Don't you just love roundups? Several top contenders for a particular chipset/video card model all squeezed snugly into a single article. :D
Here's HotHardware's GeForce 9600 GT roundup featuring PNY, MSI, and Asus models.
Opaw.I've been using this excellent codec pack for several months now. I've made an article about the thing HERE.
Enjoy the improvements in audio quality!
Rooster Teeth --- Making fun of a video game that one shouldn't play alone.
From the same guys that gave us Red vs. Blue, here's the complete P.A.N.I.C.S. (People Acting Normal in Crazy-a$$ Situations) series, a F.E.A.R. machinima spoof.
Rooster Teeth won several awards for their Red vs. Blue Halo machinima spoof, so it's not a surprise that this one's drop-dead funny.
Enjoy!
[Yummier]
Techspot's "Intel Core 2 Duo E7200: The new budget king" article really astounded me. The E7200 is a 133-dollar budget Core 2 Duo that is at par with a Core 2 Quad in Crysis benchmarks! Would you effing believe that?
Believe. The article, HERE.
[Yummy]
Ever since I wrote my "HardwareSecrets Article: Generic vs "Branded" Power Supplies" article, I've never really given much thought about it afterwards.
The reason? Financial.
Branded PC power supply units cost a hefty 5,000 smackers (or more) here in our country so buying a PC power supply unit for my aging gaming rig is out of the question. However, the quest for knowledge can never be slaked so I found myself surfing Hardwaresecrets.com again for budget PC power supply units.
Given that Tomshardware.com just slapped on a measly 380-watt PC power supply unit for its budget gaming PC build , I figured a 500-watt PC power supply would more than do for the low-end budget gaming PC I plan to purchase centuries from now (when Warhammer 40,000 Eldar will have made planetfall on Earth and extinguished all Orks on the planet, gretchins and spores all).
Surprisingly enough I found three:
Enermax PRO82+ 525 W
Antec EarthWatts 500 W
Corsair VX450W (which was discussed in a previous article of mine)
All of these babies sport power efficiencies that surpass the 80% mark.
Heck, if the number of years that I have kept my aging PC is any indication, I think the next one will serve me for more than three years. Waaaaaaaaay more than three years.
So hell, why not spend a gazillion smackers for something that's more power-efficient than the generic $|-||7 that every PC shop doles out to oblivious customers?
Furthermore, these babies are under the $150 mark.
Take note that those PC power supply unit reviews have been made last May 2008; there might have been new ones that have popped up during the interval.
Also, please take note of the connectors each one has and make sure they suit your needs if you decide to purchase one of those.
Bat Battle: Who's the Best Movie Batman by Jay Pinkerton
This article didn't crack me up. Nay, it broke me up like a clay piñata and shook up the pieces. It's hilarious. From Adam West to Christian Bale, THIS ARTICLE pokes fun at all the Batmen while critiquing the individual strengths, pitfalls, and coolness factors of the different Batmen that have swung through the silver screen.
It's hilarious trust me. Laughter guaranteed or your money back. >)_)
Kudos to Martin for the link.
My supervisor's cousin is selling the following:
(a) Macbook laptop, bought in May 2008 (hardly used), Php70,000.00
Specs: 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / 4GB DDR2 SDRAM, 120GB hard disk
Programs included: Final Cut Studio 2, Mac Office 2004, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Logic 7 Pro for Audio and other expensive programs
Payment: 35k cash downpayment, 15k post-dated check dated July 30, 10k post-dated check dated July 15, and 10k post-dated check dated August 10
(b) one Terrabyte hard disk, Western Digital, bought in February 2008, Php12,000.00
Payment: 8k cash downpayment, 4k post-dated check dated July 15
(c) 80 Gigabyte hard disk, Hitachi, casing bought in January 2007, disk bought in June 2007, in good condition, no bad sectors, Php 5,500.00
Payment: cash
Gamespot has posted screenshots of Crysis Warhead, the sequel to the highly-acclaimed Crysis, a first-person shooter that has, at the time this was written, unparalleled graphics.
[Dai |3|7[|-|.]
"Our target is Genevieve Aristide, president of Armacham Technology Corporation..."
With that sentence the E3 2008 trailer for Project Origin, the official sequel to First Encounter Assault Recon, a PC first-person shooter video game, hits the ground running.
I nearly choked on the banana I was eating when I heard those words.
After the initial split-second shock I shouted a victory cry (and the neighbors be damned).
The target is Genevieve! Genevieve Aristide!
She is that mysterious sexy voice in the first F.E.A.R. game that you'll keep hearing if you play the game. She is also a condescending, flattering, and calculating person who sets in motion the events leading to the release of Alma. I imagine her to be a bespectacled, ramrod-straight woman in office attire who stares disdainfully at everyone while carrying a huge PDA. And she wears black silk stockings. :P
What with Aristide's voice messages that are liberally sprinkled all over the entire game though, you'll grow to hate her as you progress through Project Origin's prequel.
Yep, you'd love to put a 10mm HV Penetrator round through her cranium. Trust. Me.
Here's the Project Origin E3 2008 trailer:
[This is an incoherent article. The fan boy in me is gushing. Dawn of War ROCKS!!!]
I just watched Cloverfield with my wife. The movie is awesome. And if a movie is awesome, I typically just sit and do nothing else just to relive moments of it in my head. This time though, I made one simple mistake --- after the movie, I searched for the new trailer of the real-time strategy game Dawn of War 2 in Youtube and watched it.
