With 8-phase power, 6 DIMM sockets, 3-Way SLI and CrossFireX support, and speeds up to 500MHz, EVGA's X58 SLI motherboard is designed for enthusiasts ... [+](Comments)
With solid graphics and gameplay, there's a lot to like with EA's latest iteration of Madden, but Brett reports that there are still some annoying AI ... [+](Comments)
With a street price of just $130 Gigabyte loads the EP45-UD3P up with tons of goodies. For starters its PCB sports twice the amount of copper as tradi... [+](Comments)
Are the additions of Darth Vader and Yoda enough to carry the Soul Calibur series? Yes and no. Brett finds the fighting enjoyable, but Namco Bandai's ... [+](Comments)
Wondering what AMD's got in store for the next 3 years in terms of new CPUs? If so you'll want to check out this article. Inside we've got AMD's lates... [+](Comments)
After testing Fallout 3 with the latest high-end cards last week, we're back again to see how the card performs with one dozen mainstream GPUs ranging... [+](Comments)
Wondering which GPUs perform best in Fallout 3? Then you'll want to check out today's article. We've rounded up 11 of the fastest graphics cards on th... [+](Comments)
Fans of Aerosmith may be tempted to pick up the latest release of Guitar Hero -- which is focused primarily on the rock band -- but with just 41 songs... [+](Comments)
Performance junkies look out: Intel's next-generation Nehalem CPU has arrived! The CPU's architecture has been designed from the ground up to deliver ... [+](Comments)
Last week we posted our review of ATI's Radeon 4830. Unfortunately the board we used for testing only had 560 shaders enabled. We've now flashed our b... [+](Comments)
Set in the not to distant future, Haze comes from the makers of Timesplitters. But does Free Radical's shooter deliver? Brett doesn't think so... (Comments)
Browse thousands of products to read user reviews and other sites' reviews, discuss, or post your own user reviews. Here are the Editor's Picks: » HARDWARE PRODUCTS
2nd and 3rd Place Prize: Biostar TPower I45 mainboard, Biostar Sigma Gate 9600GT VGA card and Corsair DDR2-1066MHz 4GB memory kit
We want to thank all the participants for competing in this challenge. These guys are the best over clockers in the world, and now have the best over clocking motherboards, hands down.
Today NVIDIA and EA announced that DICE's latest title, Mirror's Edge, will be hitting PCs with PhysX support this January. According to the PR, PhysX effects in Mirror's Edge will include smoke/fog and cloth animation, as well as other enhancements:
With the NVIDIA PhysX physics engine, the world of Mirror’s Edge comes to life with real affects of wind, weapons impact, and in-game movements. Every-day objects within the game become part of the overall experience. Cloth, flags, and banners can now impact weapons and players; ground fog interacts with the player’s footsteps; explosions fill the air with smoke and debris; and weapon impacts are enhanced with interactive particles.
NVIDIA also passed along a new PhysX-accelerated Mirror's Edge trailer that showcases the game:
For comparison's sake, nzone.com has several older non-PhysX Mirror's Edge trailers on their site that include similar action sequences. When viewed side-by-side, the enhancements included in the PhysX version definitely give the game an additional layer of polish.
The only downside? According to the NVIDIA trailer you'll need a 9800 GTX+ card or better to experience all the Mirror's Edge PhysX effects.
Today NVIDIA officially pulled the wraps off their so-called "Big Bang II" graphics driver. The new drivers contain numerous performance improvements as well as the ability to run SLI with two monitors (previously you had to disable SLI in the driver control panel to enable this functionality). Here's the complete list of what's new from NVIDIA:
Exciting New Features:
Enables NVIDIA SLI technology on SLI-certified Intel X58-based motherboards with the following GPUs: GeForce GTX 280, GeForce GTX 260, GeForce 9800 GX2, GeForce 9800 GTX+, and GeForce 9800 GTX.
Enables NVIDIA SLI Multi-monitor support, giving you the ability to use two monitors with your GeForce graphics cards in SLI mode. Now you can easily switch between multi-monitor desktop mode and full screen 3D gaming mode. Learn more here.
