Toms Hardware has
the scoop on a UK bidder who has just paid $15,100 for a frickin PS3 that will be out in quantity within a few months. Granted the Euro launch isn't until the spring but come on. His friends won't think he's cool. They'll be thinking, dude, you could have gotten a new car. Hell, he could have took a quick jaunt over to Amsterdam and gotten some really high priced lovin' for that.
1up hooks you up with 10 things you can buy with $600 since the majority of people won't be able to buy a PS3 until January. I would have included 2,000 chicken wings. Because, well, who doesn't like chicken wings.
This is very interesting, Sony
kills off the Official Playstation Magazine. This may be a good business move, I don't know, but it strikes me as interesting because, according to the article, Xbox's official mag is doing quite well. And, as something a sad event for me, Computer Gaming World magazine has rebranded itself
Games for Windows, the official magazine of windows games. Personally, I'm hopeful the whole Games for Windows marketing gig revives PC gaming as does Vista, but I don't know. Still, I loved Computer Gaming World, even if it had recently lightened its load a bit and stop doing official reviews though their articles sure looked and acted like a review (one of the dumber editorial things I've seen). Still a great magazine is no more, or rather has become a house rag. I've read the first issue of Games for Windows and it still is a lot like CGW and the editor swears that MS does not oversee their content, which I actually believe is probably the case. Still, just a strange day in gaming publishing if you ask me.
This isn't surprising, but World of Warcraft has over 50% of the MMO market. That's a big twinkie. Of course, being the MMO stranger that I am I had no idea Lineage was as big as it is. Between its two games, it has over 20%. Everyone else picks up the scraps. Its good to be Blizzard. Now, you think they could use all that cash to come out with a Starcraft or Diablo sequel? Its time.
I got this link BTW, from this rather interesting look at the state of the game at Slate, complete with ideas on where it should go from here.
Sony has managed to anger every gamer this side of the Atlantic with the PS3's high price point and forced Blu-Ray. Now with launch day fast approaching I point you to several articles on the Intertube( via the folks at Kotaku):
PS3 Backwards Compatability Has Some Kinks
360, PS3 Ridge Racer Differences
GameStop PS3 Launch Quantities Cut In Half
So you spend 700 bucks plus a couple of 60 dollar games and 50 bucks for an additional controller. For your trouble you get a console (um, excuse me a computer) that glitches on your old Playstation software library and doesnt look as good as your XBox. Wow, what a bargain! I have to wonder how the folks at Sony will spin this. You can always hope that you are one of the lucky ones and your pre-order has been cancelled.
So.... I've been toying with buying one of these because:
a) I love my DS
b) I have a bunch of GameCube games
c) I want the virtual console
One of the things that has bothered me though was the fact the Wii was not capable of DVD playback. Not a deal-killer by any means, but somehting I wanted. Well Nintendo has announced that North America will now get the DVD enabled Wii next year. Now many people have said the DVD playback doesnt matter now that DVD players are a dime a dozen and everything on the planet plays them. These folks dont have kids. I want my Ninty console to be a one-stop entertainment stop for my two boys when we go on a trip. Its small, compact and perfect for packing on the summer vacation. I'd love to pack a couple of Pixar movies along with the games and I don't want them anywhere near my laptop.
So I'm willing to pay for this feature -- an extra 30 bucks or so would be OK with me -- glad to see the Big N coming around.
Now this is kind of cool and, to me at least, is a big story since this runs counter to the standard console culture of one all systems are proprietary and identical. The PS3 manual apparently
tells you just how to install a new SATA hard drive that doesn't require opening up the box. It looks like any SATA hard drive will work. That's pretty cool. And since you may be able to
load a Linux distro on their as well you can turn it into a full fledged HD DVR in the near future I would bet. Of course, after you've upgraded the drive to a 300 or 400 GB bad boy, the price of the console approaches $800, which you know, isn't far off from the price of a computer. Still, kind of cool.
The time has come. My wonderful shoe box computer has served
me well. I've had it now for two years and eight months. For a computer
enthusiast like myself, that is way past time for an upgrade. Truth be told, it
has been performing satisfactorily for most of that time. Plus, I've had many
changes to my personal life in the last year (new job with way more
responsibility, 2
nd kid, new house) that I simply haven't had time
to play that many games. Perhaps you've noticed the lack of content on NG. This
is why. But, I'm starting to find more time for my gaming habit and the PC
gaming world is alive and well, albeit with fewer titles overall. I like to
think however, the titles that play on the PC seem to be, on average, of better
quality than their console counterparts.
