• 6Aug 08

  New Computer *frag!*

  Huzzar! Finally my new computer has been built, overclocked and tweaked so as it can finally be labelled as finished!

  As this was my first build and I live in a heavilly carpetted and cat-inhabited house I was somewhat skeptical about spedning a boat-load of money on static-hating computer components. But once my room was filled with boxes of graphics cards and processors aprehension turned into glee as my computer took shape.
  
  Of course, when you get a new computer you can't help but go back and play your old games to see how much it beats the living daylights out of old one.

  Crysis actually runs, smoothly - success! Even at 1680x1050 the game runs smoothly, plus with the added help of this mod it looks fantastic.

  Oblivion has at last been tamed. Once a game that killed my old 7900GS has itself been defeated, as I have installed Quarl's texture pack, put everything to high and forced 8xQSAA on it and it still runs smooth as silk. Randomly attacking Imperial Guards and getting mauled and killed to death has never looked so good.

  World in Conflict was a tricky one. It was better than my old computer, as I could turn up everything to high and have the game still run, but it wasn't the blisteringly smooth thing that I had expected it to be. However, after I overcloked my processor to 3.4Ghz I was able to turn on DX10 rendering and it now plays above 30 FPS at all times. Ooooh pretty explosions...

  So yes, after all yapping I guess I should post my specs:

  ASUS P5N-D nForce 750i
  Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.4GHz
  Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
  4GB Corsair 800MHz RAM
  500GB 7200rpm Seagate Barracuda, 32MB Cache
  2 x 8800GT in SLi
  Corsair 620W HX Modular PSU
  CoolerMaster Dominator Case

  Yum yum I have to give a special thank you to SonicSurfer for a lot of help he gave me regarding basically the whole build, including giving me the right OCing frequencies, which without I probably wouldn't have known where to start to overclock and ended up setting my new comp on fire.
  
  I'm also using Vista 64, and I don't care what people say - it runs great. I did have XP Pro installed but it was laggy and buggy so I switched to Vista which beats it hands-down.
  
  The bottom line is I built this awesome comp myself and it makes every frag I get that much sweeter.

  • Posted Aug 6, 2008 4:03 pm PT
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• 30Jul 08

  E3 '08, Or: Why I Learned To Stop Caring And Love The Casual Gamer

  This isn't really a post about E3 2008 because I never really watched it all - I was too buy lounging in the sun drinking sangria to give a toss about the Internet (crazy I know, but four glasses of sangria can do that to you). But when I did come back from my holiday I was in for a rather nasty shock:
  
  

  Oh dear. I think Nintendo just tried to murder E3 once and for all - and not in the death of King Hamlet sneaky way using posion in the wine, but more the Mr T bends you over and makes you pity yourself for going to the Nintendo E3 press conference way.

  What person, who decided to spend three days in a computer games orgy surround by camera-wielding journalists fighting each other to play the latest version of Killzone to see if it really is better looking than real life (SPOLIER: it's not) is going to give a rat's ass about *inhale* "Family entertainment"??! The very notion that Nintendo decided to introduce thaeir soccer-mom-lets-all-get-together-and-bake-cakes marketing goon at a hardcore gaming event like E3 is tantamount to doing a moonie at everyone who survived the three day game demo cage fight, or worse - stayed up to watch it on Gamespot Live.

  Perhaps this is what E3 has come to and we should just lay it to rest. Or perhaps this isn't the end of the soccer mom invasion. Perhaps we will soon be seeing "Soccer-Mom Sony" or "Miss Microsoft". Dear God...

  I need more sangria.

  • Posted Jul 30, 2008 4:12 am PT
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• 23Sep 07

  In time to finish the fight

  Postmortem
  
  Subject: Xbox 360 games console...
  
  Time of Death: Just after lunch...
  
  Cause: The dreaded Three Red Rings.
  
  Ok, to be honest, my 360 died 6 months ago; just outside it's warranty. Between then and Microsoft extending the warranty, there was no way I was going to pay £85 to get a big white box of plastic fixed. However, a resignation letter signed by Peter Moore and 1 billion dollars later and my 360 is back in my living room. And just in time to finish the fight, too. What a nice day Unless you're the one handing out free repairs, of course
  • Posted Sep 23, 2007 12:37 pm PT
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