Enables NVIDIA PhysX acceleration on a dedicated GeForce graphics card. Use one card for graphics and dedicate a different card for PhysX processing for game-changing physical effects. Learn more here. (Note: GPU PhysX is supported on all GeForce 8-series, 9-series and 200-series GPUs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory. This driver package automatically installs PhysX System Software version 8.10.13).
Blazing Fast Performance:
Boosts performance in numerous 3D applications. The following are some examples of improvements measured with Release 180 WHQL drivers vs. Release 178 WHQL drivers (results will vary depending on your GPU, system configuration, and game settings):
Up to 10% performance increase in 3DMark Vantage (performance preset)
Up to 13% performance increase in Assassin's Creed
Up to 13% performance increase in BioShock
Up to 15% performance increase in Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Up to 10% performance increase in Crysis Warhead
Up to 25% performance increase in Devil May Cry 4
Up to 38% performance increase in Far Cry 2
Up to 18% performance increase in Race Driver: GRID
Up to 80% performance increase in Lost Planet: Colonies
Up to 18% performance increase in World of Conflict
And More:
Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and OpenGL, including 3-way and Quad SLI technology.
Supports CUDA.
Supports Folding@home distributing computing application. Download the high performance client for NVIDIA GPUs here and join the NVIDIA team: #131015.
Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.
Includes numerous 3D application compatibility fixes. Please read the release notes for more information on product support, features, driver fixes and known compatibility issues.
Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver here.
The new drivers support all GeForce GTX 200 series, GeForce 9, and GeForce 8800 series GPUs.
Today Microsoft is officially rolling out their new Xbox Experience user interface across all Xbox 360 consoles. Besides the new interface, the update brings additional features such as avatars, the ability to install games to the console's HDD, Xbox Live parties, and Netflix streaming.
In case you powered up your console this morning and the update wasn't there, be patient. According to Major Nelson, Microsoft is deploying the update in phases, so you may have to wait a few hours before it's available for your console.
Funcom's Age of Conan was one of the first titles we were told would sport DirectX 10 graphics, yet here we are, months after the game's release and the sole graphics option is still DX9.
That's about to change though, according to Craig Morrison, Game Director for Age of Conan, the next update will finally bring DX10 graphics to the game:
We are now preparing to take the DirectX 10 version of the game from our internal testing servers out to the public test servers, so you can see it for yourselves. The next major game update will include this version of the game and make it available for everyone with the appropriate hardware to enjoy. Since the outset we have been determined that the new DirectX 10 functionality would not just be a ‘gimmick’ addition to the game and would add visual quality to the game, we feel that the version we are preparing now for testing does achieve this and in a way that will find the right balance between visuals and performance. We have also gone to great lengths to try and make virtually all the DirectX10 features customizable so that you can find the right balance between features for the performance level of your hardware. What we did not want to do was push this version out too early and not see the real added benefits this technology can bring. I am really looking forward to players getting to experience some of the new visual improvements that this new technology allows. It really brings an even further splendor to the game world.
Keep your eyes out for the announcement of when the update will hit the public test servers so that you can try it out for yourselves!
The new update will also feature two new dungeon locations aimed at maximum level players. A specific date wasn't given, but considering that Morrison goes on to describe future updates in early 2009, you can assume Funcom hopes to have the DX10 update finished by the end of the year.
Pre-loads for Left 4 Dead unlocked promptly at 12AM EDT this morning. I was up for quite a bit of the whee hours this morning testing the game with the latest $200-$300 GPUs from ATI and NVIDIA.
Each year the Madden, NBA Live, FIFA, NCAA et.al series get their annual roster update tagged as a new release, yet the publisher continues to sell the games for $60. However, what if EA Sports was to offer a discount to purchase these games in exchange for an annual subscription fee?
According to this article on Gamespot, that's exactly what the company is considering doing.
Unfortunately EA doesn't provide any specifics, issuing a blanket statement to Gamespot: "we believe in the future that there are unique opportunities to launch a subscription-based program, however we have no announcements to make at this time."
