7 BETA (stock standard - no driver changes from install) on a more than capable system, which is ready to compare SSD performance.
We would have preferred to use a standalone RAID controller, but the one we have here from Areca did not work properly under Windows 7 with the standard Vista drivers. Instead, we plugged the drives directly into the MSI X48 motherboard and they were powered by the Intel ICH9R Southbridge chipset.

This chipset is far from ideal when it comes to SSD, since it is not able to show the maximum potential of the Patriot Warp2 128GB SSD SATA drives, which we used for testing in this article. On the other hand, though, not everyone can afford a separate high-end RAID controller worth around the four figure mark and this will give us a look at what the more-average Joe consumer will be using hardware-wise.
We also wanted to note that testing was completed on a fresh install of each operating system and no SSD specific performance tweaks were applied at all. There are a bunch of Vista SSD tweaks out there, but we wanted to provide a raw look at SSD performance on each OS.
Let's move on now and examine the results.

HD Tune Pro - SSD Read Performance

Our first test puts HD Tune Pro into action and we look at read performance.
Starting with single drive performance, we can see that Windows 7 has the edge over Vista in all tests besides minimum read speed, which slipped for some reason. Burst speed is a good deal quicker and we can see the average speed manages to edge out Vista by a little.
When it comes to RAID 0 performance we can see that the ICH9R controller struggles to support the SSD drives properly, since it was designed for slower mechanical hard disk drives. Nevertheless, we see Windows 7 well out in front here, beating Vista SP1 in every test.
The results are close, but it is important to remember that Windows 7 is still in BETA and that we are using early drivers. As the official launch of W7 draws closer, we will see actual W7 drivers released and they should improve performance, as well as other changes Microsoft make under the hood of its OS.

HD Tune Pro - SSD Write Performance

Now we come to SSD write performance and starting off with RAID 0, you can see the ICH9R really struggles with minimum write speeds, hitting 0MB/s - ouch.
Besides that, though, Windows 7 has another good jump on Windows Vista here and things are looking positive for Windows 7 and SSD.
Moving on to single drive performance, the results are closer, but Windows 7 still has the edge; this is more great news for SSD users.

A note on Access Time and CPU Usage

The above result from HD Tune Pro is of the SSDs in RAID 0 under Windows 7.
We wanted to note that every single configuration (read and write) saw an access time of 0.2ms and that is a great result.
When it came to CPU usage, however, Windows 7 was all over it. In every test under Windows 7 we saw CPU usage of -1%. This may be an error, or it could be the correctly reported numbers. Under Windows Vista, CPU usage ranged from 2 - 4%.
That is more good news on the W7 + SSD front!

Final Thoughts
Today we have provided a quick and simple look at SSD performance in Windows 7 BETA and Vista SP1. It is far from conclusive, we know, but it was only designed to be a quick look at the numbers so far and what users may be able to expect from a standard desktop system.

Based on our testing, we can see that obviously Microsoft have spent some time improving SSD performance under Windows 7, as it managed to beat out Vista in all but one test and that might have only been a slip up.
Access time is also very impressive under W7 and when it came to CPU usage, W7 blew Vista to pieces scoring -1% usage under every test. Again, this might be a reporting error; but if it was, the results were very consistent.
We hope you enjoyed the quick look at SSD performance under Windows 7 so far. We will be back with more at a later date as new drivers and so forth come out.

Windows 7 BETA vs Windows Vista SP1 SSD Performance Compared :: TweakTown

Going for a cheaper, simpler layout 

Although Nvidia has been slated for its GPU rebranding more than once, we've been informed by our sources that the company is now working on an entirely new range of graphics cards which are very different to the products currently in the market.

From what we've been told, the new cards are going to look very different and for those that were around a few years ago, this is meant to be something of a blast from the past. Much in the way that Intel went back to its Pentium III roots to create the Core 2 series of processors, Nvidia has taken a long hard look at what it did in the past.

