GamersBeyond Community Blog

Welcome to my weekly news update. There has been a lot of news this week, more so than the past few weeks. Which is a shocker since GTA came out earlier this week, and I would think the rest of the media would be playing it instead of reporting.

Amd told CustomPC to expect completely new architecture to come to their CPU line soon. The article shows how AMD has been at the fore front at pushing processor technology and how they have recently slipped behind the bend when compared to the performance powerhouse of Intel.
Nothing specific was mentioned, but I for one feel a little drug through the mud with how little the CPU has evolved recently. it just seems that they slap more cores on it and in the end we have the same product with more potential that will never be fulfilled. Let’s hope that whatever AMD is brewing can outpace Intel enough to make a technical leap equivalent to the move to multi-cores.

Recently Bit-Tech had an interview with Nvidia’s David Kirk after a promotional event in the EU promoting the idea of the GPU being used for general computing. What I could gather was about how the GPU is designed with multithreading in mind and thusly has become more efficient at processing in tandem across multiple cores than the standard dual or quad cores from Intel.
I have noticed this tread where the CPU has become less important, in fact my standard for processor selection has for a while been to choose the slowest processor with the most cache, this is usually the processor from the current line-up that falls into the $300-$350 range, and I don’t feel as to have lost any power or performance. I say if you are on a budget make sure that you get the best GPU and memory you can, and if you don’t feel like over-clocking everything else can be more budget priced. Check out the interview. There is a ton more that I don’t have room for here.

One of my favorite interviews from the week was from Doug Lombardi(Steam) by gamesindustry.biz. one thing in particular that I enjoyed was how MS and Yahoo both rejected steam for development back when they were pitching the idea for digitally distributed games… the killer (besides how much they are probably kicking themselves) is the quote above about how their desire to distribute patches and games digitally was something we wouldn’t see in our lifetimes.
there is a lot of other good info in here about how the PC is far from dead and how the misperceptions of the general public is causing this negativity towards PC gaming. go ahead and read it if you are an avid steam user and want to see where it came from and some of the ideas behind the proclaimed saviors of PC gaming.
::link(”http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/the-last-of-the-independents-”,”GamesIndustry.biz”)

Western Digital’s new Velociraptor, the replacement to the awesome raptor drives of old was reviewed by our good friends at ExtremeTech(I’m actually not sure they know we exist, but I like the sound of this better). The Velociraptor is a 10k/2.5 inch SATA drive that outperforms every other hard drive in its class and increases the capacity from the previous variant to 300GB.
Love the speedy hard drives, but the $300 price tag is a little offsetting. This is a must buy for those that need to keep files in a fast raid and can afford the price that something like that would cost. For the average gamer getting something like this will either decrease load times if you have your game and only your game installed on it or if you have your OS loaded here it will decrease your boot times… though the decrease of time will be barely noticeable and would hardly warrant the price tag.

Engadget got their hands on the new Psystar Mac clone and ran some tests comparing it to a standard Mac, I know that Macs aren’t really known for their gaming but that is one thing that is slowly being worked on by the advent of running windows on Mac hardware. And seeing as the Psystar has higher quality hardware than the standard over priced Mac it is interesting to see the differences.
I would only recommend a solution like this if you are required to daily use a Mac and also want to play games without having to have multiple boxes. go ahead and see if something like this Mac clone can fulfill what you desire. As for me, I plan on doing a video soon enough (read: when I get back from Korea) that goes through the steps of setting up multiple OSs and multi-booting to allow you to run what you want where you want. Keep posted for that, and if you have any ideas for a show let me know in the forums.

In an interview with eurogamer.net, Mark Rein(Midway) shared some info that currently there is no unreal game in development, and no plans for any games in the future. While he did say that it was likely for them to release something in the future, only time could tell. Currently they are working on releasing the 360 version of Unreal Tournament III, continued support and releasing of DLC for all versions, and new unnamed IPs that I would only assume would take advantage of their engine.

This past week saw the release of the biggest game in history, GTA4. With sales in the millions and profits far exceeding any game to come to market, it is only a matter of time before this giant comes to PC; for the time being though there are no updates as to when it may be so don’t hold your breath as I am sure they want to ride out the console success before pushing a new platform.