Apparently this all started as the result of a fake circular ad suggesting Gamestop was offering a 33% off "Season Pass" program.
With the Nehalem launch behind them, you'd naturally assume Intel would now begin focusing on the launch of their mainstream Lynnfield and Havendale CPU cores to take on the sub-$1,000 PC market. Both CPUs will be based around Intel's LGA1160 socket with Lynnfield sporting quad cores and a dual-channel memory controller and Havendale shipping with just two processing cores.
However according to DigiTimes sources, Intel is now considering extending the life cycle of their LGA775 CPUs into 2011. These processors would become Intel's entry-level offerings, with revamped 4-series chipsets launching alongside the CPUs.
When Phenom II launches at CES in 2009 the CPU will sport a new naming scheme. While the company had originally planned to shift from their current four-digit scheme to a 5-digit model number, Expreview says the company now plans to use just three digits, with model numbers similar to Intel's Core i7.
The 3.0GHz Phenom II was originally to be introduced as the "20550", but now AMD has decided to name it the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition. The 2.8GHz part will be sold as the Phenom II X4 920. According to the Expreview article the first AM3 CPUs will ship in Q2'09, with a Phenom II X4 945 Black Edition running at 3.0GHz and a 2.8GHz Phenom II X4 925 coming in February. Expreview's roadmap also mentions X4 910 and 810 CPUs clocked at 2.6GHz with 6MB and 4MB of L2 cache respectively, as well as a 2.5GHz 805 part all coming in Feb.
Also launching in February will be AMD's first 45-nm triple-core CPUs. According to the report, AMD plans to offer two 3-core parts, all with 6MB of L2 cache. A 2.8GHz Phenom II X3 720, and a 2.6GHz Phenom II X3 710.
Also at Expreview is this report that NVIDIA plans to silently launch their 55-nm GT200 GPUs in December. If true, this suggests the new 55-nm parts will run at the same clock frequencies as today's 65-nm GPUs. Previously NVIDIA was expected to clock their 55-nm parts at higher clock speeds in order to improve their position against ATI's 4800 series GPUs.
The article also says NVIDIA is now allowing board partners to design their own GTX 260 and GTX 280 boards. The first non-reference cards should arrive in early 2009.
In case you haven't noticed, today is the official launch day for Intel's next-generation Core i7 (previously codenamed Nehalem) CPU. Starting today you should be able to go out and buy Core i7 processors, PCs, and motherboards from your favorite retailer of choice.
Ours happens to be Newegg. Already the site has listings for all three launch CPUs as well as eight Core i7 motherboards:
With 8-phase power, 6 DIMM sockets, 3-Way SLI and CrossFireX support, and speeds up to 500MHz, EVGA's X58 SLI motherboard is designed for enthusiasts looking to push their Core i7 CPU to its limits. Our board just arrived off the truck for review, but before our benchmarks are done we figured we'd share this quick preview of the motherboard.
With a street price of just $130 Gigabyte loads the EP45-UD3P up with tons of goodies. For starters its PCB sports twice the amount of copper as traditional motherboards in the ground/power layers, allowing the motherboard to disperse heat more effectively. The board also has tons of FSB options for overclocking. But that's not all, the board also has heatpipe cooling and CrossFire support. Read our review to see why we were so impressed with this motherboard!
This week Funcom updated the ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ live servers with the largest gameplay content addition since launch. By visiting the vast, new outdoor area of Ymir’s Pass players will now be able to find new quests to solve, new characters to meet, new monsters to slay and a dramatic new storyline to unravel. The update also includes a new dungeon – The Amphitheater – that holds one of the most epic and memorable monster encounters ever created for the game.
"This is an important update that opens up a lot of new gameplay content for players who have already passed the level fifty mark," says Game Director Craig Morrison. "In the months ahead we will introduce even more new content, and coming up soon are two exciting new high-level dungeons intended for players who have reached the maximum level. At this stage adding more content and keeping people entertained is very important to us!"