What this means is that we should be seeing much simpler PCB designs from Nvidia in the future with far less components on the graphics cards. Expect the three and four phase power regulation to be a memory of the past, as Nvidia is going for a simple single phase power regulation design.

Not only will this save manufacturing costs as the bill of materials will be lower, but it should hopefully make for easier cards to cool with fever hot parts and simpler cooler designs. We weren't told if this will apply to Nvidia's entire range of cards, or if it will be limtied to only certain cards, such as entry level models.

fudzilla

Over at hardware-infos they reported that some of the first batches, rather iterations, of RV790 and RV740 engineering samples have begun surfacing. Sources reveal bits and pieces of the new GPUs' specifications to Hardware-Infos. Being some of the first samples, these are merely iterations en route the development of the final product, though trend has it that preliminary information about AMD GPUs have a tendency of turning out true. We will exempt the RV770's final stream processor count from these.
The RV740, a mainstream GPU from AMD, is on course of becoming the first GPU in production, to be built on the 40nm manufacturing node. It carries 640 stream processors and a core clock speed of 700 MHz. It features a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory bus, churning out bandwidth that rivals equally clocked GDDR3 with double the bus width. The memory bus will be clocked at speeds between 800 and 900 MHz (3.2 GT/s and 3.6 GT/s). Products will carry 512 to 1024 MB of memory. The GPU houses 32 texture memory units (TMUs) and 8 raster operations pipelines (ROPs).
As for the RV790, surprise: it has the same clock speeds as the RV770XT: 750 MHz (core) and 900 MHz (memory). The samples were equipped with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory with chips made by Qimonda.

The memory bus width remains unchanged at 256-bit. With so much similarity with the RV770, the shader domain is all that remains to serve as the differentiation factor, apart from the newer manufacturing process that hypothetically facilitates larger overclocking headroom. There is no word on the remaining specifications.

guru3d

We already knew more or less all we needed to know about NVIDIA's GTX 295, however, despite being already on sale, the company has decided now is a good time to grace the model with a press release. The GTX 285 has been given the formal treatment too -- despite not being available until next week. If you missed the earlier specs, the $499(ish) 295 includes dual 55-nm GT200 GPUs and supports nearly 2GB of memory, while the $399 285 makes do with but one processor and an undisclosed RAM ceiling (though the upcoming Winfast, pictured above, comes with 1GB and one yellow robot). Again the 295 is up for order now, while slightly more budget conscious gamers will have to wait until January 15 for the 285.

NVIDIA makes GTX 295 official now that it's on sale, 285 too for good measure - Engadget

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 295 is only a week old at retail, but that hasn't stopped the company from turning around and releasing yet another card -- the GTX 285 -- today. The reviews for both are in and from what we've read, the GTX 295 seems to match or outshine its AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 counterpart in most performance tests. As for the GTX 285, the general consensus is that it's the fastest single-GPU graphics card on the market right now. It's only slightly better-performing than the GTX 280, however, so if you've already got that, it's probably not worth the upgrade. We're not gonna pretend to understand every benchmark result, but we'll gladly point you in the right direction.
GTX 285
Read - TweakTown
Read - PC Perspective
Read - HotHardware
GTX 295
Read - TweakTown
Read - PC Perspective
Read - HotHardware

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 / 295 review roundup - Engadget

According to the NPD annual software charts for 2008, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV 360 outsold GTA IV PS3 by nearly 2:1.

The open world action title sold 3.29 million copies on 360 and just 1.89 million on Sony’s console where GTA games have traditionally resided. In fact, last year’s release was the first simultaneous multiplatform release for the franchise.

GTA IV 360 could see a resurgence in sales as platform exclusive DLC, Lost and Damned, becomes available later on this year.

All of videogaming247’s December NPD coverage can be found here.

videogaming247 » Blog Archive » December NPD: GTA IV 360 sales almost double that of PS3 for 2008

Especially for you this one Krusty. :)

Why Windows 7 will crush Linux

By Ron Barrett on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 12:04pm.

