The subject is has it's supporters and it's opponents, but in this capitalist society it must be remembered that all the decisions made by the developers, the publishers, and the retailers are based on the money (be it dollars, euros, pounds or yen). What's good for 'my' business.
If those choices alienate the gamer... if those decisions make the player happy... it's business.
My biggest gripe for any of the DRM methods that require on-line activation: Please take into account that my gaming rig may intentionally not have a net connection. I surf with something just good enough to read the posts and see the pages (and get the hints and cheats at the same time my game is running on the other tower). Why should I have to hook my rig to the Web just to activate?
A useful review. AMD has been my choice for many years now so it's helpful to see what's coming and how it stacks up against previous processors and Intel's units. I like how they're going to be backward compatible... a trend I'd like to see more of when feasible. Mind you it'll mean a new motherboard for me in the event of upgrading. My current board isn't even "AMD+1" let alone AMD+2 ready. It looks like a slight performance improvement given the testing conditions and the price set is fair... but I'm thinking I'll give it some more time before I seriously look at upgrading. Competition is good for business. Forces Intel and AMD to try new and better while keeping the $$$$ down.
Whatever the reason for Nvidia to have such a dramatic price difference between its 8800 GTX and 8800 GT seems irrelevant. This artice simply showcases ATI's most recent move in the ongoing video-card wars. No matter whose product you prefer, just wait for a little while and you'll see the former winner become the new loser. My preference has been ATI products for years. For the longest time I said it was due to the levels of anti-aliasing available only to ATI products. Right now I prefer them because it is what I have been using for more than a decade. This could be a, "Yeah!" for my team, but I know it is a temporary victory until nVidia comes up with something new.
What a surprise. Windows designed such a memory intensive OS even though they must have known the average user that wanted to upgrade can't always manage to add more RAM. So here we have the half-arsed fix to a system problem that should be corrected within the OS itself. Nice. No really...nice.
Any chance the performance bars for comparison charts could be in more colors than red? There are some people that can't see the whole color spectrum. This is especially important when there are actual values assigned to a bar, like in the distance draw test chart.
I hope I can depend on there being a working Internet on this desert island. I'm a PC only player but I like a few that have multi-player options. 1 - Rise of Nations and it's expansion Thrones and Patriots. I always come back to this after I get bored with my other titles. I love using the "Random" buttons for changing factors that can alter game play each time. 2 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. 'Nuff said. 3 - The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind plus the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions. Bethseda Softworks has created worlds that can occupy months of time just following the main quests; let alone the expansions, side-quests, and general exploration and screwing around that can take place when you get bored following the main storyline. I still load this one from time to time and try something different. 4 - Neverwinter Nights. Another fine game that has many options for exploration beyond the main story and allows character customization that I seldom get bored experimenting with. 5 - Freelancer. I departure from my usual fantasy themed games but yet another open-ended experience with an engaging main quest.
I lost faith in the Intel processors a few years ago and have no intention of going back just because they have a shiny, new toy. I am more than happy to stick with AMD's Athlon FX line.
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