Startcraft 2 Officially Announced

Thats right. Blizzard has officially announced at the “Blizzard Worldwide Invitational” at Seoul, Korea, that they will be releasing Starcraft 2. To the surprise of everyone, there was an actual gameplay demo, a feat that many game companies fail to deliver when they tell of their future releases.

However, there is still a thick blanket over many aspects as the gameplay videoes and game dev explanations were mostly concentrated on what the Protoss can do. They’re pretty much keeping a tight lid on the other two races and the much rumored fourth race.

There is still no set release date and the only confirmation we know is that it will be probably released later this year.

Source: http://www.sumodownload.com/2007/05/21/startcraft-2-officially-announced/

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Force3D Radeon HD 4870 Black Edition review

It's been a busy year for the PC graphics world with both AMD and Nvidia going back and forth releasing new architectures, then improving them further to finally having to rearrange their line-up to match each other prices.

A perfect example is that of the Radeon HD 4870 which made its debut on late June with a retail price of $299, at the time significantly cheaper than the competition's GeForce GTX 260. Not too long afterwards we published our direct comparison of the GeForce GTX 260/280 and the Radeon HD 4800 series, where it became clear that the Radeon had the performance edge over the GTX 260 in spite of the lower price.

Nvidia was forced to heavily reduce the GeForce GTX 260 price to the Radeon's level, only to release an enhanced version that effectively replaced the original weeks later. The new GeForce GTX 260 which goes by the same name, now features 216 SPUs rather than the original 192.

However, these newer GeForce GTX 260 cards cost upwards of $310, meaning that the performance boost comes at an added cost. With many Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards currently priced as low as $270, the new GeForce GTX 260 is not necessarily more appealing than the original. In concluding our Radeon HD 4870 vs. GeForce GTX 260 comparison, in which the Radeon came out on top, there was but one small problem and that was heat generation.

Despite of using less power when under load, the Radeon HD 4870 runs considerably hotter than the GeForce GTX 260 using the stock cooler which is shared by a majority of outgoing cards no matter what the manufacturer. While the 80C+ load temperatures were a little concerning, it was the 70C+ idle temps that had us really worried. This means that even when sitting at the Windows desktop the Radeon HD 4870 is cranking out more than 70 degrees of heat, much of which escapes into the case.

This was also problem when we reviewed the Visiontek Radeon HD 4870, which used the AMD reference cooler. Using special software (Catalyst drivers support it now also) to increase the fan speed allowed for lower temperatures, but a noticeable increase in operating volumes came as a byproduct. Therefore we believed the best Radeon HD 4870 solution would be one that dropped the barely sufficient reference cooler for something more elaborate.

And finally we have a Radeon HD 4870 card that has done just that, the new Force3D Radeon HD 4870 Black Edition. Force3D has improved this special edition Radeon by overclocking the core and memory, albeit a small overclock, and replaced the reference cooler with one of the best VGA air coolers money can buy, the Arctic-Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo.

We can expect the Force3D Radeon HD 4870 Black Edition to be slightly faster than the original, but most importantly it's also going to be significantly cooler. Before we check out the performance numbers, let’s take a closer look at this impressive looking graphics card.

Source: http://www.techspot.com/review/120-force3d-radeon-4870/

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Far Cry 2 performance in-depth

If like us you are a fan of first-person shooters, then there is a good chance you have spent the better part of this year anticipating the arrival of Far Cry 2. Last week marked the release date for this awaited sequel, and so we immediately jumped in and bought our copy. However, rather than play the single player mission from start to finish and then go into some multiplayer action, we have been hard at work for bringing you this article.

As usual our in-depth performance review takes various ATI and Nvidia graphics cards and compares them in this new first-person shooter title. Having recently completed a similar article with Crytek's Crysis Warhead, we have been keen to see if Far Cry 2 is just as demanding.



You may recall the original version of Far Cry was developed by Crytek using the CryENGINE, while it was actually published by Ubisoft. For Far Cry 2, Ubisoft's Montreal studios took over the development of the game using their own Dunia engine. This game engine has been designed for use with the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 platforms which resulted in last week's multi-platform release. The word Dunia means "world", "earth" or "living" in the Persian Language. As current players of Far Cry 2 will discover, Dunia offers a number of impressive features like destructible environments, dynamic weather, dynamic fire propagation, full day/night cycles, and many others.