Okay it is no secret that Linux has not been able to crack the desktop, either at the home or at the workplace. Not to ignored either is that Windows lost some desktops last year (a little over 3%),but let’s not panic just yet, Windows still owns over 88% of all the desktops according to leading research.

Many people might be surprised to learn that I come from a background of Windows, Linux, UNIX and even MAC. In fact, my first IT experience was in a Novell/SCO UNIX environment. Now there are some fundamental issues to why Windows 7 will trump Linux distros like Ubuntu, Fedora and Debian.

THEREFORE, to get those out of the way let’s just spell them out. Windows 7 installs easier, has simpler configuration of user settings, greater availability of software, support (you could argue that all support is awful, which is probably true) Windows support is easier to get when you need help. Gaming, MP3’s,… I could go on and on.

But these have been the same arguments from the beginning, to be fair to Linux the GUI used to be seriously lacking but it has improved. None of these issues had crushed the penguin before so what is different about Windows 7. Let’s look at three areas:

POWERSHELL
The biggest complaint I have ever heard from die hard Linux users is the GUI, which explains why Linux taken so long to catch up in this area. To real Linux die hards… terminals rule. Microsoft has realized that the serious Administrator understands the usefulness of using command line input to accomplish tasks. Windows Powershell has introduced cmdlets to improve administration of Windows. Powershell also makes it easier to string together multiple administrative without the need to jump from management GUI to management GUI.
So Powershell presents an interesting argument for Windows adoption by the Linux user. You can go command line crazy if you like and still play all your favorite PC games. Powershell remoting will allow Administrators to create one to one or one to many sessions for running scripts on other machines.

Open Source Software has caught on in Windows
In case you missed it, see my article 20 great Windows open source projects you should get to know . That list was a short list of the thousands of Open source apps available for Windows systems. Microsoft itself has made steps into the OSS arena embracing what was inevitable. Some people want free software (even if support is limited or non-existent). The argument for ages was Linux was free and so was many of the applications you could run on Linux. Applications like Firefox, Open Office, MYSQL, GIMP… wait all these applications are now available for Windows. Moreover, they are easier to install in Windows then they are in Linux. Linux users will argue that Linux is still free and you pay for Windows, as I said earlier that cost gets you support and does away with the conundrum of which flavor of OS do I like. There are literal dozens of Linux distros to choose from, I like to leave the 101 flavors to Baskin Robbins.

FEATURES, FEATURES, FEATURES…
Windows 7 has solved a long-standing thorn in Microsoft’s side, How to deliver a feature rich OS without killing resources?

Windows 7 has made improvements to the Aero feature, installs as a VHD (making it truly portable) and has moved beyond the need for mouse and keyboard. The touch screen as well as the speech and handwriting recognition improvements makes it hard to ignore Windows 7. DirectAcess, Bitlocker to Go, Applocker and the new easier to use UAC ( yes I am not letting up on this one) makes Windows 7 secure but yet easy to administrate.

The list of features goes on, and the speed of Windows 7 without the resource drain…rocks!

It looks like all the arguments (except being mad at Bill for being Rich) have been answered. Linux users have no reason to hold back anymore. Windows 7 is well placed to crush and put an end to the penguin.

Next step… It’s time to put the Macintosh’s back where they belong, inside my apple pie!

Why Windows 7 will crush Linux | NetworkWorld.com Community

Design Partners, the company responsible for Logitech's G-series, has released a series of images offering a behind-the-scenes look at how the suite of wild gaming peripherals came to be. Interested to see the design process? Check out the galleries below -- we're particularly taken with the image showing a designer hand-crafting the G13's wrist rest.

