PC Gaming Blog

Get Free Games For Christmas from GoodOldGames.com

Brian Healy — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:14:58 GMT

Online gaming store, GoodOldGames.com has announced that it will be giving free games as Christmas presents to all users who currently have or create an account on the site before the big day.

GoodOldGames.com (or GOG.com), which is run by the developers of The Witcher PC game, will be giving away two free games – Beneath A Steel Sky and Lure of The Temptress. GOG.com specialises in the supply of classic and hard-to-find game titles and operates in a similar fashion to Valve’s Steam service. Beneath a Steel Sky is a sci-fi adventure about a dystopian future while Lure of The Temptress is a swords-and-sorcery fantasy adventure.

The games which are on offer have been freely available from Revolution Software for a few years now, but GOG.com guarantees they’ll run on your system no matter the OS, thanks to some re-coding and DOS emulation tweaks. GOG.com’s available games to buy are also reasonably priced, weighing in at $5.99 and $9.99 price bands and are DRM-free into the bargain!

Membership to the GoodOldGames.com website is free; you only pay for what you buy, so why not pop over and pick yourself up two classic adventure titles just for signing up?

World of Kung Fu Screenshot Contest

Brian Healy — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:04:50 GMT

Well, those of you who read my articles and reviews already know that I am an avid World of Kung Fu player – along with several other MMO games. So, when VestGame Entertainment and Zownder.com announced that they are hosting the first screenshot contest for this sweet game, I had to write some blogs and articles to let all of you gamers out there know the scoop.

So, here's the dish on this contest...

It is just like all the other screenshot contests out there – players take screenshots of their favorite parts of the game, massive battles, school wars, or just cool shots and then they send them to Zownder to be hosted on the Zownder.com site. The one different thing about this contest when compared to other MMO screenshot contests is that Zownder will allow readers, players, and general visitors to the site to vote on their favorite shots as they are posted on the Zownder site. Most MMO screenshot contests only choose winners that the editorial staff choose – which can sometimes be one person. So, not only do the players get to send in their favorite shots, they also get to vote for their favorites as well.

But what about the prizes man!? Right? (I know that's what you're saying... it's ok.)

The prize list for the contest is actually pretty impressive, I'm surprised that there is such a long list – that even includes mounts. (For those of you who don't play World of Kung Fu, the prizes that are on this list that are items are from the Item Mall that players purchase with real money. These items are then transferred to their in-game character to be used or sold. Some items are bound to that player, and others can be sold to other players for pretty decent in-game gold.) So, for those of you out there who are interested in what you can get out of the deal, here is the prize list:

Grand Prize:

1 Xuan Wu (Permanent) – for those that don't play the game, this is a top of the line mount and one that you keep permanently.

30 Sky Pearls – these are a special material that is used to make higher level armor, weapons, and clothing.

30 Forging Safety Charms

30 Advanced Craftsman Charms

20 Forging Vouchers #16

20 Forging Vouchers #17

1 copy of the Official World of Kung Fu Leveling Guide

Your character name and your winning screenshot in the Official World of Kung Fu Strategy Guide

Your winning screenshot posted on Zownder's main page for 30 days

First Prize:

1 Xuan Wu (only a 7 day mount)

20 Sky Pearls

20 Forging Safety Charms

20 Advanced Craftsman Charms

5 Forging Vouchers #16

5 Forging Vouchers #17

1 copy of the Official World of Kung Fu Leveling Guide

Your character name and winning screenshot in the Official World of Kung Fu Strategy Guide

Your winning screenshot posted on Zownder for 30 days

Second Prize:

20 Sky Pearls

15 Forging Safety Charms

15 Advanced Craftsman Charms

3 Forging Vouchers #16

3 Forging Vouchers #17

1 copy of the Official World of Kung Fu Leveling Guide

Your winning screenshot posted on Zownder for 30 days

Third Prize:

10 Sky Pearls

10 Forging Safety Charms

10 Advanced Craftsman Charms

1 copy of the Official World of Kung Fu Leveling Guide

Your winning screenshot posted on Zownder for 30 days

Editor's Pick:

The editor's will pick one of the non-winning screenshots that they liked the best and place it in the Official World of Kung Fu Strategy Guide.