The reality set in though that I needed to upgrade over the
last six months. About a year ago, Geb and I switched video cards. I gave him
my Radeon 9800 Pro in exchange for his Geforce 6800. He was building a new
machine and thus no longer needed the power it provided (since his old rig was
going to his son) so he figured the 9800 was all he needed for a kid's
computer. Most of the last year I have been having periodic lock ups after
gaming for awhile and I can only figure that the measly power supply in my
Shuttle is no longer up to the tasks. That, or the memory is going bad, I don't
know. The machine runs fine for the most part and did great at our annual New
Year's day LAN party, but the lockups are getting old and are even starting to
occur outside of gaming. Bottom line, something ain't right and I'm sure the
age of the machine is part of it. That, and oh yeah, I have to turn everything
down to play Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter.
Bottom line, it is time for a new machine. This series of
articles will tell the story of my shopping and building experience.
First off, what am I looking for in a new rig? The last time
I shopped, size really mattered. I was attending LAN parties more often so
lugging around the machine I was wanting to replace, which was in a steel Antec
server tower, was back breaking work. Myself and most of my friends were all
going the Shuttle route. I can tell you that I have been really satisfied with
Shuttle. Their small form factor boxes are the perfect size, are configured
well and the build quality is first rate. The beauty of Shuttle is that they
are designed for enthusiasts who build their own computers. Everything about
the box is well thought out. From the heat pipe design to the route of cables it's
really fairly easy to assemble your machine. The only down side you kind of
have to disassemble most of the parts to get to any one part other than the
video card. But, they can't change physics, so that is simply the nature of
such a small box.
Given that LAN party gaming is more of a rarity for me now,
the size of the case is lower on the priority list. So, I've got new
priorities. The new "must have" feature for my new box is low noise. Before the
new job, I worked from home for four years and most of that time I had at least
two machines running at any given time. The constant "whirring" of system fans,
hard drives and video cards has really gotten to me. I can't stand computer
noise. If it wasn't for my video game hobby, I most definitely would go the
quiet laptop route. I work 100% on a laptop for my job now and the silence of
my Dell Centrino laptop is a godsend.
So PC noise, or lack there of, is where I'm going to spend
my premium dollars.
My priorities in shopping are as follows, in order:
- Low PC
Noise
- Performance
- Value
I should say that Performance and value are one in the same.
I have a cap on what I'm willing to spend (roughly $1,400). Given that
$100-$150 is going towards features to make my PC quiet, the remainder will be
spent on the best performance for the price.
Another factor on performance is the impending release of
Windows Vista and DirectX 10. The computer I'm building will be Vista ready and
will probably fall above the "recommended" performance level from ATI's Vista testing tool but will be a bit below "optimal."
But, in October 2006, I am not going to overspend on tech for Vista.
This is what we know at this time about Windows Vista:
- Vista isn't out yet
- Vista will probably be released with a lot of bugs,
given that the Release candidates feel more like a beta
- There
will probably be a lack of hardware support, particularly on 64-bit
- DirectX
10 will almost certainly be buggy
- DirectX
10 video cards are still a month or two away and they will only be at the
very high end with mainstream cards at least six months out
- Video
games won't take full advantage of DirectX 10 until spring of next year,
at the earliest
- Basically,
for a gamer, there is no real need for Vista
and Direct X 10 until well into next year
The only feature in Vista
that has any appeal at this time is the Windows Live version of Xbox Live. But,
games that support that won't be out until next year either.
So, given that, I don't see the need to spend more than $350
(tops!) on a DirectX 9 video card. I certainly won't do an SLI or Crossfire
configuration at this point. I figure that I won't even think of upgrading to Vista until next summer.
In looking for a video card, I basically want something that
will play every game that is out right now at a fairly cranked up graphics level
(HL2, F.E.A.R, Oblivion, BF2 and BF2142). So, going dirt cheap on the card
isn't reasonable right now either, particularly for something like Oblivion.