Galleries

G35 Surround Sound Headset


G13 Gameboard

G19 Keyboard

The making of Logitech's G-series peripherals - Engadget

The first beta of Windows 7 is available for download. However, after the Vista-ready debacle, regular Windows watchers will be leery of downloading a new Microsoft OS without making absolutely sure that their PC hardware can stand the pace. PC Advisor has a free software tool that can do exactly that. Here's how to use PC Performance Monitor's Windows 7 Compatibility tool.

First, register as a user at PCAdvisor.co.uk. Go to PCAdvisor.co.uk/account/register (all the required links will open in a new window or tab so you can stay on this page), and complete the simple, three-stage process. Be sure to tick the box that enables you to use PC Performance Monitor. If you are already a registered user, you should log in and go to PCAdvisor.co.uk/account/update to update your profile and enable PC Performance Monitor.

Now head to PCAdvisor.co.uk/pc-performance-monitor, and hit the Monitor My PC tab. Your unique CustomerID should be displayed. Click the link and follow the instructions to download and install the PC Performance Monitor application: this is a small piece of software that collects performance data from your system.

Now you should see five performance monitors for your chosen PC - the one we're interested in is the Windows 7 Compatibility Testing widget.

See also: Windows 7 review

Before you can use it, however, there's a couple of bits of housekeeping I should cover.

1. Once PC Performance Monitor is installed, it takes the application roughly an hour to start sending back information about your system's performance, so all the boxes will remain blank for now.
2. You can install PC Performance Monitor on up to three PCs, but your data remains secret - neither the software makers, nor PC Advisor can access it.

See also: My weekend with Windows 7

The Windows 7 Compatibility Testing widget assesses the suitability of an x86 or x64-based PC for running Windows 7. You can use the Windows 7 widget to identify systems that will be incapable of running the next version of desktop Windows due to inadequate hardware, current stress levels or workload composition.

System information is extracted and analysed to determine Windows 7 compatibility. The tests look at three categories: Hardware Configuration, Current Stress Levels and Workload Composition. PC Performance Monitor collects counter data once every second and averages the collected values once every 60 seconds. The data points analysed by the Windows 7 widget represent a daily summary (average) of these one-minute averaged samples.

Once the PC's Machine Name appears in the System list, simply click the Results tab to see how it fared. The Windows 7 widget posts results in a simple Pass/Fail format. If the system meets the requirements for a given category, a green PASS appears. If your PC fails a category, explanatory text appear in the Notes box at the bottom of the Results pane.

if the requirements for Windows 7 change, we'll update our the tool, so it's worth checking back from time to time.

How to: is your PC ready for Windows 7? - Blogs - PC Advisor

Ann Hamilton, a senior brand manager with Ubisoft, said that Nintendo’s Wii console is a “girl-driven system,” and is one of the main reasons the Wii has had such success in the marketplace.

“What’s driving the Wii sales is the use of Wii by women, girls and families,” Hamilton said in an article from the Tulsa World. “It’s a really female-driven platform.”

Hamilton believed that Ubisoft’s two brands that target female gamers–Imagine and Ener-G–have helped Nintendo target the female demographic with the Wii.

“Girls wanted sports games to play, as well,” and pointed to their gymnastics and horseback riding titles as filling that need.

Ubisoft: Wii is a “Girl-Driven” System : Endsights: Shedding Light on Video Games

Nvidia used the still ongoing Consumer Electronics Show to establish two new high-end products, namely GTX 285 and GTX 295, and thus is back at the top. The fact that AMD will not keep it like this should be obvious, and that is why we have inquired at a, in the past very reliable AMD power, about what things AMD would able to come up against Nvidia with.

Spontaneously two names fell into this conversation: RV740 and RV790. The former is a well-known in the rumor mill, VR-Zone has already unmasked the specifications of the chip, and using the tape-out, you could also conclude that the RV740 would come in spring.
The chip will be the successor to the RV730, although it could still remain at the market some time, and will redefine AMD's middle class. In things of performance the strongest model will move up to HD 4830 and HD 4850.

