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28-Feb-2008
New Mouse Coming From Razer?
27-Feb-2008
Most Anticipated Games Of 2008?
We're already two months into 2008 and quality PC games have been a bit thin on the ground.
But don't despair, as there are some big games that are due to hit the stores later this year. Most of these are featured in an article at 1Up, where they've compiled a list of their most wanted games for the PC.
I can't really pick fault in their choices, but my own top 5 for the year are as follows:
1. Left 4 Dead - I just love zombie films and games, and this looks to capture the true spirit of the survival-horror genre while being great fun to play. With superfast zombie hordes and 'special' player-controlled boss zombies, this is going to be a tough battle for the human survivors.
2. Fallout 3 - a sequel to these classic games is long overdue. It's in safe hands at Bethesda, and the switch to 3D should really bring the gameworld to life.
3. Rage - something of a departure from id's usual games, I like the sound of this driving/FPS exploration type-game. At the very least it should have a bit more depth than Doom 3!
4. Borderlands - in concept this sounds very similar to Rage, but the game features a content generation system that allows for countless variations of missions, environments, enemies, weapons, item drops and character customization.
5. Dragon Age - a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, one of the biggest and best RPGs of all time and still one of my favourite games. Come on Bioware, make us proud to have a PC again!
25-Feb-2008
Crytek 2 Engine Simulates Bravia Ball Ad
If you've seen the Sony Bravia commercial where they release thousands of rubber balls onto the streets of San Francisco, you'll love this video from GDC2008.
Using the power of the Crytek 2 engine, Crytek have recreated the Bravia advert as part of a tech demo at GDC2008, and it looks really good. It certainly makes a great showcase for the abilities of both the graphics and physics capabilities of the engine.
The only odd thing is that in the Crytek version the bouncing objects aren't balls ... they're teapots! Weird, huh?
There's also a split-screen comparison available, showing the two videos together.
22-Feb-2008
Dell Discounts At SVP
Looking for a new PC or laptop and want to save a bit of cash?
I've just been emailed about an offer at SVP where they're knocking 10% off Dell products.
The Dell machines they offer are a mixture of new and refurbished stock, and the refurbished machines typically have a 3-year Dell warranty included in the price.
All Dell stock can be delivered next business day and if you're spending over £300 delivery's free! (UK mainland)
Use the coupon code dellclear to get the 10% discount, but hurry up as the coupon expires at 11.59pm on Thursday 28th February.
Far Cry 2 - News From GDC2008
The Games Developers Conference (GDC 2008) is happening right now in San Francisco, and this generally means loads of previews and demonstrations of upcoming games.
Of all of the news that's filtered through from the show, one game in particular caught my attention. Far Cry 2 is already shaping up to be a big hit, and IGN have posted some details of a presentation by Dominic Guay, Technical Director of Ubisoft Montreal, that suggest the game is going to break new ground in terms of its design.
Guay was talking about the developer's decision to go for procedural data generation rather than pre-built and heavily-scripted scenarios in the game world.
When I first read this I thought it meant they were generating events in the game world on-the-fly, in a similar vein to Stalker, but it turns out they're doing more than that. They've taken a radical approach and are applying it to things such as texture and model generation. I won't try to explain it, as the article covers this more eloquently than I'd manage.
Suffice it to say that this sounds like a great idea. As the article explains, it should cut down on development time and allow for more realistic simulation of things such as clouds, fog, fire and wind, and even indivudual objects such as trees.
I just hope that Ubisoft's ambition doesn't cause any holdups to the release date, as much of the delay in Stalker's release was caused by the desire to simulate the game world rather than script it, and the enormous amount of testing that required.
If Ubisoft can carry it off, Far Cry 2 will be shaping up to be an excellent game.
19-Feb-2008
Fallout 3 - Small But Beautifully Formed
Size matters, or so the saying goes, but it would appear that Bethesda are going against traditional 'bigger is better' thinking by opting for a smaller world for their upcoming title, Fallout 3.
Their previous game, Oblivion, featured a sprawling world for you to explore freely. For Fallout 3 the team are currently planning to reduce the size of the game world slightly, but with more of an emphasis on quality.
In a recent interview with Gameplayer, Pete Hines (spokesman for Bethesda) says that although no-one had yet walked Fallout 3's post-apocolyptic landscape from end to end, it's estimated to be 50 to 80 percent of the size of Oblivion's map.
This makes great sense to me. While the Oblivion landscape was beautiful and initially great fun to explore, it did get a bit boring after a while. After all, when you've seen one grassy hill with a secret cavern, you've seen them all. Also, don't forget that Oblivion's landscape was enormous, so even if Fallout 3 is only 50% of the size, it's still going to be a big place to explore.
One of the strengths of the old Fallout games was the detail in the landscape that really added to the atmosphere of the game world. Concentrating on a tighter but more interactive environment for Fallout 3 should help with the sense of immersion, and combined with the 3D engine will really bring the gloomy world of apocalyptic Washington D.C to life.
