Blog - February, 2009 | bit-tech.net

Sleep deprivation in games: Silent Hunter 4

Posted on 27th Feb 2009 at 11:35 by James Gorbold with 10 comments

As the guys in the office will attest I’m somewhat obsessed by realistic military simulations, choosing to forego the dubious pleasures of games such as Team Fortress 2. As a result, every day for the last two weeks I’ve been stumbling into the office, with a brand new set of black patches under both eyes.

Contrary to suggestions, I haven’t developed a drug habit, or been moonlighting as a delivery man for Milk Tray, I’ve simply reinstalled Silent Hunter 4.

Nvidia's Hybrid SLI technology no longer matters

Posted on 26th Feb 2009 at 13:39 by Tim Smalley with 5 comments

One of those technologies that showed so much promise, but delivered so little last year was Nvidia's Hybrid SLI technology. We covered this in quite a lot of depth even before the actual products arrived. And when they did arrive, they weren't exactly brilliant.

To me, the most interesting part of Hybrid SLI was in fact Hybrid Power, which would essentially allow gamers to switch off their power hungry graphics cards when they weren't being used for gaming or GPU computing and instead use a more power-efficient integrated GPU to drive your display. And it was the one reason to introduce the GeForce 9800-series because a number of the cards in that line up were simply re-hashed G92 based GeForce 8-series products that featured Hybrid Power technology.

Ever since Nvision ended a massive bombshell, where Nvidia announced that it was to open SLI out to Intel's X58 chipset, we've been wondering where Hybrid SLI - and in particular Hybrid Power - stood in the DIY market today. We managed to get some answers that shed a lot more light on Nvidia's plans for the technology than our previous attempts where the water wasn't left quite as clear.

Fieldrunners - Addictions on the go

Posted on 26th Feb 2009 at 11:54 by Mark Mackay with 6 comments

Back in the days of early Nokia mobile phones such as the 3210, there was Snake. And it was good. Snake was the closest thing to a worthwhile game on a mobile in the universe as we knew it. Much like many other early arcade games, Snake’s biggest boon was the bragging rights it gave you over your friends when you got a higher score than them…

Years passed by, several sucky revisions of Snake were made, but nothing ever really came close to being a game that you actually wanted to play when you could be doing other things such as sewing or badger spotting.

Empire: Total War demo on Steam - it's a slice of win-cake

Posted on 25th Feb 2009 at 08:41 by Clive Webster with 2 comments

I’m not sure how I missed the Empire demo going on Steam last Friday, but somehow I did. I suspect Harry did too, as I’m sure we would’ve heard him saying "I’m leaving at six on the dot to go play Empire" last Friday. Cliff clearly didn’t miss the news but I only stumbled across it by accident when wondering whether to buy Dawn of War II through Steam or Play (why does it cost £11 more through Steam, by the way?). Anyhoo, I saw the ad for the Empire demo and started it downloading immediately.

Empire: Total War demo on Steam - it's a slice of win-cake <i>Empire: Total War</i> demo on Steam – it’s a slice of win-cake

Empire: Total War demo on Steam - it's a slice of win-cake <i>Empire: Total War</i> demo on Steam – it’s a slice of win-cake

The following are my initial thoughts on the two tutorials and the land battle that I had time to play before heading off for family funeral. (I’m not pitching for sympathy messages there btw, just explaining why I’ve only had time for a quick initial thoughts blog).

Cooler Master Hyper N520 - New CPU cooler

Posted on 25th Feb 2009 at 08:38 by Richard Swinburne with 2 comments

Cooler Master dropped in to show off its latest N520 CPU cooler yesterday afternoon. Priced at around £25, it's certainly affordable and sports a slightly new dual fan centre off-set style that covers any potential dead zones that would otherwise exist in a single fan set up.

Cooler Master Hyper N520 - New CPU cooler

Cooler Master Hyper N520 - New CPU cooler

You Have No Heavy Calvary

Posted on 24th Feb 2009 at 09:29 by Cliff Harris with 17 comments

I've just finished my first play of the demo of Empire: Total War, and it reminds me of my original motivation for the design of Gratuitous Space Battles.