Large uncertainty on the other hand about an update on the performance segment. Would AMD hold the RV770 current until the RV870 or put an update between, which is quite pushing depending on the launch of the RV870, concerning that Nvidia will send a distinctly modified GT200 in persona of the GT212 into the race in the second quarter.
The rumors included everything from a RV770 with better frequency to a RV770 that had to more SIMD units (960 SPs, 48 TMUs), and also the codenames were shuffled: Super RV770, RV775 and RV790.

According to our source, AMD's next performance chip will be called RV790, enter the market as HD 4900, and be crafted in 40 nm like RV740. There is still silence about the amount of stream processors. But we can assure that there will be more than with the RV770, so that the RV790 will not just be a half-hearted frequency update.
Both chips, RV740 and RV790, are announced for March. Though a launch within the CeBIT would be suggestible, no one wanted to determine the date yet [via hardware infos].

guru3d.com

First there was ethanol. Then there was butanol. Now there's an alcohol biofuel poised to put both to shame. Using new tricks of the trade, scientists at UCLA have synthesized an alcohol molecule that has as many carbon atoms as a molecule of gasoline. It releases as much energy per gallon and can be dropped right into the tank.

(Photograph by Scott Heiner/S. Lowry/Univ. Ulster/Getty Images)

As bacterium goes, E. coli is a public health scourge, but a lab favorite. It's one of the most thoroughly studied microbes out there, and so one of the most easily manipulated for genetic engineering. Scientists can tweak its metabolic pathways to produce insulin, antibiotics and anticancer drugs; they can increase its ability to make ethanol or even engineer it to manufacture hydrocarbons. But until now, they couldn't push it to create something that didn't exist naturally: long-chain alcohols.
By manipulating E. coli to produce alcohols with up to eight carbon atoms, James Liao and his colleagues at the University of California-Los Angeles recently introduced a new twist to the field of biofuels research. Long-chain alcohols overcome some of the traditional limitations of ethanol, which has only two carbon atoms. They have both high-energy density—on par with gasoline—and low water solubility, so they are compatible with existing infrastructure.
"Long-chain alcohols can be directly used in automobiles or aircraft," Liao says. "Unlike E85, which requires retrofitted vehicles, [they] can be used without vehicle modification."

popularmechanics

SR-71 USAF base (Kadena, Japan)-

“Though I fly through the Valley of Death, I shall fear no evil. For I am at 80,000 feet and climbing.”

The year is 2012, as the era of the nation-state draws quickly to a close, the rules of warfare evolve even more rabidly. More and more nations are becoming increasingly dependent on Private Military Companies (PMCs)- elite mercenaries with a lax view of the law. The Reykjavik Accords further legitimize their existence by authorizing their right to serve in every aspect of military operations.

Tom Clancy’s HAWX allows players to become a part of the mayhem, by becoming an elite pilot of the future.  Utilizing cutting edge technology, devastating firepower, and intense dogfights will just be the tip of the tomahawk. Players will be able to jump in the cockpit of over 50 of the world’s most famous aircraft and take flight over super realistic terrain that has been thrown together using advanced satellite mapping technology that is commercially available, providing an authentic look and amazing views.

“High-resolution satellite imaging is moving from the black world of intelligence to the white world of commerce and Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X will bring that reality to gamers,” said Mark Brender, vice president, corporate communications and marketing at GeoEye. “With video game graphics becoming more realistic, the use of high-quality photographic ground textures in H.A.W.X adds true photo-realism to the air combat experience.”

HAWX will also utilize the Enhanced Reality System (ERS). ERS is in-game technology that helps turn novice aviators into elite pilots of the future and will be the backbone of players flight experience, allowing players to use radars and incoming missile detection, damage control systems, a tactical map, information relay, and weapons trajectory control. ERS will also allow players to issue commands to your squadron. Just think, the airborne version of the Cross-Com system that was implemented in Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter.