What a list... so, for those of you that play this cool MMO game, you want to start getting your screenshots right away and submitting them on the 15^th of September when the contest opens. The contest runs from September 15^th to the 30^th, so you want to make sure that you enter your favorite screenshots asap!

Not sure how to take a screenshot? Perhaps this guide to taking screenshots in MMORPGs will help!

Good luck!

ATI Comfirm Use of GDDR5 on ATI Radeon Graphics Cards

Brian Healy — Wed, 21 May 2008 09:31:00 GMT

Further to AMD's announcement of the launch of their 4800 series of graphics cards, the company have revealed the first commercial implementation of GDDR5 memory, which will feature in the forthcoming next generation of ATI Radeon graphics cards.

The high-speed, high-bandwidth technology of GDDR is likely to become the new industry standard in the future and will allow greater expansion of GPU capabilities. The company is believed to be working with a number of leading memory providers, including Samsung, Hynix and Quimonda to bring GDDR5 into the marketplace.

As things stand today, GPU performance is restricted by the rate at which data can be moved both onto and away from the graphics chip. This is directly impacted upon by the memory interface width and die size, and the higher data transfer rates of GDDR5 will address this. GDDR5 runs at speeds of up to five times faster than GDDR3 and four times faster than GDDR4 and will allow for more bandwidth over a narrower memory interface.

AMD believe the use of GDDR5 will greatly enhance PC graphics, allowing gamers to play games at higher resolutions and levels of detail than before, and will also benefit CPU intensive applications, such as video encoding.

Electronic Arts Extend Takeover Deadline

Brian Healy — Wed, 21 May 2008 09:17:49 GMT

Back in February, games giant Electronic Arts launched a $2 billion takeover bid of Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series. After being thwarted in the initial bid, Electronic Arts then offered to buy all outstanding Take-Two Interactive stock for around $26 dollars per share. The price for TTI shares closed at only a dollar less than EA's valuation on the day before the original offer was made.

This offer too was subsequently vetoed by the board as being inadequate, especially considering at the time, the imminent release of the hugely anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV. GTA IV went on to amass over $500 million dollars in its first week of release, subsequently greatly improving the value of TTI, whose shares currently trade around dollar above EA's valuation.

EA, however, not to be put off by the latest rebuttal have extended the offer deadline, which now expires on June 16^th. However, it is believed that EA have not increased their offer further and have claimed that while they are interested in taking over TTI, they are not 'desperate'.

The US Federal Trade Commission has requested to study details of the proposal, which may allude to the reason why EA have extended the offer deadline, but its likely that unless EA considerably up their offer, then TTI will not bend and will continue to thwart EA's efforts, however TTI have not yet irrefutably ruled out any sale and are actively holding formal talks with regards to sell it's assets. However, it's patently clear that the firm are holding out for a fair price.

Given the value injected into Take Two after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, they are in a strong position. Electronic Arts, in contrast, have been struggling for some time now and only recently reported a fourth quarter loss of $94 million, as well as issuing warnings that revenue estimates for the first half of 2009 will likely not be met.

ATI Radeon 4800 launch revealed

Brian Healy — Sun, 18 May 2008 16:43:22 GMT

AMD have announced that they will soon be launching their next generation of Radeon graphics cards - the Radeon 4800 series - around June. It had been expected this month, and the new date - routed to be around Week 25, which places it between June 15th and 22nd means it will debut after the launch of Nvidia's GT200 chip when it had been previously expected that AMD would beat Nvidia to the punch.

There are three models expected of the 4800 series - the 4850 (codenamed 'Makedon'), 4870 and 4870 X2. The 4850 is expected to be the first to hit the shelves, and featuring 512MB of GDDR3 RAM, it should be available in quantity and will replace the Radeon 3850 graphics card. It is also expected to feature a single slot cooling solution, and will be Crossfire X compatible.

The Radeon 4870 graphics card will be released in July, featuring 512MB GDDR5 RAM while the X2 version will be fitted with 1GB of GDDR5 RAM.

Other key aspects of the new card will be AMD's GPGPU physics processing and improved HD video decoding. Some models will also be able to route 7.1 surround sound via HDMI.

Given the prices touted for the launch - the 4850 should retail around the $200 mark - it seems that AMD are making a concerted effort to gain market share in the mid-range graphics card market and appeal to those buyers looking to balance performance with price. It'll be interesting to see how Nvidia react