Gamecast 02 - Battlefield Bad Company 2

Posted at 16:53 by Podcast with 1 comments

Podcast
It's a bit-tech and Custom PC gaming podcast with a difference - video! Of a game! Making it a gamecast!

In this second gamecast, Antony and Harry take a look at the massive destruction-fest that is Battlefield Bad Company 2.

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Written on 10th March 2010
Tags bad company 2, battlefield, gamecast

Does game branding matter?

Posted at 11:30 by Richard Swinburne with 31 comments

Richard Swinburne
Just a quick one today: I'm wondering who out there buys products because they have a branding association with their favourite game?

We've seen a few World of Warcraft bits from Belkin, Steel Series and more recently Creative. These products may offer some tangible benefit to WoW users but do they and ones like it sway your purchasing decision over other products? Likewise, if you don't care about their game branding would you buy them anyway if the product does what you want?

Let us know your thoughts!

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Written on 9th March 2010
Tags branding, game, hardware

No new flight sim to play? Try Steambirds

Posted at 10:30 by James Gorbold with 9 comments

James Gorbold
Back in the 80s and 90s the flight sim and hardcore RPG ruled the roost of PC gaming. Companies such as Microprose seemed to release a whole new flight sim almost every month - and got so ahead of themselves that they had to start making up details about unreleased aircraft in order to make games about them.

These days however it's almost impossible to buy a new flight sim. Very few have been released in recent years, and the few that have been all suffer from a serious number of problems - Flight Sim X runs like a dog regardless how much hardware you throw at it.

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Written on 8th March 2010
Tags 80s, 90s, browser games, flight sim, free, games, microprose, wing commander

The Greatest Gadget

Posted at 11:32 by Joe Martin with 18 comments

Joe Martin
We got some new gadgets the other day, when Creative swung by the office and were nice enough to deposit some of their new gear for us to take a look at. I was particularly taken by the new Creative Vado HD, which is a small digital camcorder. It’s really a rather fantastic bit of kit, to be honest.

The Vado HD is smaller and thinner than my wallet (but not lighter than it, ho-ho!) and really simple to use. It’s got a built in USB cable that tucks out of the way nicely, plus a port for plugging in headphones, speakers etc. The screen is a good quality and the battery and storage can manage about two hours of HD recording from a single full charge. Stonking stuff.

The only really problem with it in fact are the little touch sensitive buttons, which can be a little fiddly. Other than that it’s an instant-on, high quality digital camcorder. It’s wonderful but, as I played with it at home last night, it struck me that it’s still by far not the best gadget I own.

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Written on 5th March 2010
Tags apple, camcorder, camera, creative, gadget, gizmo, iphone, swiss army knife, vado hd

Second Hand Hardware

Posted at 10:25 by Antony Leather with 19 comments

Antony Leather
With relatively high failure rates (I'm sure we've all had plenty of stuff die out of warranty, I know I have) and the rate at which PC technology advances, there's not as much second hand gear out there as there might be compared to other things, like cars or cameras.

However, while I love receiving shiny new kit, I've always been a fan of buying and selling second hand PC hardware so if you've never thought of going to computer fairs or online auction sites for your next upgrades here's a few reasons why it's worth it and also what to watch out for.

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Written on 5th March 2010
Tags auction, bargain, case, discount, ebay, hardware

Games I Own: James Bond's Nightfire

Posted at 08:32 by Joe Martin with 11 comments

Joe Martin
Technically, the title of this game is James Bond 007: Nightfire, but I really don’t want to have more than one colon in the title than I have to.

Anyway. I have something embarrassing to admit about this game, namely that I decided to buy it based on just one single feature, which I’d read about in a PC Gamer article – the ability to don x-ray specs. More specifically, the ability to use those x-ray specs to take a peek at ladies’ underwear.

Yes, that’s all it took and, no, you can’t make me feel any more ashamed about it than I already am. It was a simple lapse of taste on my part, that lead to me over imagining the depth of the game. Surely, if the developers have added that kind of feature then you’ll be able to do all sorts of James Bond type stuff!