This free update is available to all ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ subscribers and the content will be downloaded automatically when launching the game. In the months following the launch of the game, Funcom has addressed several of the key concerns voiced by the players and have also added a series of new content and features. Recently the live servers received a major update to the player-versus-player part of the game, allowing players to become criminals based on their actions when battling other players. New armor, weapons and other content have also been added, and from a technical perspective the game has also seen major improvements in terms of stability and performance. Funcom remains determined to keep updating and improving the game, and will keep players posted on the updates that are planned in the months ahead.
Last month we reported on rumors that NVIDIA was prepping a "new" GeForce 9600 GSO based on their smaller G94 GPU (instead of G92) in an effort to cut manufacturing costs. The new 9600 GSO is equipped with half the shaders as the original 9600 GSO, 48, but retains G94's 256-bit memory interface (current 9600 GSO cards utilize a narrower 192-bit memory interface).
Today Expreview got their hands on one of the first of these new 9600 GSO cards from Inno3D. Their card is clocked at 650MHz core/1625MHz shaders, an improvement of 100MHz and 250MHz respectively over the original 9600 GSO. Finally the memory clock on the Inno3D 9600 GSO+ board is 900MHz, an increase of 100MHz over the original 9600 GSO.
Thanks to its higher clocks and 256-bit memory interface the new 9600 GSO's may perform comparably, or even slightly better than the original 9600 GSO in some situations despite its lack of shading units. Unfortunately Expreview doesn't list benchmark results for the card. Officially the GPU hasn't launched yet, but with current supplies of 9600 GSO cards drying up at Newegg (currently just 5 new cards are listed) and the appearance of this new 9600 GSO+ board, it's likely only a matter of weeks before the new cards hit retail. Expreview mentions an MSRP of $87 for the Inno3D card.
Fueled by a 35% increase in software sales for the month of October, the video game industry saw an 18% surge in overall sales last month (hardware sales were also up 5%).
Peter Molyneux's Fable II took home the top spot in game sales for the month, selling 790,000 copies of the Xbox 360 game, while Wii Fit, and Fallout 3 rounded out the top three.
On the hardware side, Nintendo's Wii continues to dominate the console sales charts, with Nintendo moving 803,000 Wii consoles. That's up from 687,000 consoles in September. Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console continued to hold the second place spot, with consumers buying 371,000 Xbox 360s last month (up from 347,200).
The only loser in hardware was Sony, with PS3 sales slipping from 232,400 units sold in September to 190,000 units sold in October, a decline of 18%.
Sales of portable consoles also declined during the month of October, with Nintendo selling 491,000 DS consoles while PSP sales slid to 193,000.
With games like Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War, and WoW: Wrath of the Lich King all debuting in Nov, video game sales should continue to post strong numbers.
November 13, 2008 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (Steam and Source), today announced its upcoming zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead, has gone gold and is now pre-loading to those who pre-purchased the game via Steam.
Left 4 Dead is the new survival action game from Valve for the PC and Xbox 360 that blends the social entertainment experience of multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress with the dramatic, narrative experience made popular in single player action game classics such as the Half-Life series of games.
Those who pre-order the game via Steam save 10% off the regular price and may pre-load the game so they are able to play at 12:01 am EST on November 18, 2008 when the game is made available.
The pre-order discount is also available for both the PC and 360 versions at participating retail outlets.
Playable in single player, co-operative, and multiplayer modes, Left 4 Dead is one of the most anticipated releases of 2008 and winner of numerous pre-launch awards, including Best of E3 from multiple outlets. The official demo for the game is available now through November 17 for the PC and Xbox 360.
Wondering what AMD's got in store for the next 3 years in terms of new CPUs? If so you'll want to check out this article. Inside we've got AMD's latest CPU roadmap, with analysis of their upcoming desktop and mobile CPUs. Find out what AMD has in store for the future in this article!
Spike TV has announced the nominees for their 6th annual video game award show premiering on the network Dec 14th. As usual, there are a couple of nominees that really boggle the mind (Fallout 3 best graphics??) Here are a couple of the categories that stood out in my mind:
While ATI's Radeon GPUs have technically supported their Stream processing initiative for some time now, up to this point the company hasn't provided tools to the general public that unleash the full potential of the technology, Folding@Home is the only real GPGPU app on the desktop for the consumer. That's about to change though.