I'm a big fan of the Total War games, although I don't devote much time to the campaign game and certainly don't get time to play them as much as their true devotees. They have, for me a single major frustration. Although I might go to great lengths to field a decent army against my enemy, although I may pick a good formation and a decent time and month to fight, the moment the two armies come into contact it becomes an almighty uncontrollable scrum where almost anything could happen.

The basic dilemma is ranged units. If your guns can fire one metre further than the enemies, just ensure you are always at maximum range and shoot at him till you win. This may sound simplistic, but it's how a lot of real world battles were fought. The US & Buddies pulverised Saddam's army because their tanks could fire from further away. In the open tank battles of Gulf War 1 and 2, hardly a single tank shell of Iraqi origin hit anything.

Why the hard disk light needs to die

Posted on 24th Feb 2009 at 09:16 by Alex Watson with 53 comments

When I first got my Mac laptop, it annoyed me, to an obscene level, that it didn’t have a hard disk activity light. Unused to the new machine’s noises, I would listen obsessively to it, trying to figure out what the hard disk sounded like when it was working hard, when it was copying files, when it was doing nothing at all.

Gradually, I got used to the fact the machine didn’t have a HDD light. It stopped bothering me. I realised it had little bearing on how I used the computer. It’s not like I didn’t load up a program just because a light was flashing.

In fact, now I find myself annoyed, angry even, at the HDD light on my Shuttle at work. It’s bright orange, and just in view, and as the hard disk thrashes away when the PC starts up in the morning, it annoys the hell out of me. This is, I realise, because it’s a sign the PC has broken its promise to me.

Modding and hello!

Posted on 23rd Feb 2009 at 11:22 by Antony Leather with 8 comments

Actually that should probably be the other way round as I’d first like to say greetings to the bit-tech community! I’m Antony Leather and like Mark who blogged recently, I also joined the Custom PC team in June of last year.

Unlike Mark though, I wasn’t in IT or system building prior to starting at Custom. Instead, the last few years have seen me come very close to becoming a pilot in the forces, then in to housing development of all things. However, my evenings and weekends were spent gaming (mainly FPS and flight sims), overclocking, modding and building a range of water-cooled PCs and I was also the Custom PC forum water-cooling guru for my sins.

Tags forum, modding

Presentation versus Graphics

Posted on 23rd Feb 2009 at 11:16 by Joe Martin with 1 comments

Over the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about what exactly makes graphics in a game good and why it is that some of my favourite indie games look better than the latest games despite having lower polygon counts.

What exactly is the difference between good graphics and great presentation?

To put it simply and dryly, good graphics are the type of unneeded visual flair that cause jaws to drop and eyes to dry. It’s hard to specifically define because it’s both indistinct and ever-changing thanks to the nature of the business, but good graphics generally means high polygon counts, lots of explosions and loads of light sources. Everything should be dynamic and smooth.

Good presentation however is totally different. It’s a singularity of vision that works itself through an entire game, emanating from core to keyboard. It’s how the graphics are used and the way that elements of the story are told through visual cues.

For me, the difference between graphics and presentation can be illustrated through one simple comparison.

Where are the decent Socket AM2+ motherboards?

Posted on 22nd Feb 2009 at 12:44 by James Gorbold with 7 comments

Now that AMD has finally managed to release a Phenom-branded processor worth buying, the Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition, albeit a fairly basic triple-core model, another fundamental problem has been revealed – the lack of killer Socket AM2+ motherboards.

Despite the efforts of the combined bit-tech and Custom PC reviews writers (we’ve looked at 20 plus Socket AM2+ motherboards in the last six months) none have really stood out – at least not for the right reasons. Although there have been a few ‘better than average’ designs, such as the Asus M3A79-T Deluxe, most of the motherboards have offered a poor combination of sluggish performance, limited overclocking and restrictive BIOSes.

bit-tech.net

Sleep deprivation in games: Silent Hunter 4

Nvidia's Hybrid SLI technology no longer matters

Fieldrunners - Addictions on the go

Empire: Total War demo on Steam - it's a slice of win-cake

Cooler Master Hyper N520 - New CPU cooler

You Have No Heavy Calvary

Why the hard disk light needs to die

Modding and hello!

Presentation versus Graphics

Where are the decent Socket AM2+ motherboards?

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