Hardware & Tech Nuggets 12:52 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (0 comments)

Boards

• ASUS P5K Deluxe - Legion Hardware

  Cases
  

• Antec P182 Case - Hardware Logic

  Cooling
  

• Kingwin KA-9225 and KA-9227 Heatpipe CPU Coolers - Big Bruin

  Keyboards
  

• Razer Pro|Type Keyboard - XYZ Computing

  Power Supply
  

• NZXT Precise 1000W - OCC

  Video
  

• ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT: Calling a Spade a Spade - Anandtech
• ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB - The Tech Lounge
• ATI HD 2900 XT - Neoseeker
• R600: Finally DX10 Hardware from ATI - Toms Hardware Guide
• Sapphire HD 2900 XT - OOC

RPG Vault Goodness 12:45 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Role-Playing (0 comments)

Tales of Pirates Interview - Part 2
Owning vessels, weapons, monsters, quests, technology and more as we finish our query session on Moliyo's game - Includes six exclusive screenshots

Jonric's Blog
Korea intervenes in $1 billion virtual item trade industry

Game Reviews 12:25 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (0 comments)

PC

• LoTR Online - SI - 8.9/10
• Made Man - GameSpot - 2.8/10
• Silent Hunter: Wolves of the Pacific - X-Play - 3/5
• Silverfall - Gamebanshee - 7.1/10
• Spiderman - GameSpy - 2/5
• Spiderman 3 - YouGamers - 75%
• Theatre of War - GameSpot - 7.8/10

  360
  

• Spiderman 3 - SI - 7.5/10

  PS2
  

• The Red Star - GameSpy - 3.5/5
• The Red Star - Play.tm - 60%
• Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam - GameSpot - 5.9/10

In Other News... 12:20 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - In-House: In Other News... (7 comments)
I gotta say, Claritin-D makes having allergies fun.

Today's question:

For those of you who run low resolution desktops (1024x768), do you play your games at that res too?

What res do you game at?

Here are the results from last week's poll:

The Next StarCraft Game Should Be...
StarCraft 2 (PC RTS) [2597 votes]
World of StarCraft (PC MMOG) [647 votes]
None of the Above [380 votes]
All of the Above [337 votes]
StarCraft Ghost (Console) [167 votes]

Team Fortress 2: Meet the Heavy Movie 07:25 pm - Andrew Burnes - Games: Action (27 comments)
Valve sent over a hot Team Fortress 2 trailer that shows off their new animation system:

We are pleased to announce that the next generation of facial animation technology for Source will be released in Team Fortress 2. By leveraging the rapid pace of advancement in PC graphics, videogames can now match and actually surpass the facial animation used in feature film and broadcast television production. We've released a video of this real-time, in-game, in-engine facial animation in action in support of ATI's launch of the Radeon HD 2000 series. By running entirely on the GPU of the videocard, the facial animation not only looks dramatically better, but frees up the CPU to perform other tasks like physics or AI.

This technology is available to all Source engine licenses as well as MODs based on those games.

A reason to buy the underpowered, juice-sucking AMD GPU? Me thinks not.

8 Cores Supported in Unreal Engine 3 05:03 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (14 comments)
Are you from the future? Got an 8-core CPU? The Unreal Engine 3 has you covered, says Tim Sweeney:

AMD's new quad-core technology should provide a great performance boost for today's high-end PC games," said Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games Inc. "Our Unreal Engine 3 game technology can take advantage of four and even eight processor cores, improving performance by accelerating physics and AI calculations, and increasing the realism of the game environments our artists can build. Upcoming games like Unreal Tournament 3 will truly fly on these new CPUs.

Planet Transformers 04:54 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: General News (0 comments)
Planet Transformers is now live, covering the latest and greatest robots in disguise news. Want to learn more about the upcoming game and movie? Check it out.

Intel Quad Core Price Cuts 12:12 pm - Andrew Burnes - hardware: Intel (22 comments)
HKEPC Hardware reports that Intel will be slashing the price of the Quad Core Q6600 to an unbelievable $266:

In the most updated plan, Intel Quad-Core Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz/4MB L2 x2/1066MHzFSB) will be further cut to $266, a second drop within 4 months since its release on March with 68.7% accumulated price drop. For the original price segment of Core 2 Quad Q6600, now it will be replaced by a new model Quad Q6700 (2.66GHz/4MB L2 x2/1066MHzFSB), pricing at $530.

For the mainstream desktop processors, while Core 2 Duo E6000 family has no price update information at this moment, its relatives, Core 2 Duo 6050 family which features 1333MHz FSB releasing on July 22, has got a very impressive price advantage. The 3 models including E6550 (2.33GHz), E6750 (2.66GHz), and E6850 (3GHz) are only priced at $266, $183, and $163, around 40% cheaper than its 1066MHz version. Together with the new release of Bearlake featuring 1333MHz FSB, the both releases are expected to have great sales.

Blizzard.com Day Two Teaser - Diablo 01:11 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (60 comments)
Today's teaser on Blizzard.com is Diablo. Yesterday, they had WarCraft & WarCraft 2. What does this mean? YOU TELL ME! Between us girls though, I think Blizzard has enough money to make Diablo 3, StarCraft 2, WarCraft IV and World of WarCraft 2 at the same time if they really wanted to.

Hardware & Tech Nuggets 12:53 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (1 comment)

Boards

• MSI K9AGM2-FIH Motherboard
• XFX 680i LT SLI - Tweaktown

  Cooling
  

• Nexus NHP-2200 Silent North Bridge Cooler - Xtreme Computing
• Thermaltake Mini Typhoon Value Pack - Thinkcomputers.org

  CPU
  

• IBM Cell processor powered mainframe - Gamingnexus

  Pads
  

• SteelPad S&S; Mousepad - BurnOutPC

  Video
  

• ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT - HotHardware
• ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT - [H]
• Tech Report
• Hexus
• ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT - Hartware
• ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT - Tweaktown
• ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT - Guru3D
• ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT - TechPowerUp
• AMD Radeon HD 2900XT - ChileHardware
• ATI Radeon HD 2900 XTX - Hardware Secrets
• HIS X1550 IceQ - Overclockers Online
• Jetway HD2900XT - Bjorn3D

RPG Vault Goodness 12:51 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Role-Playing (0 comments)

EverQuest Online Adventures Update Interview - Part 1
We query Associate Producer Leah "Sapphyra" Ruben about the current status of Sony's PlayStation 2 online world

Sword of the New World Media #14
The imcGames team has designed the Wizard class to specialize in area of effect damage spells, curses, and buffs - Five exclusive 1280x1024 screenshots

Jonric's Blog
Funcom announces an intriguing action horror conspiracy MMO

Earth Eternal
Your inner Beast... the 16 playable races

Game Reviews 12:44 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (0 comments)
So yeah, we could use some new releases.

PC

• LoTR Online - PC.IGN - 8.6/10
• UFO: Extraterrestrials - Gamespot - 5.2/10

  PS3
  

• Spiderman 3 - GameRevolution - D+

In Other News... 12:30 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - In-House: In Other News... (43 comments)
The new Sunday Adult Swim line-up is pretty f'd up.

Today's question:

Why, in this day and age, do people still view websites at 1024x768?