Beginning with next month's Catalyst 8.12 driver release, ATI plans to incorporate a Stream-compatible graphics driver to the general public. Launching alongside the new driver is a new Avivo video converter utility. The utility harnesses the 800 stream processors inside the RV770 GPU to transcode video, offloading that task from the CPU. According to ATI, the Radeon 4850 can encode a 1920x1080 HD MPEG2 video up to 17 times faster than Intel's QX9650 Core 2 CPU, while a 4870 X2 is two times faster than NVIDIA's GTX 280 while using Badaboom, which sells for $30.
ATI is providing their Avivo video converter utility for free, with support for all Radeon 4600 and 4800 cards.
ATI is also partnering with ISVs to bring Stream computing to apps beyond the Avivo video converter utility. Next month ArcSoft plans to release an update to its TotalMedia Theatre application that will includes ArcSoft SimHD, a new type of post processing technology that allows consumers to experience close-to-HD viewing of standard definition content thanks to ATI Stream. In Q1'09 CyberLink plans to introduce PowerDirector 7 with support for Stream computing. According to AMD PowerDirector 7 will boast video conversion capabilities that go beyond the free Avivo video converter.
Catalyst 8.12 and the video converter are slated to be introduced on or around December 10th.
Today AMD officially launched their first 45-nm Opteron CPUs. Previously codenamed Shanghai, the new CPUs feature a larger, 6MB L3 cache, DDR2-800MHz support, and eventually HyperTransport 3.0 will be available next year. When combined with IPC and power consumption improvements, AMD says their new 45-nm Opteron CPUs deliver 35% more performance than their 65-nm Barcelona CPUs while drawing 35% less power at idle.
AMD is launching at speeds ranging from 2.3-2.7GHz, all with 75W TDPs. Faster CPUs will follow in Q1'09.
Also launching in Q1'09 will be AMD's first 45-nm Deneb desktop CPUs. These Deneb processors will be branded as "Phenom II" CPUs and are expected to launch at speeds as high as 3.0GHz, with support for AMD's existing AM2+ socket. For users who need a complete platform upgrade, AMD plans to unveil their Dragon platform alongside the Phenom II launch. According to the AMD press release, Dragon is a "second generation AMD performance desktop platform, featuring all next-generation components in comparison to the first generation AMD Spider platform released in 2008." However, the AMD PR then goes on to state that Dragon will utilize a 700-series chipset (most likely with SB750 South Bridge and ACC): "The AMD “Dragon” platform is designed to harness the power of fusion by optimizing the performance of new 45nm AMD Phenom™ II X4 quad-core processors with award-winning AMD 700 Series chipsets and award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series graphics."
In other words, it sounds like Dragon is nothing more than your average enthusiast can buy today, minus the 45-nm Phenom II of course. It's previously been rumored that AMD's next-generation 800-series chipsets have been delayed until well into 2009 and that AMD is prepping 790FX for AM3 duty to compensate.
ATI has released new display drivers for Radeon card owners, Catalyst 8.11. The new drivers ship with performance improvements as well as new features:
ATI CrossFireX™ Enhancements
This release of ATI Catalyst™ enables users to verify whether an application is
running in ATI CrossFireX™ mode. The new option found in the ATI Catalyst™
Control Center system tray, will allow users to verify whether a Direct3D or
OpenGL application is running in ATI CrossFireX™ mode. (The “ATI Cross-
FireX” logo will be shown on screen when the application is running).
HydraVision Support for Windows XP
This release of ATI Catalyst™ introduces HydraVision support for the ATI Catalyst
™ Control Center under Windows XP. HydraVision enables users to more
efficiently organize multiple applications across single or multiple displays. Highlights
include:
HydraGrid – A new feature found in HydraVision that divides the Windows
desktop into user definable areas. This helps users to more easily move and
organize multiple applications.