That's why I'm targeting the $300 price range for video cards. A $300 card
purchased now should also be able to play upcoming titles like Bioshock and
Crysis at a fairly good level as well. I am purchasing the video card with the
full intention to upgrade it within 18 months. So I need something with some
oomph and some longevity (in the gaming world that is) but also I don't want to
break the bank. Hence the $300 price range, which fits in with the upper mid
range of modern video cards.
For the CPU, I am again looking at price/performance with
the willingness to pay a little premium for performance. I can say this
definitively: I will be switching back to Intel after having AMD power my last
three machines. I've said many times that I'm CPU agnostic. I really like AMD
and appreciate what they've done but, given that I'm buying right now, I can't
wait until the spring for them to produce an answer to Intel's Core Duo 2 line
of processors. The price range I'm looking at on the processor is between $300
and $400.
One reason I build my machines is so I can scavenge parts. I
will be taking the 250 GB SATA 150 drive I currently have with me to the new
machine. My DVD burner has been acting up so I'm just going to buy a new one
since they are cheap and basically commodity parts at this time. Basically, except
for the hard drive, everything will be new.
That's the lay of the land on what I'm looking for. I have
already done some research, the results of which I will discuss in my next
article. So, follow me along on the exciting experience of buying a new
computer.
A reader at Slashdot notes the continuing problems of Blu-Ray. So, has anyone referred to it as the Blu-tanic yet? Well, let me be the first. I'm sure it'll catch on. It just rolls off the lips don't you think?
Destructoid takes a stab at naming the greatest levels of all time. Pretty good list though I only recognize like maybe four of them. He lists Ravenholm from Half-Life 2 and that was a worthy mention since its the level that resembles a horror flick. Its also where we first get to use the gravity gun. I would also probably include "We've got Hostiles" from the original Half-Life. That's where we are first introduced to the famous Half-Life squad AI that at the time was rather groundbreaking. We also get our first shot at taking out a helicopter at the end of that level. Good times indeed.
Nomad Gamer is now under a new platform. We'll be working on updating the site's look and feel as we get used to Community Server. Please bare with us as we make this transition. We'll be porting the old content from the site in the near future.
We'll keep you up to date on our status. We hope to roll out the new and improved (and hopefully fairly spam proof) Nomad Gamer by next weekend. Thanks for your patience.
UPDATE: We are officially relaunched. We have ported over 90% of the content from the old site and will endeavor to get the rest over in the next week or two. Its a very time consuming task to get the old posts in.
William Shatner (Along with Patrick Stewart, Scott Bakula, Avery Brooks, and Kate Mulgrew) will lend their voices to Bethesda Softworks Star Trek: Legacy.
The register had a great quote from William Shatner saying:
"I couldn't imagine someone else playing Captain Kirk, even in a video game, so I kind of got a little territorial."
This is going to be a great inspirational 40th Anniversary treat for Star Trek fans. Check out the official site for the goods on the upcoming game....
If this doesn't float your boat then you could always watch the Bill Shatner Roast on Comedy Central this Sunday (August 20).
Toms Hardware talks to Euro-scientists about what's the best solution for gaming physics. Basically, the jury is still out but don't bank on Agea. Sounds to me like the ideal solution is lots of CPU cores with properly designed software to take advantage, but I'm not a scientist. I do think the scientist interviewed are a bit myopic. They look at properly designed physics as something nowhere close to obtainable. I know its a hell of a task. And I know that the game designers don't need to make perfectly realistic physics to make games fun and seem realistic. But the general attitude of the scientists interviewed was almost one of "why bother, its too complex." But, its a question of computing resources and lines of code. Ten years from now, I don't see any reason why physics won't be scary realistic in video games. And we are the very beginning of that technological leap. In the meantime, though, save your pennies and just enjoy the exploding barrels of Half Life for now.
According to Next Generation, E3 is done. I find this hard to believe so take with a grain of salt, but me thinks one doesn't post this unless they have something. Supposedly they have inside scoop.
