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Hello, my name is Luke. I live in Australia and I've been on Gamespot for five years now. I'm also quite involved with the community here. I accept most friend requests and sometimes union invites. If you comment on my blog I may return the favor. Please have a look at my videos and reviews.
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• 29Nov 08

  November reviews

  

  

  

  Mass Effect

  When Mass Effect was released for Xbox 360, it was awarded with public and critic acclaim for its ground breaking features. Not long afterwards with Electronic Arts' acquisition of BioWare, PC gamers now get the opportunity to play this hugely anticipated title.

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  GRID

  When you think about the history of racing games, most major titles have been specific in one area, with few attempting to include everything at once. Not only does GRID deliver any racing experience you want, it manages to excel at them all.

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  Crysis

  If your PC can support Crysis' technical requirements, this is the best test you can run for all future video games. It must be said that Crytek have designed their portfolio around being a long term benchmark for others, not simply releasing everyday titles to be played and forgotten about, as is usually the case with most shooters on the market.

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  • Posted Nov 29, 2008 8:06 am PT
  • Category: Writing
  • 6 Comments
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• 16Nov 08

  Vantage is here

  Though they're a mainstay of the overclocking and benchmarking communities, Futuremark's 3DMark benchmarks have received considderable flak over the past few years for being nothing more than pretty, synthetic benchmarks that bear little relation to actual games. However, now that Futuremark has announced its own Games Studio, the benchmarks could represent a test of a real game engine. Of course, 3DMark also provides a vision of how games could look in the future - and they will look fantastic if 3DMark Vantage is anything to go by.

  So what's new in this version? Well, pretty much everything. While previous versions of 3DMark have often nodded towards their predecessors with enchanced versions of the same tests, or at least one test that uses the previous version of DirectX, 3DMark Vantage is a completely new suite of tests. The whole benchmark requires DirectX 10 - you can't even run it without Windows Vista and a DirectX 10 graphics card.

  
  
  The four tests that contribute to the score are also completely new. These take the form of two GPU and two CPU tests, although there's the usual set of optional feature tests, too. Presets are another new feature. Instead of just one standard 3DMark setting, such as 1,280 x 1,024 with no anti-aliasing, you can now pick from four.
  
  As a result, scores obtained using the new 3DMark Vantage will be prefixed with a letter that identifies the preset, and then divided into a total score, GPU score and CPU score. For example, a 3DMark score at the Entry preset could be E15000, and a score for the Performance preset could be P4500.
  
  The benchmark's new engine also features both opaque and translucent illumination such as subsurface scattering, shadow map generation and plenty of fancy post-processing effects, including bloom, depth-of-field, motion blur, film grain noise and volumetric fog.

  • Posted Nov 16, 2008 8:31 am PT
  • Category: Games
  • 9 Comments
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• 11Nov 08

  Back to the future

  Hey everyone, I'm back for a while. These past few months I've been occupied with MMO's and other single player games, which I'll talk more about later. Things have changed now though, as I'm starting work and attending college. This means I'll have less time for video games, but more time for internet browsing, Gamespot in particular.

  The site's recent redesign and upcoming improvements have encouraged me to tidy up my profile and update my blog with some interesting content for everyone. I might even write up a review or two in my spare hours just for the fun of it. It feels like I've been away from all this for too long, but then again the future looks bright, not just for me but the community as a whole.

  So I say to anyone reading this, remain active, keep posting, continue playing, let's make this the best place for gamer's to meet once again.

  • Posted Nov 11, 2008 8:05 am PT
  • Category: General
  • 10 Comments
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