Great news for the indie development studios that want to take use of steams functionality; The Steam Works SDK is now free, including features such as product key authentication, copy protection, auto-updating, social networking, matchmaking, anti-cheat technology, and more, this is quite possibly the best medium for an indie developer to release their games.

Priced at $20, episode 1 of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness will be available later this quarter via a new digital download service; GreenHouse from www.playgreenhouse.com. The game is an RPG adventure hybrid that follows the protagonists of the online comic series from pennyarcade.com. An enjoyable looking game, I am sure with its budget price and quick witted humor this game is sure to entertain, plus it is a good test of the greenhouse digital distribution service.

Soon the Age of Conan beta will go open, if you are currently playing and have a lvl 13 char it will be bumped up to 20 and given tons of cash. If you are new then you should expect to download 12 gigs of Conan before you get to play it… definitely a huge game but this is one MMO that is worth it. if you are getting tired of WoW, the combat system, the graphics, the magic, and basically the rest is a fresh envisioning of the standard MMO fare.
One thing to remember is that it is currently in beta, if you are one that is easily upset with game dis-functionality then it may be best for you to wait until the official release later this may. The price for the retail package is $60 and $15 a month after the free month that comes with the game.

Diablol3.com, formerly owned by a dedicated diablo fansite was recently purchased by blizzard. there are no details as to the development state of diablo or if they are even in development, I expect some sort of news or a video to be revealed this year at the Paris blizzard worldwide invitational. Keep your fingers crossed for the game that should reclaim the term “diablo clone” as the standard of action RPG games.

With intentions to restore the status of the once epic Atari, Infogrames finished purchasing the loose remaining 48.6% Atari stock. This should let the company focus on internal affairs and making the best games they can. I know that I am anticipating the new Alone in the Dark game coming later this year, let’s hope for retro sake that they can pull together and make quality games. on that note, maybe it would be wise to refocus on the games that made them popular in the first place, make redesigned casual games that perfect the graphics and gameplay that made them famous before; just an idea, what do you guys think?

In regards to the competition or “war” of sorts between Nvidia and Intel to provide superior graphics and powerful processing, new technologies are on the horizon. This blog article goes over some the benefits and probably outcomes that we can look forward to in the near future.

Game packaging has taken many shapes in the past, if you have bought a game in the past few years you know now that the standard package is just large enough to house the CD case with no room for anything else. This design is best for pushing mass amounts of games to the shelves and also lets retailers put more of a selection for us to buy, but it hasn’t always been like that. Take a look at game box history, some of the good

Get your stargate MMO beta here!
Apparently it is quite popular, maybe it is worth a look?

Prince of Persia was announced this week, for fans of the series this is fantastic. The story is supposed to be a completely new arc and is supposed to have an illustrative, almost cartoony, art style.

A game that a lot have been looking forward to this year was pushed for a 2009 release. prototype, the open world, shape-shifting, spike-stabby game that has all of us mature game players salivating at the lips… won’t come out this year, maybe they can put multiplayer back in? Maybe co-op? Doubt it but I keep wishing.

In an update to Portal, to be released later soon, all 40 of the 2d flash based levels are getting the 3d makeover they deserve. Keep an eye out and make sure to play this when it hits steam!

Digital distribution isn’t new, steam has been doing it for a while now, but it’s good to see blizzard finally embracing it. Currently available is Warcraft 3 and Starcraft plus the expansions, though I am sure that library will grow to include WoW and the various expansions that are associated. It would also be nice to see some of the old library,Lost Vikings for instance.
Sign up for an account to be added to the blizzard beta lottery!

Audiosurf, the steam released game that created procedurally generated “race” tracks created to the beats and tunes of any MP3 or audio track found on your system, has just been updated to include your last.fm radio station and includes the ability to recommend tracks based on your previous or favorite tracks.
Also, you are able to install plug-ins that add a lot of functionality including starting from the context menu when right clicking on an MP3.

If you are interested about the performance between the different levels of SLI, you might want to check this out. Not much else to say, if you are looking to purchase an SLI configuration I would recommend looking at this article.

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