All thoughts of giant marauding aliens got wiped from my mind.
The video for the very first Dawn of War game has been likened to the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan what with the visceral battle it depicts.
This one raises the bar several notches higher. Eldar rangers, Space Marines, Howling Banshees, a Dreadnought, an Eldar Farseer, and a teleporting Warp Spider duke it out in a 35-second high-quality video. It's the first time so many units have been given life with CGI that has been painstakingly made.
It was, I dunno, it was a religious experience watching that Warp Spider charging at a 'Marine all the while evading enemy fire by intermittently teleporting as he ran towards his target. And oh yeah, Howling Banshees with their amazing fluidity and their brain-jarring sonic screams (and their equally mind-eroding 38-24-32 body armor) --- sexy!
I'll post it here when I have the time to detail each race. This weekend mayhap.
Relic Entertainment rocks!
I was walking one rainy day last week and I came upon this little critter all drenched in the rain, its fur plastered over its small but healthy frame. It was staring sorrowfully at a puddle of water that was mere inches from its whiskered face.
It carried a brown shoulder bag.
I stopped short, amazed. It saw me looking at it from the reflection in the water. Slowly, it looked up at me and said, in a nonchalant manner, "hai." Its expression mercurially turned into one of amusement and --- of all things --- cockiness; as if it knew (and rightly so!) that it had me mesmerized.
OMG, a talking furball! I quickly looked around but not one of the pedestrians had heard. I quickly scooped the thing up, put it in my bag with only its head poking out and headed back to my flat. I gave it some warm milk, rubbed it dry with a clean face towel (won't use it again), and stared at it. It stared back.
It stretched on the table in quite a bored manner. And then --- it spoke again.
"Eets tyme to repai u" it said. Before I knew what was happening, it scampered to my PC, slid the side panel open with a deft twist of its front paws, and squeezed in. The case toppled over but before I could shriek to all the gods of gaming, it poked out its head from the rear panel. It smiled at me and said:
Gamespot has released previous for the PC first-person shooter games Far Cry 2 and Red Faction: Guerilla.
Far Cry 2 preview details:
The article discusses Far Cry 2's stealth element, open-ended gameplay scheme, and its seamless world (discussed initially HERE) in more detail. It also covers a level swathed in darkness, a first since the first videos released about Far Cry 2 were action sequences that transpired in daytime.
Red Faction: Guerilla preview details:
I really didn't read this one, much less care about its release but its sci-fi theme (Mars!) and the way a friend of mine gushed about this game and its purported (haven't played the first one) destructible environments got me to post this one in my blog as I'm sure this game has a considerable cult following. Sure enough, the article discusses about an innovative game engine that takes "destructible environments" to the next level --- destroy a building and you get to see everything, from its pillars to whatever catwalks lined it, go hurtling every whichway.
The bugged version of Nvidia's GeForce video card driver is back again. I just checked Nvidia's site and the software is once again available for downloading. I'll install and test this one tomorrow.
The last time I used this GeForce driver, it didn't detect games installed in my system. Hopefully, this second incarnation of GeForce 175.19 is bug free.
(To PC beginners: Please take note that GeForce video card drivers are meant for only Nvidia video cards.)
[A "Shirak!" gone awry.]
So you think that what with all the hubbub surrounding the long-awaited sequel, all is well? Wrong. According to an article by Devin Connors, many of the fans of the series have taken up arms and mana potions against the new direction the upcoming game's art has gone to --- Azeroth.
Yep you read me right, Azeroth.
Fans are dismayed by the overly bright color scheme the second installment currently swathes itself in. It's like Yawgmoth has mistakenly overlaid World of Warcraft on a Diablo game instead of Rath on Dominaria. Only a true-blue, die-hard Diablo fan will be able to immediately see what is amiss with Diablo III. The rest of us --- yours truly included --- can only gape, drool, and say "oooh, pretty lights" --- much like one of the wayward D20 players here in the 'hood who apparently has AADD judging from the way he fails to show up nearly every blasted Sunday.
Anyway. Ya, Diablo.
The first time I saw its screenshots I was like "OMG! Nice!" The pics were pleasing and cool to the eyes. But that's exactly where the problem lies. Looking back at the whole scenario now, those pics could fit snugly in sun-bathed games like Titan Quest (the level where you wander in fields of grass) and Lords of the Realm III.
The article has comparative images in it. The first a screenshot and the second, a concept art done by a fan.
Blizzard, Teriel is not guarding the world from Jaina Proudmoore or from forest trolls; he's gonna go against the forces of Diablo and his ilk. Bring back the darkness!
[Finally.]
The link --- and a short article detailing my observations about the codec pack --- can be found HERE.
I'm down with colds so I'll just leave you with this must-see slideshow. Awesome art from the war-torn, dystopian, and xenophobic world of Warhammer 40,000:
[Ulahi sa uso.]
What with the features of Firefox 3 being touted on Mozilla's site, I've just learned that bookmarks are very much a convenient way of making your Internet life easier. Here's how to make Mozilla Firefox 3 bookmarks (and why you should use them):
You start by going to a favorite site that you visit often. If you have not bookmarked it yet, it should display an outline of a star in the URL field. Click on that star.
From the bookmark tab, you can also access several sites that you have already bookmarked. You can also delete them from here, or even delete entire bookmark folders. (And yes, "Looking for Group" is one funny webcomic!)
