New Creative Labs Vista Drivers 01:31 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (5 comments)
Thanks to Thinus for the good word that Creative Labs has released new sets of drivers for its family of sound cards running Windows Vista.

This download is a driver providing Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit and Windows Vista 32-bit support for Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy series audio devices. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.

Take note of the following:

• THIS IS AN UNSUPPORTED BETA DRIVER. There is no technical support for this driver.
• We recommend that only experienced users install this driver. Do not install this driver for critical tasks.

This download supports the following audio devices only:

• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy including Platinum and Platinum eX series
• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 including Platinum, Platinum eX, and Value series
• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS including Platinum and Platinum Pro series
• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro and Sound Blaster Audigy 4
• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook PCMCIA

RPG Vault Goodness 01:22 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Role-Playing (0 comments)

The Witcher First View
CD Projekt's RPG based on a dark fantasy literary property with a sizable following, especially in Eastern Europe

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Media #4
We return to Telon, the original fantasy world created by Sigil, for further examples of the art team's talents - Five exclusive screenshots

In Other News... 01:15 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - In-House: In Other News... (32 comments)
Today's question:

What size/type is your display and what resolution do you most enjoy playing PC games at?

Halo 3: That's some Good Grass! 04:24 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: Xbox 360 (9 comments)
The Halo 3 weekly update is getting all Discovery Channel on us:

Moss in particular is one of those things that add real character and familiarity to a building. Ours generally "grows" in the right place, too which, as Bryophytaphiles will know, is in very moist, shady areas and often on the north sides of tree trunks (in Northern latitudes at least).

But our grass is prettier than our moss. It animates, for one thing. Wind blows it, and it's affected by other things. Like explosions. In Halo 2, if you shoot (our admittedly very sparse) decorators with a rocket, they just sit there, glibly ignoring the explosion. Our new decorators are actually destructible. And they cast shadows, and can be lit correctly, like everything else in the game. This isn't stuff we're inventing - lots of folks use similar techniques, but when you see how they're implemented, it really starts to color and enrich the game. Poor old multiplayer has looked sterile and lifeless for too long - and this (among other things) are going to add vast levels of graphical loveliness.

And that's before the nearly-ready-for-primetime water and atmospherics are implemented. It used to be that adding fog to a 3D game actually saved you processing power since it meant that less geometry was being drawn. The way that fog and atmospheric haze are added to Halo 3 actually cost processor cycles, since the geometry is still visible, but realistically obscured by varying levels of particulates.

SiN Episodes for $9.95 04:18 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (16 comments)
Ritual posted word that SiN Episodes is now $9.95 on Steam until Jan. 18th:

Until January 18, SiN Episodes: Emergence is available for just $9.95 (plus tax) on the Steam website! This offer includes SiN Episodes: Emergence, SiN Episodes Arena Mode, SiN 1, and SiN 1 multiplayer.

C&C; 3: Tiberium Wars Preview 04:14 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Real-Time Strategy (4 comments)
PC.IGN is sporting some impressions of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars after EA stopped by the office to show the game off. Of interest, is the new Aliens faction:

The best of the factions when dealing with tiberium deposits is the newest faction introduced into the fiction, the aliens. Their name is as yet unannounced but we do know quite a few things about them. Their gigantic mothership has been sitting on the edge of the solar system for a thousand years just waiting for a specific signal and they apparently got it when tiberium reared its ugly head. They awoke from their slumber and rumbled their way towards Earth where they found the lovely war humans were waging on each other and decided to join in the fray.

The Aliens have some of the best effects in C&C; 3. Everything about them exudes "alien" from the blurring movement of the buzzers to the giant walking tripods of death known as Annihilators. All of their buildings are warped onto the battlefield in ways reminiscent of the Protoss from StarCraft. Buildings and units can look slightly organic, but have a definite high tech look and feel as well.

Supreme Commander Preview 04:03 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Real-Time Strategy (4 comments)
GameSpy shot up a nice hands-on preview of some of the single player content in Gas Powered Games' upcoming RTS, Supreme Commander. Here's a taste of the skirmish mode:

While the missions are fun and do a good job of furthering an interesting story, the game becomes exceptionally challenging in skirmish mode. You can choose from 40 different maps, ranging from 5 km-by-5 km all the way up to 81 km square. There is a filter that allows you to only look at maps of a particular size and for a particular number of players, and the AI opponents are selectable with Normal (Easy), Challenging (Medium) and a variety of Hard settings. Horde AI constantly rushes the player with large numbers of units. Tech AI lets the computer build to the highest tech level before attacking. Balanced AI is a cross between Horde and Tech. Supreme AI chooses between the three hard AIs based on the map being played on.