Also jumping on the Co-op bandwagon, HAWX will allow the entire solo campaign to be experienced in 4 player “Jump-in/Jump-out” co-op mode. This marks the first time ever for the air combat genre, officially placing HAWX in the running for the coolest air combat game around. There will also be an 8-player Team Deathmatch that can be played online, to see who’s truly the top gun.

This is Tom Clancy’s first stab at air combat, and from the looks of it, he’s got it down pretty good. We’ll be keeping a very close eye on this as we near take-off.

Vitals: Tom Clancy’s HAWX | Games Are Evil: 360, PS3, Wii, iPhone, Portable Gaming Magazine

We had a chance to briefly check out Sony's take on 3D gaming yesterday, but Sony wasn't the only company trying to get in on the action. Nvidia was showing off its own technology with its 3D Vision glasses, and unlike Sony's proof of concept display, Nvidia's setup was both playable and ready for purchase. The game on display? Left 4 Dead.

Unlike Sony's tech, which used passive glasses, Nvidia's rig relies on a combination of a relatively cutting-edge LCD monitor (with 120 Hz support), a compatible Nvidia graphics card, and a pair of $199 active glasses. It's a pricey setup, one that most modest PC gamers will be waiting on for quite some time until the price comes down substantially. Its undeniable, however, how cool the setup was in motion.

Like most stereoscopic 3D setups, there's a noticeable amount of depth and volume added to the scene, visible almost immediately upon donning the glasses. However, Nvidia's setup takes the concept a step further by allowing users to easily adjust the amount of depth perception with a small nob on the glasses' special dongle. With the knob turned all the way up, the game image seems to jump out at you, to the point where it can almost be distracting—especially in a game as fast-paced as Left 4 Dead.

As a bonus, here's a picture of Ben modeling the glasses:

We spent a few minutes oogling the in-game models and rotating the camera around our teammates slowly. What's so incredible about the glasses is that they take advantage of the pre-existing volumetric shader work coded into normal games to produce an uncanny volume and "heft" to the character models. One problem? The flat text above players' heads has a bizarre shimmering effect that proves distracting.

Despite that one flaw, though, Nvidia's setup is one to drool over. If the entry cost wasn't such a huge barrier, this would be a must-buy accessory. As it stands, though, this remains a lavish luxury that only the truly dedicated will be willing to purchase. This is the second piece of 3D technology that impressed us here; it works well, the glasses don't cause headache unless you crank the depth all the way up, and you can buy it today. 

CES 2009: Nvidia shows off 3D glasses with Left 4 Dead

While Phil hasn't mentioned it in the keynote just yet, it looks like iTunes might be getting a big catalog overhaul, with most major labels finally offering up DRM free tunes. Our tipster mentioned DRM free goodies from Virgin, Sony BMG, American Recording and more (iTunes Plus has mainly been limited to EMI and some independents so far), and that most previously purchased songs are now upgradable for the same old price of $0.30 a song. We're still digging around on the iTunes Store trying to figure this out -- it's offering to upgrade our library, but the transaction won't go through yet -- and we'll obviously know more if it gets a keynote mention. Let us know if you have any luck picking up those non-EMI MP3s on your end.
[Thanks, Greg]
Update: As you've you probably noticed in the liveblog, Apple just made this very much official, and announced that some 8 million songs from all the major labels will indeed be DRM free, with a full ten million planned by the end of the quarter. As if that wasn't enough, it's also announced a new pricing structure for tracks, including a new $0.69 tier and a $1.29 one, which music companies will apparently be able to use at their own discretion. And, to keep things really spicy, the company has also announced that music store downloads are now finally available over 3G, and at the same price and the same quality.

iTunes going primarily DRM free? (Update: yes, it is! 3G downloads, too) - Engadget

PC startups, take note -- this is how you cut through the noise and get recognized. Rather than simply copying Alienware or some other boutique gaming outfit, BFG Technologies is introducing its first line of high-performance PCs with quite the unusual extra. Sure, the 3.2GHz Core i7 965 Extreme Edition is totally expected, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 GPUs aren't all that shocking, but the complementary concierge service is certainly a step in a new direction. With each Phobos purchase comes six months of said service, which includes "expert in-home installation and a six month follow up maintenance visit." Check the full release after the break for all the deets, but you can count on spending at least three large to get in.