17-Feb-2008
Roccat Kone Release Delayed
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14-Feb-2008
The Dividing Line Has Moved!
Depending on how you got here, you may have noticed that the blog's address is different.
I've finally got round to changing the site to a proper domain name, www.dividingline.co.uk.
Thanks to the magic of Blogger, the old address (dividingline.blogspot.com) should still work, but you may want to update your favourites (if you've been kind enough to add the site).
The RSS feeds are still using the same Feedburner address so there's no need to change those.
Now to get settled in! There's plenty to do, as some images no longer work and I also need to get the internal links tidied up. If you notice any broken links on the site please drop me a note in the comments for this post and I'll get them fixed!
13-Feb-2008
GTA IV: Back To Basics
"In many ways it's a bigger leap going from San Andreas to GTA IV than it was going from 2D to 3D."
So says Jeronimo Barrera, Rockstar Games Vice President of Product Development, as he demonstrates the progress on Grand Theft Auto IV.
In an interview on gaming website Kotaku he explains how the development team decided to go back to basics with the game engine and have seen incredible results.
Check out the article, which includes plenty of screenshots, to whet your appetite for one of the most eagerly anticipated games on PC.
12-Feb-2008
Processor Rankings - 79 Processors From Best To Worst
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11-Feb-2008
Graphics Card Rankings - 74 Cards From Best To Worst
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08-Feb-2008
Assassin's Creed Gets Extra Content On PC
Damn it, they're just trying to taunt me.
After finding out that my machine only just meets the Assassin's Creed minimum requirements, I now find out that Ubisoft have decided to give the PC version of the game four extra types of investigation.
Being sold as Assassin's Creed: The Director's Cut, this should go some way to fixing the criticisms that the game gets a bit repetitive, meaning it'll be even better than the console versions.
So do I buy it or not? Still no word of a demo, so I think I'll still hang on a while. After all, they've already sold 2.5 million units, I'm sure there'll be one or two copies hanging around in the stores after release.
05-Feb-2008
Roccat Kone Should Be Here Soon
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01-Feb-2008
Assassin's Creed System Specifications
Sometimes owning a PC can be very frustrating. I've been looking forward to the release of Assassin's Creed on the PC for a while, now we're into February and its only a few more weeks to go.
However, having just discovered the recommended PC specs I'm not so sure its worth buying anymore. These are the minimum specs floating around the internet at the moment:
Assassin's Creed Specifications:
* Supported OS: Windows XP / Vista (only)
* Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
* RAM: 2 GB (3 GB recommended)
* Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0-compliant video card or DirectX 9.0-compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (512 MB video card recommended) (see supported list)*
* Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
* DirectX Version: DirectX 10.0 libraries (included on disc)
* DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
* Hard Drive Space: 12 GB
* Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)
*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
ATI RADEON X1300-1950 / HD 2000 / 3000 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6600-6800 / 7 / 8 / 9 series
So, I'm going to be struggling. My processor just makes it (Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, running at 1.87GHz), I've got the minimum amount of memory at 2GB and my graphics card is going to struggle, being a lowly GeForce 7600GT.
In much the same way as it was for Crysis, I'm just getting in on the minimum requirements. Crysis runs on my machine at lowest detail at a reasonable rate of FPS, but as soon as you start to turn any settings up it starts to crawl. OK, so its playable, but I missed out on all of the eye candy, and I suspect Assassin's Creed will be the same.
I think I'll cancel the pre-order and wait for a demo before committing to this.
Why can't developers make their games more scalable? To expect such high levels of hardware as a starting point is crazy, the potential market for the game is drastically reduced from the start. Next thing they'll be blaming piracy for poor sales!
If developers concentrated on making the game playable on the average specs of machine they'd have a juch wider audience, and consequently more sales. You only need to take a look at the Valve hardware survey results to see that they're really pushing the boundaries for most gamers' rigs.
Update - 11th March 2008
Ubisoft have at last released the official hardware requirements for Assassin's Creed: The Director's Cut on PC. They're not much different to the hardware specs quoted above:
* Supported OS: Windows® XP/Windows Vista®
* Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel® Pentium® D or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core® 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
* RAM: 1 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista
* Video Card: 256 MB DirectX® 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher
* Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0–compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
* DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 or10.0 libraries (included on disc)
* DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
* Hard Drive Space: 8 GB
* Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360® Controller for Windows recommended)
Checking the two lists of specs, the only difference is the amount of RAM required, which is now specific to the version of Windows you're running, and the hard drive space (down from 12GB to 8GB). The high processor and graphics card requirements remain.
As always its worth taking these requirements with a pinch of salt. While Ubisoft will be attempting to give gamers some warning as to what sort of machine they'll need, they will also be wary of scaring off potential buyers at the minimum-specs end of the market. For this reason I'd be a bit wary about the minimum RAM and would err on the side of caution - 2GB for XP and 3GB for Vista. Also, if you're running the minimum processor and graphics card I'd definitely try before you buy.
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