Furthermore, the Dunia engine can take advantage of DirectX 10 when running on Windows Vista, but is also capable of running on DirectX 9 platforms. Now, unlike the engine used for Crysis games, Dunia is said to be less hardware demanding which could only come as great news for PC gamers. If you look back at our recent Crysis Warhead performance article you will see that this game requires a tremendous amount of GPU power to deliver playable performance.



Clearly only those with the most advanced gaming rigs are going to be able to enjoy Crysis Warhead in all its visual glory as we found that even a top of the line GeForce GTX 280 could struggle when pushed far enough. Far Cry 2, on the other hand, has been publicized to work perfectly on today's mid-range graphics cards in spite of the impressive eye candy.

As we move on, we will find out exactly how Far Cry 2 performs using a range of previous and current generation graphics cards. The quality presets tested include Ultra High, Very High, and High, which will be tested at 1280x1024, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200 resolutions. The built-in Far Cry 2 benchmark tool has been used to test the various graphics cards, so you will be able to accurately compare your systems performance to ours.

Source: http://www.techspot.com/review/123-farcry2-performance/

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The latest in gaming mouse pads: the Steelpad 5L

Although many would say that purchasing a gaming mouse pad is not a wise investment, in my experience I wouldn't be able to go back to a "regular" cloth mouse pad. Steelpad is one of the leading companies that is currently designing and releasing gaming mouse pads. Their latest offering is the Steelpad 5L, a pad that has the durability and stability of plastic, and the softness and smoothness of cloth. Although this is the first mouse pad designed with laser mice on mind, it is still well suited to handle optical and ball mice. The 5L is now available for pre-order at the official Steelpad website.

Official Steelpad Website: https://www.steelpad.com/Default.asp?

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/19317-the-latest-in-gaming-mouse-pads-the-steelpad-5l.html

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Sony PS3 Games

Sony launched a pre-emptive strike on the E3 grapevine with its announcement yesterday that it's cutting the price of the 60GB PlayStation 3 to $500, and offering a new 80GB model for $600 in August. But what else does the company have up its sleeve for the show? There are still at least a couple of unanswered questions offering grist for the rumor mill:

rumble-enabled Sixaxis controller: Sony has already shot down rumors that the 80GB PS3 will come bundled with a new rumble-ready Sixaxis controller. (Of course, the company was denying rumors of a PS3 price cut as recently as last week.) But Sony's settlement with Immersion means that a rumble-ified PS3 controller is no longer an impossibility.

video download service: The Xbox 360's Video Marketplace gives users access to downloadable movies and TV shows, including plenty of HD content that looks far better than anything Apple's iTunes Store has offered to date. Newsweek (via Kotaku) reports that a Sony online media store may be announced at the show, even though it won't be ready to roll out until later in the year. Given Sony's ample content holdings--including all those Columbia, Tri-Star, and MGM movies and TV shows--this has always been a question of when, not if.

On the games front--which, after the price cut, is where the PS3 really needs to prove its mettle--there are quite a few exclusives to keep an eye on: Lair, Heavenly Sword, Warhawk, Metal Gear Solid 4, The Agency, and Killzone 2 will be among the titles making yet another E3 appearance. And we'll no doubt hear more news about the console's Second Life-like PlayStation Home service as well. But only time will tell whether one of those titles--or an as-yet-unseen game--will be the killer app that spurs PS3 sales back to the glory days of PlayStation dominance.

The Sony press conference is Wednesday, July 11 at 2:30pm ET/11:30am PT (directly after Nintendo's). Crave will have complete coverage at that time.

Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/consoles/sony-playstation-3-60gb/4505-10109_7-31355103.html

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Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS. The integrated Xbox Live service allows players to compete online and download content such as arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows, and movies. The Xbox 360 is the successor to the Xbox, and competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles.

The Xbox 360 was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information divulged later that month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The console sold out completely at release in all regions except in Japan,and, as of April 25, 2008, 19 million units have been sold worldwide according to Microsoft. The Xbox 360 comes in three different versions: the "Arcade" console, the "Premium" console, and the "Elite" console, each having its own selection of included and available accessories. Another version of the Xbox 360, called the "Core" which was available from launch, has since been discontinued for retail and replaced with the "Arcade".

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360

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