BFG TECHNOLOGIES UNVEILS PHOBOS™ -- STUNNING NEW HIGH PERFORMANCE GAMING/HOME THEATER SYSTEM
Phobos features innovative touch panel LCD with Performance Control, upcoming BFG NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 Graphics Cards, Liquid Cooling Solutions from CooIIT, and Intel Core i7 Processors
Come by the NVIDIA Booth at CES to see Phobos: South Hall 4 #35352
Lake Forest, IL – January 5, 2009 – BFG Technologies, known as a leading supplier of premium power supplies and 3D graphics cards, is excited to announce its first line of complete gaming and multimedia PCs, called Phobos. These sleek hand-built, high performance machines were designed with the "Graduated Gamer" in mind. This audience is looking for all the performance associated with a high-end gaming system, but none of the hassle related to building and servicing such a system. As a result, Phobos is sold with complementary Concierge Service which includes expert in-home installation and a six month follow up maintenance visit.
"Phobos was designed for gamers and media enthusiasts who demand top of the line performance, but may not have the time, desire, or expertise to build or maintain a high end system," said John Malley, senior director of marketing for BFG Technologies. "Our Concierge Service ensures our systems meet those high expectations-delivering Unbelievable Performance without monopolizing our customers' time."
Phobos is designed with the highest-end components available, featuring the Intel® Core i7 965 Extreme Edition 3.2GHz Processor, two upcoming BFG NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 295 Graphics Cards, and CoolIt® Contained Liquid Cooling Solutions to keep both the GPUs & CPU cool during the fiercest of gaming battles. BFG Tech also outfitted Phobos to serve as a home theater command center by choosing Windows® Vista Ultimate with Media Center, including four hard drive bays, offering RF remote and TV tuner with DVR functionality, a front slot-loading Blu-ray Disc® drive, the option for 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound audio cards, and an integrated iPod®/iPhone® syncing dock.
FULL SPECS BELOW
Phobos is as impressive externally as it is internally, offering Refined Aesthetics and an innovative design. Its sleek black gloss finish and hidden cable management makes Phobos look at home in the living room, next to a flat panel TV and high end audio components. BFG Tech's ground breaking touch panel LCD with performance control further sets Phobos apart from every other system in its class. The panel provides users with a System Status Overview-a real time snapshot of the processor, memory, network, and storage data. Phobos owners can also make real-time performance adjustments based on desired use (Auto/Quiet/Max), monitor the capacity and health of internal storage devices, display and control audio and video files, and more.
For more information about Phobos, visit www.bfgsystems.com after January 8, 2009 or contact PR representative Mark Olson at 305.576.1171 x17 or markolson@maxborgesagency.com. For additional information about BFG Tech please visit www.BFGTech.com.
About BFG Tech
BFG Technologies is a privately held U.S. based supplier of premium power supplies and 3D video cards based on award-winning NVIDIA graphics technology, and a manufacturer of high end gaming/home theater systems. BFG Tech is dedicated to bringing the latest high quality, high-tech multimedia products to PC and gaming enthusiasts at competitive prices. Like the company's target customers, many of BFG Tech's employees are gamers and PC enthusiasts, and they strive to provide hardware and marketing that reflects the company's passion and excitement for the latest technology. www.BFGTech.com
Phobos™ System Specs
Phobos has three conveniently pre-configured high-performance systems that can be used as a starting point:
• Phobos Performance (from $3,000)
• Phobos Advanced (from $5,000)
• Phobos Elite (from $8,000)
Please visit www.bfgsystems.com after January 8, 2009 to see what specific options are available in each version.
'PHOBOS ELITE' STANDARD CONFIGURATION*
• Upcoming BFG NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 295 Graphics Cards (x2 for Quad SLI®)
• BFG NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 for Dedicated PhysX™ Processing
• Intel® Core i7 965 Extreme Edition 3.2GHz Processor
• CoolIt® Contained Liquid Cooling Solution (GPU&CPU)
• MSI® Eclipse SLI Intel® X58-based Motherboard
• Patriot® 6GB PC3-12800 1600MHz DDR3 Memory
• 4x Western Digital® VelociRaptor 300GB Hard Drives
• Slot Loading Blu-ray® Super Multi Optical Drive
• BFG LS-1200 1200W High Efficiency Power Supply
• Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 Sound Card
• Integrated iPhone®/iPod® syncing dock
• Unique 8" Interactive Touch Panel LCD
• In-Home Set Up Included with Every Phobos Purchase
*Based on current configuration at the time of printing. Specifications and available options subject to change. See www.bfgsystems.com for updates.