Actually, no, you couldn’t.

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Written on 4th March 2010
Tags 7, bond, ea, fps, game i own, games joe owns, james bond, multiplatform, nightfire, spy game

How To Fix Underscan in ATI's Catalyst Control Center

Posted at 09:53 by Clive Webster with 17 comments

Clive Webster
I've just updated my graphics driver to Catalyst 10.2, and it doesn't seem to know what a 1080p screen is... The screen is being underscanned, so there's a huge black border around the displayed image. There's a way to fix the issue, but it's hardly easy.

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Written on 3rd March 2010
Tags 1080p, ati, catalyst control center, drivers, hdmi, how to, overscan, problem, underscan

Hardware Podcast 10 - All Praise the Capital of Hardwareland

Posted at 12:20 by Podcast with 15 comments

Podcast
The long-awaited (or so we’d like to think) tenth episode of the Hardware Podcast sees Rich, Clive, Harry and James rather confused about tenses and timelines. You’d think that four reasonably intelligent hardware reviewers would be able to understand that if you record a pod on Thursday to cast on Monday, you need to act as if Monday is in the past. Apparently not. Revealed in this pod: the capital of Hardwareland is Gulftown, and the most effective components for an energy-efficient PC.

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Like Father, Like Son

Posted at 10:59 by Joe Martin with 39 comments

Joe Martin
I had an interesting experience the other day. It was late and I, staggering home from a party through the streets of Reading, overheard something unusual. My ears caught a familiar word in the lull between the music I was listening to and I looked around. It was a dreary, drizzly night and the streets were almost empty, so it didn’t take me long to locate the source.

The word I had heard was ‘Tegra’ and what I saw was a father walking behind me, explaining something to his young son. The kid must have been no older than 11, in fact.

Now, I should clarify that I don’t really know very much about Tegra. I know the basics, but my knowledge pales in comparison to the rest of the bit-tech.net and Custom PC staff. It’s why you don’t see me writing graphic card reviews. Still, I knew enough to follow a bit of this eavesdropped conversation in which the Dad explained what Tegra was to his boy.

I was intrigued. It wasn’t the type of conversation you’d expect to hear on a city street at 11AM and the fact that the boy was earnestly interested fascinated me. Discreetly and slyly, I stopped my music and let the pair overtake me. We were heading in the same direction and I wanted to hear more about the conversation, so I listened in for a bit as I made my way home.

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Written on 26th February 2010
Tags games, joe being sentimental, joe's dad, monkey island, my dad, reading, story, tegra, thief

RC1 time running out? Get yourself 90 more days Windows 7 for free

Posted at 12:14 by Richard Swinburne with 24 comments

So your copy of Window 7 RC1 is running out and you're not yet ready to go for the full purchase? You are going to buy it after all, right, but this month's games have stretched the budget too thin and you'll have to wait until the March paycheck before you drop the 70-bob for a Windows 7 Home Premium disc?

So you just need a few more days time without Win 7 nagging you.

RC1 time running out? Get yourself 90 more days Windows 7 for free RC1 running out? Get yourself some more time on Windows 7 before purchase

That's where we can help.

If you borrow someone else's Windows 7 disc you can use the data to upgrade your RC1 to RTM status for up to 90 days longer, because a Windows 7 license status is determined not by its disc, but by its key. This is how IT managers roll out dozens of OS updates across a network from a 'single disc'.

As it stands though, just dropping in the Win 7 disc and hitting 'Upgrade' won't allow you to go from RC1 to RTM, but there is a hack involved to do this.

Before you start make sure you BACKUP EVERYTHING IMPORTANT and close your programs. I cannot stress this enough. It's not my fault if there are complications in the process and you lose a lifetime's worth of family photos and videos. I have personally done this twice now without issue, so it's highly unlikely anything bad will happen, but still, on your own head be it.

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Written on 25th February 2010
Tags authorisation, free, rc1, windows 7