Wargame: Red Dragon, a realistic military tactical real-time strategy game, is free for a limited time. Take note that this is a limited time promo; the game is only free until March 12 12am Eastern Time. Claiming the game before this deadline binds it to your account, making it yours forever.Instructions here:
This might be old news for hardcore hardware geeks, but to some who do not follow tech news on a weekly/daily basis, Intel's upcoming "Nehalem" CPUs can overclock themselves.
I made an article about that in a community blog. It can be found HERE. (Nothing very informative about it though, just a way of spreading the news to some of my friends who are ordinary non-gamers who aren't click-happy. :D)
[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.
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.)
Yep, that's right, no games were detected. I had to browse and add the executables for the single- and multiplayer components of F.E.A.R. myself. 
High Performance setting applied with all Texture Filtering settings activated. Take a good look at the wall on my right. Activating High Quality in the Nvidia Control Panel (thus turning off all Texture Filtering settings) and (for good measure) resetting the game and...
... voila! No changes at all. This wasn't the case in 175.16. In that version I even exclaimed "F###! I have to wade through this ess just to eliminate stutter somewhat" the first time I activated all the Texture Filtering settings.
[Yay!]
I got surprised --- and quite excited --- when GadgetGeek, a friend of mine, put up an article about the Nvidia 9800 GTX. With memory and core speeds reaching up to the Ghz level, this is one monster that's going to crush your neighbor's system (if you think that way haha!) . Maybe my friends are going to dabble into the high-end range now! Can't wait to see what their LCD screens will churn out!
Which reminds me --- I still have to update my Budget Gaming PC article. Busy these days. Tut, tut. (And how many times do I have to remind my other friends about the 8800 cards sitting there: those are for my New Yorker friend. He can afford. Quit whining "We can't afford it. Why is it there?!" The guide is for all my friends, not just for a select few. Anyway, what with the 9600 GT's presence in the market, I'll be deleting those in the next days so hush now.)
One last bit: Gadget Geek, I don't overclock; my video card's still under warranty. Thorax might read this post haha! (/me adjusts my Kevlar jacket...)
Some of the best --- and worst (*cough* grind-based MMOs *cough*)--- things in life are free.
Gamespot has published an article about free-to-play (F2P) massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. The article details several MMOs categorized by several genres namely sci-fi, fantasy, "eastern promises" (asian-made MMOs), and a few ones that can't be classified under the above.
In the quest for budget LCD monitors for PC gaming --- Google is your friend
For gamers not willing to shell out more than $220 dollars for an LCD monitor, here's bad news for you. The latest (as of June 2008) "budget" LCD roundup article from Xbit Laboratories grudgingly recommends the Samsung SyncMaster 2053BW LCD monitor for gamers and home users alike. The problem is Amazon sells the 20-inch LCD monitor for $270. If you don't order from them and instead purchase the thing from your local neighborhood suppliers, the price WILL be higher. To make matters worse, that article has the caveat "None of the monitors is blameless" looming over its roundup.
Another cheap LCD monitor I came across months back is the 19-inch AOC 193P but I doubt there are still stocks of this model. It has a reduced resolution (a disheartening 1280x1024) and an increased response time (an 8ms one >> worse) compared to the Samsung SyncMaster 2053BW though.
Doubtless, there are a lot of budget LCD monitors out there that can handle PC gaming but I'm apprehensive about buying anything that has no reviews going for it. (or is reviewed by sites that are not popular. THEY DON'T COUNT --- that to someone who once told me there's a review for a certain product and recommended a site that didn't even discuss the various aspects of the thing. That was surreal. 0_o)
As a digital artist, I value image quality. As of the present, LCD monitors --- while offering low power consumption and conforming to the prevalent green movement nowadays --- is just way expensive for me considering that dollar for dollar their color quality is inferior to CRT ones.
See also this link.
No pictures for this one so here's one I did with only Paint and an ordinary mouse. I hope you like it.
Paint is just too unwieldy; I left this unfinished. And no, it wasn't done with an LCD monitor. :p[As exciting as a new audio driver]
I've put up the benchmark results of the Nvidia Forceware v175.16. As mentioned in a previous article, it's one of the best to come out in months. Results and views can be found HERE.