HydraVision Hotkeys – The ATI Catalyst™ Control Center Hotkey Manager
can assist users to quickly setup and define their HydraVision specific hotkey
commands.
HydraVision Virtual Desktops – Users can configure up to 9 different virtual
desktops. This enables users to manage and group multiple applications
across each user defined desktop. Application positions, desktop associations
and display settings can be saved for every virtual desktop.
HydraVision Wizard – Using the ATI Catalyst™ Control Center Wizard,
users can configure their HyrdaVision settings with ease.
New Display Enhancements
This release of ATI Catalyst™ Linux introduces support for display scaling to
resize the display devices that support TV timings (480i/p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p)
through either digital (DVI or HDMI) or analog (component) interfaces.
Performance Improvements
FarCry 2 – performance gains of 3 to 10% for Single card mode and 8 to 14% in
Crossfire mode, with some specific configurations showing even greater improvements.
Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and Radeon
HD3xxx products.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky – performance gains of 6 to 18% in single card settings
and 10 to 30% in CrossfireX mode. Performance gains were noticed on all
Radeon HD04xxx and Radeon HD3xxx products.
Speaking in an interview with T3 Magazine Online, Apple VP of iPod/iPhone Marketing Greg Joswiak proclaimed that portable game consoles like Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS are "more in the past", while Apple's own iPhone represent the future of portable gaming. Joswiak feels that the current portable systems are tied too closely to physical game media, while the iPhone/iPod Touch is geared entirely towards online revenue streams via the iTunes app store:
"That [electronic distribution] changes everything. Whereas apps on other devices have to be delivered primarily physically, they cost a lot more, £25 versus almost all the games cost £5, because they don’t have to worry about licensing and manufacturing hardware, they don’t have to worry about forecasting, returns, missing the forecast, what happens if there’s a problem with the product, you have the full back inventory here, again not only can the customer buy the apps from the apps store on every device, every iPod Touch and iPhone, but it also gives the developer the ability to update."
Besides the distribution and price advantage, Joswiak also mentions the 3D capabilities of their hardware versus Nintendo's in the interview, as well as the convenience of having phone, MP3, and games all in one device.
While some of Joswiak's arguments in favor of the iPod/iPhone over Sony PSP are definitely outdated, game devs are beginning to take a closer look at Apple's platform as a gaming device, including id Software. I have a hard time seeing Apple locking down exclusive titles with blockbuster names like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo do though.
Citing "significantly weaker than expected demand in all geographies and market segments", Intel has slashed their guidance for Q4. The company now expects sales to come in between $8.7 billion and $9.3 billion; originally Intel had forecast sales of $10.1-$10.9 billion for the quarter.
What's really surprising is the timing of the news, Intel had always planned to provide a mid-quarter business update, but said update was expected to occur after the Thanksgiving holiday. By pushing up the mid-quarter update so soon, Intel obviously feels things are even gloomier than originally expected, and isn't wasting any time telling the investment community.
Intel shares are currently down 7% in after hours trading on the news, expect other tech companies such as Dell, HP, AMD, and NVIDIA to fall during tomorrow's trading session.
The three companies have agreed to plead guilty to charges issued by the US Dept of Justice that they conspired to fix LCD prices in devices ranging from cell phones to TVs and monitors between 2001 and 2006. "The price-fixing conspiracies affected millions of American consumers who use computers, cell phones and numerous other household electronics every day," Thomas Barnett, assistant attorney general for the DOJ's antitrust division, said in a statement.
LG paid the largest fine, a whopping $400 million, for their role in the conspiracy, while Sharp agreed to pay $120 million.
With World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King coming out tonight at midnight, SteelSeries has announced a new 15-button mouse designed specifically for WoW:
CHICAGO - Nov. 12, 2008 - At BlizzCon® 2008, SteelSeries unveiled the first-ever World of Warcraft® Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) Gaming Mouse, co-designed with Blizzard Entertainment®. With advanced macro creation capabilities, 15 programmable buttons, six possible DPI settings and 16 million profile-specific illumination colors, the MMO Gaming Mouse goes beyond traditional mouse design to create a new type of in-game controller.