BFG Technologies' Phobos gaming PC packs Core i7, personal concierge - Engadget

NVIDIA GT212 is rumored to be the next high-end chip from NVIDIA. Most seem to indicate that this chip will be made with the TSMC 40nm manufacturing process, but the exact specifications have remained clouded. According to a source to hardware-infos, the chip will trump the 1.4 billion transistors of GT200 with another 400 million adding up to 1.8 billion all in all. They also claim that the number of shaders will be upgraded to 384 by adding to extra clusters of shaders and upgrading each cluster from 24 to 32 shaders.

The number of TMUs will increase accordingly to 96, an additional 8 per extra cluster. The source also claims that NVIDIA will now get access to GDDR5 and will GT212 will have it. In that case NVIDIA will be able to reduce the memory controller to 256-bit and that should make the chip smaller. Bringing the GT2xx architecture to the 40nm half-node will supposedly shrink the chip to less than 300mm². No word on the power consumption. We expect the card to launch in the second quarter.

We have no confirmation to this information so consider it with a truckload of salt.

nordichardware

Low end 9 series to become G1x0

It's been quite a while since Nvidia rebranded its cards and we were beginning to think it has dropped the habit altogether. We talked about the upcoming rebrand in November, and now several leaked ads, courtesy of German retailer MediaMarkt, all but confirm the new naming scheme.
Three cards are mentioned in the ads: the G100, G120 and G130, the latter apparently being a rebranded 9600 GSO, which was in fact, a rebranded 8800 GS all along. Third time lucky it seems.
Apparently the G100 and G120 are 9400 GT and 9500 GT respectively. According to TechConnect, the naming scheme is scheduled to go live at the end of the month, and G92 cards will subsequently also be rebranded into GTS 1xx series.
Nvidia also plans to brand the high end GTX2xx, performance and mainstream are GT2xx, while the entry level remains G1xx branded. They simply follow a keep-it-simple strategy, as a tool to get attention back to its rebranded products. If it sounds new, it has to be new.

Video interview with Tomb Raider Lara Croft model Alison Carroll | The Sun |Fun|Gizmo

Preliminary Tests on GeForce GTX 295 Run, Leads Radeon HD 4870 X2

A Chinese technology portal, IT168 has conducted a prelimnary performance evaluation of the upcoming GeForce GTX 295 graphics card. The card will be a flagship offering by NVIDIA. It will feature two G200b graphics processors. Also provided are the first pictures of the finished product, along with a burst-shot of the card and its cooling assembly. Across several game tests, the evaluation showed the GTX 295 to outperform the HD 4870 X2 by up to 80%, while providing superior power characteristics.

techPowerUp! News :: Preliminary Tests on GeForce GTX 295 Run, Leads Radeon HD 4870 X2