Goodbye stutter. Some of it that is. (The picture shows a Replica clone soldier who's firing a 1omm Penetrator rifle taking a hit from a beam weapon. It's in bullet time hence the hazy screen edges.)I finally found the time to update to Nvidia's Forceware 175.16 and I got to say eff|ing cool! It has been a very long time since a driver upgrade had yielded such an improvement in gameplay --- F.E.A.R. has never been this smooth! Stuttering has been, to an extent, reduced and the difference really shows. I have also noticed they have upped the brightness of light sources. Two thumbs up!
(To those new to PCs: Please take note that Nvidia Forceware drivers are only for Nvidia GeForce video cards.)
Seventeen megs --- this is one large update!
It's been a long time since I've made an article about War Rock Philippines --- my country's leading MMO first-person shooter PC game --- ever since they did something that rendered the game unplayable for me in my favorite server. Tsk. Methinks I may need to change my ISP. Anyway, here's
... a new War Rock map, Pargona. I haven't checked it out yet, but by the looks of it, I think it features land, sea, and air combat. And yes, there's a new and shiny helicopter thrown in to boot! There's also...
... a new War Rock weapon, the anti-air stinger. It comes with a nifty lock-on feature. Heh! So long Rickenbackers! This should be fun!
And oh, the blood and gore I mentioned a while back that had parents flying into fits of frenzy and despair? It's baaaaaaaaaaaack!
Despite a short downtime that ended this 3pm, Cabal Philippines has now been officially released to the gaming public. And no, this is clearly not a first-person shooter PC game, but the combo system is drawing me in. Must.... resist...
If feedback is good, I hope to make this my first MMORPG to play in.
"Bad-@$$ m0f0$"
Ach! My spleen!
***Warning this article shows blood and gore! ***
There is a popular thread in War Rock Philippines about bringing back blood and gore to the MMO first-person shooter PC game. I was one of those who played back in the game's open beta phase and I must admit I miss the gory graphics:
Once upon a time...
There lived a disdainful sniper who kept her long hair tied up in a bun under her helmet and lived atop the central warehouse in Emblem. She wouldn't let her hair down. A valiant prince long fed up with waiting below, climbed up and filled her full of lead. The princess spilled the red porridge she was eating and revealed that she was Goldilocks in disguise and that her three bear friends would clobber the prince. And so...
The prince climbed down and took care of Yogi...
... and Booboo and the friend that he brought along. Oddly enough, Suzie --- the grizzly bear --- was nowhere in sight. Methinks she is in Youtube...
Oops. Sorry, wrong game.
Gamezpot iz da bezt!
Gamespot has just released their preview of the sequel to THQ's wildly-successful Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series. It can be found here.
The new engine features destructible environments and totally pounds the graphics of every real-time strategy game to date --- including the upcoming Starcraft 2. That's just my two cents though; don't take my word for it. The preview contains screenshots. See and judge for yourself.
Reanimating a PC first-person shooter classic
(I am sure this is old news to hardcore HL players but for those who do not know here's news that will knock your eyeballs so far back into your cranium you're gonna yell "headcrab attack!!!")
When Half-life: Source came out gamers were not so elated to find that the HD models and textures used in Blue Shift were not integrated into the official remake of the first Half-life. I was disappointed for a time as I was planning to buy the Half-Life 2: Game of the Year Edition just so I can play the remake. In my daily scouring of the 'Net though I stumbled upon the Black Mesa mod, which is a modification for Half-Life 2 that will put players once again into the power armor of bespectacled Gordon Freeman in the first Half-Life. This time though, the maps will all be swathed in the trappings of the relatively new Source engine.
I searched YouTube for videos of the thing and sure enough I came up with a lot of vids about the mod. The mod, if it ever comes out and if it will faithfully recreated the gameplay of the original, will be nothing short of awesome, judging from what these clips depict:
Gamespot's news updates sure are handy!
Gamespot's download page for Nexuiz. You think that screenshot is good? Wait 'til you play the game!
The 11th. 'Should have checked out their site more often. Tsk.
... and a map with a large body of water?!!
4 megs of it!! I wonder what's new. I hope to the gods of gaming that super cool water effect makes it with this patch. And lookit that sniper babe! Eurasian eyes for the win!
Btw...
This news is old but I decided to post this as some owners of Nvidia video cards may be unaware of the fact that the owner of the OmegaDrivers website has released a tweaked 169.21. I'm continually checking the site for any new ones he might release.
I'll get back to my War Rock when this blasted storm clears.