“Our concepts and designs cater to the global community of MMO players and for the first time, World of Warcraft players have a new type of gaming accessory that was created specifically for them," said Bruce Hawver, CEO of SteelSeries. “Through our recent acquisition of Ideazon and the wealth of creativity that the team brought to the table, it was a natural next step that we work with Blizzard Entertainment to create new products that help enhance players' World of Warcraft experience."
The World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse's graphic user interface is designed to be familiar to World of Warcraft players, with a look and feel similar to the game's interface. Illumination is tied to each profile for up to 10 different profiles with more than 16 million color choices. With easy to use drag and drop software, players can program all 15 buttons with over 130 in-game World of Warcraft commands.
Some of the features of the customizable World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse include:
15 programmable buttons plus scroll wheel that includes:
*4 way D pad on left side
*2 way button on each side
Custom macro creation
Real-time profile switching
Import and export profile capability
6 CPI (counts per inch) settings at 800, 1200, 1600, 2000, 2400 and 3200
3 possible polling rate settings of 250, 500 or 1000 Hz
Independent X/Y axis sensitivity settings
2.5 millimeter lift distance
“One of our design philosophies for World of Warcraft has always been to give players a high degree of freedom in customizing their experience," said Paul Sams, COO of Blizzard Entertainment. “The World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse extends that principle by putting a wide range of new control options in players' hands."
Available in late Q4 in time for the holidays, the World of Warcraft® MMO Gaming Mouse will be sold for $99.99 on NewEgg.com, Amazon.com, Microcenter, Dell and GameStop and is available for pre-order now. BlizzCon 2008 attendees were the first to see and test this original mouse at the SteelSeries booth.
Today the Entertainment Software Rating Board, more commonly known as the ESRB, launched a new addition to their game ratings: summaries. "Research shows that the vast majority of parents who purchase games for their kids are aware of and regularly check ESRB ratings, but parents can always use more help when making choices as to which games are right for their children. With our new rating summaries, which provide exclusive and unprecedented insight into the nature of the content that triggered a given rating assignment, parents will be that much more empowered in making those choices."
The new rating summaries will be available on the ESRB website, as well their rating search widget and a new mobile website for parents who would like to search ratings from their cell phone. The rating summaries are already online, with the ESRB providing summaries for all video games that have been rated since July 1st. For instance, the summary for Fallout 3 reads:
Fallout 3 is a action role-playing game set in the barren wasteland of a post-apocalyptic society. Players assume the role of a resident of an underground complex who emerges from a vault to explore a wastleland universe through a series of quests/missions. Mission objectives sometimes involve exploring various caves, sewers, and subway tunnels, while other quests involve combat with human and mutant survivors. Fighting can be frenetic and intense, highlighted by various camera effects (e.g., slow motion, blurring, screen shakes) and depictions of realistic dismemberment with trails of red blood. In one scene, players enter a black-and-white virtual reality simulation in which they use a kitchen knife to kill household members and pets. Characters are sometimes seen consuming fictional drugs (e.g., "Buffout," "Jet," and "Mentats"), while the player can also use – with no visual depiction of consuming/administering – a narcotic called "psycho," which with repeated uses leads to addiction. A screen-blurring effect indicates the state of characters' intoxication and the need to use the narcotic to fend off various side effects. Several of the characters are prostitutes and the details of their sexual activities are mildly insinuated (e.g., "You got the cash I got the time…I take care of men around here."). Strong profanity can also be heard throughout the game (e.g., "f*ck," "a*shole," and "sh*t").
Today Square Enix, known for their hit RPG titles, announced plans to publish Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander 2:
Square Enix Ltd., the publisher of Square Enix interactive entertainment products in Europe and other PAL territories (Square Enix), today announces that Square Enix, Inc., a U.S. sister company headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and development house Gas Powered Games Corp., a U.S. company headquartered in Redmond, Washington (Gas Powered Games) have formed a strategic partnership. With the commencement of this strategic partnership, development has begun on Supreme Commander 2, a sequel to the award-winning real-time strategy series.