Crysis: 2048x1536 at 60 FPS 03:31 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (15 comments)
In case you're worried about how well Crysis will perform on your new rig, it looks like it runs pretty smoothly at 2048x1536 assuming you have a Core 2 Duo and (single) 8800GTX running on Vista.

In an earlier article, it was reported that Crysis was running at 60+ fps for most of the time at CES 2007. In this new article, Jack Mamais tells techspot that the game is running at a resolution of 2048x1536. Judging by the HUD size in the images below, this seems like it's true.Combine that information with the fact that most of the code is still unoptimized, and you can easily understand how well Crysis will run. Take note that Crysis was running in DX10 at CES 2007, so could Microsoft's claim of 6 to 8 time the performance be true? If you read some of the earlier news items or read the techspot link posted below, you'd also know that Crysis was running an unknown core 2 duo processor and a single 8800GTX.

December Top 20 Sellers (PC) 01:50 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (12 comments)
Here are the top-20 PC games sold in the month of December according to the NPD Group:

1) The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts -$28
2) World Of Warcraft - Vivendi - $22
3) The Sims 2 - Electronic Arts - $39
4) Medieval II: Total War - Sega of America - $47
5) The Sims 2 Glamour Life Stuff Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $18
6) MS Flight Simulator X Deluxe - Microsoft - $65
7) The Sims 2 Happy Holiday Stuff - Electronic Arts - $16
8) Battlefield 2142 - Electronic Arts - $44
9) Deal or No Deal - Global Star Software (Take 2) - $17
10) Cars Radiator Springs Adventures - THQ - $18
11) MS Flight Simulator X - Microsoft - $48
12) The Sims 2 Open For Business Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $29
13) The Sims 2 Holiday Ed - Electronic Arts - $38
14) MS Age Of Empires III: WarChiefs Expansion Pack - Microsoft - $29
15) MS Age Of Empires III - Microsoft - $48
16) Paws & Claws Pet Vet - Valusoft (THQ) - $18
17) Battle For Middle Earth II: Rise Of The Witch-King Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $29
18) The Sims 2 Nightlife Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $30
19) Neverwinter Nights 2 - Atari - $48
20) MS Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection - Microsoft - $20

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. S.H.O.T.S. 09:03 am - Andrew Burnes - Games: Action (22 comments)
Check out a new trailer doing the rounds here.

VE Visits CES 03:00 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (11 comments)
We were only there for an afternoon on the last day, but Dave kicked up some impressions of what he saw at CES plus snapped a ton of photos. He even caught a glimpse of a Vista machine spitting out a blue screen of death. Good stuff.

Hardware & Tech Nuggets 12:41 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (0 comments)

Cases

• Thermaltake Armor LCS Full Tower with integrated Watercooling - Hardcoreware
• Ultra X-Blaster ATX Case - Modders-Inc

  Memory
  

• Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-6400 Kit - XS Reviews
• Patriot Memory Extreme Performance 2GB DDR500 DC Kit - Techniz

  Pads
  

• XTracPads Pro & Pro HS - BurnoutPC

  Power Supply
  

• Silverstone Zeus ST85ZF 850W Power Supply - Madshrimps
• Ultra Products 1025 VA 615 Watts Backup UPS - BTX Formfactor

  Video
  

• ASUS EAX1650XT 256MB (Radeon X1650 XT) - Sharky Extreme
• ATI Catalyst 7.1 Performance Analysis - Tweaktown
• NVIDIA G80: Image Quality Analysis - Beyond 3D
• Sapphire X1950 Pro Dual Spy Pics At CES - X1950 Pro 1GB CrossFire - HotHardware

RPG Vault Goodness 12:39 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Role-Playing (0 comments)

Hellgate: London Peek #8
What can players expect the Flagship team to deliver in the multiplayer portion of its eye-catching action RPG? - Includes three exclusive 1680x1050 screenshots

The Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean Media #2
A selection of combat and other scenes from the upcoming PSP version of Nihon Falcom's RPG in the classic style - Eight exclusive screenshots

Game Reviews 12:35 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (0 comments)

PC

• Gothic 3 - GameHelper - 2.3/10
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade - Dead Alfs - 82%
• Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Computer Games.ro - 75%

  360
  

• Cabela's Alaskan Adventures - TeamXbox - 6.4/10
• Ms Pacman - GameSpot - 6.3/10
• Star Trek Legacy - GameHelper - 6/10

In Other News... 12:26 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - In-House: In Other News... (29 comments)
Like whoa, It's Friday! Today's question:

What anticipated 2007 release game do you think is most likely going to be delayed until 2008?

Bonus Q: Most you'd spend on a new gaming rig?