Apprarantly the major sponsors think their marketing dollars can be better spent elsewhere. Possibly. I really doubt the game publishers are doing this. The source says that company focused events are the wave of the future. The only companies who would do this are the console makers and maybe EA. But you can't tell me E3 buzz hasn't had a direct impact on the sales of smaller firms like Crytek and Monolith. EA is big enough to have its own show. As are the console makers, which would probably have the game publishers present. What sucks is, once again, this means bad PR for the PC gamer because there won't be a big press event for the PC games (unless MSFT does some sort of hoo-ha). Either way, this will take a fair amount of the hype out of the gaming industry, at least from a "buzz" level. Buzz isn't everything but it feeds the fanboys which eventually feeds the bottom line of those pushing their products.
Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Here's the scoop. E3 is getting a major facelift, which is another way of saying they are cutting back because the big boys backed out.
I'm not sure what I think of this AMD + ATI deal. Its been rumored for weeks, so I can’t say I’m surprised. As a consumer who builds my own computers I'm not sure I like it since it no doubt will reduce my choices. Right now I have the choice of two great companies making processors and two great companies making graphics processors. I have the choice of several brands for chipsets on top of that. While I doubt this signals the death of AMD + nForce, I would bet that Crossfire is going to get all the sweat spots for AMD processors. And ATI will become persona non grata at Intel (yep, already happened). From what I've read, Intel and nVidia don't like each other very much so its possible those two won't work too well together but Intel + nVidia, in at least a heavily partnered arrangement, is almost certainly in the offing. And whither Via and SiS et al with all of this. So, as a consumer I'm a little worried about my choices shrinking. As you readers have gathered, I'm no fan of Apple, and it’s because choices that allow you to mix and match your system are not one of their values. I know, I know, this is supposedly a feature not a bug in the Mac world, but count me unmoved.
Is it a good move for AMD? Or ATI? No clue. The conventional wisdom is that this is not about the short term but the long term. The Inquirer's Charlie Demerjian spells it out in his typical "I know more than everybody else" fashion:
Anyone who looks at this with a time horizon of only a quarter or four is doing themselves and the companies involved a major disservice. Also, this deal has nothing to do with GPUs or chipsets, it is about the technology behind them.
The deal has many aspects but sadly the only one likely to be noticed in the short term is the money laid out, and that is unquestionably the wrong way to analyse this. There are both short and long term implications, the short term ones will batter the stock tomorrow because of myopic analysts, and the long will be of great benefit to those with foresight.
Specifically, the future of processing is to shove all the functionality into the processor with special mini-cores for each function. Cnet basically says the same thing, but in a less detailed but less pompous way (when compared to the Inq):
The key to the deal, however, is that it will give Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD the internal know-how to devise processors with integrated graphics and communications capabilities. That so-called system-on-a-chip would effectively provide all the intelligence a handheld device or low-end PC might require. In addition, the company will be able to do chipsets with integrated graphics and video chips for digital TVs--products that Intel makes now.
So, will these all-in-one processors be the preferred method of computing in the future? Will this include audio, USB or networking functionality too? If this is the way things are going then I can see it being the future for most desktop PCs in five years or so (I"m honestly not sure of the time horizon on this). I'm willing to bet however, that 3rd party cards for audio and video will be around for awhile for the enthusiast. What will the heat dissipation be for a performance chip of this nature? It'd have to be enormous. Then, of course, there is the question of whether integrated cores that do these functions can even perform as well as the add-on cards. History shows that they won't, but maybe the tech being discussed eliminates that with no northbridge to go through, since its sitting right on the die. I'm not smart enough to know or understand such things.
So, if the two articles I've linked to are correct and this is about a completely knew chip architecture compared to what we have today, then, it could be exciting for the consumer after all, though the number of choices could still be more limited. That will effect the tech, but it will mostly affect the wallet.
I sure hope this deal doesn't look like the hardware equivalent of the Time Warner AOL merger five years on. I have my doubts though I can't totally put my finger on the reason behind those doubts.
On a side note, I think it’s a little sad if this results in a souring of the AMD nVidia relationship (which it almost certainly will). nVidia’s nForce chipset helped make AMD not only the budget champ, but the performance and quality champ. Anyone who remembers Via’s numerous problems with their motherboard chipsets will know that nVidia stabilized the AMD processing environment. nVidia played a major role in removing the “lower quality” stigma from the AMD platform. Its unfortunate but inevitable that this detail will get lost in the move towards the new processing world that this merger brings to the fore.