This strategic partnership represents one of the first steps Square Enix Co., Ltd., a sister company of Square Enix headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, and its affiliates (collectively, Square Enix Group) are taking towards their goal of increasing western development efforts aimed for the global markets. Square Enix Group has previously worked exclusively with Japanese development companies, so the decision to form strategic partnerships with developers located outside of Japan serves as a new cornerstone of its strategy to create games targeted primarily at consumers in Europe and North America. Additionally, Square Enix Group's foray into the real-time strategy genre is a significant expansion of its product lineup, largely known for its leadership role in the genre of role-playing games.
"We see great opportunities in European and North American markets, both of which are expected to be maintaining sustainable growth over these coming years," said Yoichi Wada, president and representative director of Square Enix Co., Ltd. "Therefore, it is crucial we create alliances with proven developers such as Gas Powered Games in order to serve these significant markets better by providing products and services in tune with customer tastes."
"Gas Powered Games is an accomplished development house that has demonstrated its ability to successfully create and develop intellectual properties," said John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix Ltd. and Square Enix, Inc.. "We are extremely excited to begin working with Gas Powered Games' talented personnel and see this strategic partnership as a significant step in our efforts to bring Square Enix titles to a broader global audience."
Creator of hit titles such as Dungeon Siege, and Supreme Commander, Gas Powered Games was founded in 1998 by one of the game industry's most imaginative and dynamic visionaries Chris Taylor, who serves as chief executive officer. "It is truly a great honour to join forces with as renowned a developer and publisher as Square Enix, Inc." said Taylor: "Everyone at Gas Powered Games is thrilled about this collaboration, and the results will surely delight video game fans around the world."
Details on Supreme Commander 2 including gameplay features, platform(s) and release date will be available at a later time.
The latest Q3 figures for discrete add-in graphics cards are out, with Jon Peddie Research seeing a rise in overall units shipped during the quarter. According to JPR, 21.92 million discrete graphics cards were shipped during Q3, this is an improvement of 10.8% over Q2, which saw shipments of 19.78M units. However, during Q3'07 AMD and NVIDIA shipped over 25.84M units, so Q3'08 shipments were down on a year-to-year basis.
While graphics shipments were up during the quarter, average selling prices (ASPs) actually declined. JPR cites a more competitive AMD as the reason for the decline in ASPs. For instance, the Radeon 4850, priced at less than $200, significantly outperforms the 8800 GT, which was previously the performance champ at that price segment. From JPR: "AMD has by all accounts exceeded expectations with its Radeon HD 4000 series. Priced aggressively yet delivering solid performance, AMD's new line not only took back some market share - jumping up to 40% from 35% the quarter prior - it forced Nvidia (and partners) to cut prices on its recently released GTX 200 series product."
What can we expect for Q4? NVIDIA has vowed to bring a 55-nm GeForce GTX 200 series GPU to market, but with November nearly half over, the company is quickly running out of time. ATI is expected to continue on with their existing lineup until RV870 arrives sometime in the first half of 2009.
Mere weeks after returning from space, Richard Garriott, the creator of Tabula Rasa, has announced that he's leaving NCSoft to pursue new interests:
I am happy to finally be able to write the players and community of Tabula Rasa. We've been on quite a journey together. First in creating a game unlike any other on the MMO market, then growing a loyal community and finally launching the game and its players into space with Operation Immortality. It has been quite an unforgettable journey, one that I will treasure for the rest of my life.
I am very grateful to you loyal players for sticking around through what I think we can all honestly say was a rough launch. I thank the development team for pushing hard to get polish, updates and new content out every month since launch...a feat that I think is unusual in MMO development. They have a lot to be proud of.
Many of you probably wonder what my plans are, now that I have achieved the lifelong dream of going to space. Well, that unforgettable experience has sparked some new interests that I would like to devote my time and resources to. As such, I am leaving NCsoft to pursue those interests.
This news is difficult for me to deliver. I am honored to have worked with the team I've had and I'm grateful to the community who makes this game so unique and fun.
