... an expansion I'm sure. The previous C&C expansions have been acceptable, but certainly haven't added a new dimension to the games. I expect this will be more of the same. I'll probably wait for it to be on sale for $20, unless it looks particularly good.

I should probably get around to finishing C&C 3 at some point as well.

The games for th 360 are rather generic as it were for a next-gen system. As I've said before, MS tries way too hard to carry the vaunted "HD-Gen" of gaming rather than releases containing true substance. That's a blanket statement true, and there are a few really innovative releases, but on the whole, MS hasn't managed to surpass the PS2 or the original Xbox for truly fun games.

You're not the first person I've heard say that. For whatever reason, the 360 games I have I really enjoy (PGR3, Battlestations Midway, NFS:Most Wanted and Carbon, Guitar Hero 2, Gears of War, and Ghost Recon just to mention some of my favorites). There's nothing in this list that really breaks any new ground, yet they still hold my attention.

I think perhaps the HD graphics and 5.1 surround give the games that extra something previous generations lacked. There's a world of difference between playing it on a mid-sized SD screen with built in stereo speakers compared to a decent-sized HD screen in 5.1 surround (yes, this is from experience). In a game like NFS: Most Wanted, you hear the police sirens around you, and the cars zooming past; while the graphics are respectably life-like. Does this make the actual game content any better? Not really, but I'd argue it makes the games more immersive than any previous generation (and it's certainly the closest I'll get to a high-speed police chase).

As the PS3 and 360 are the only consoles that can currently provide that level of immersion, I have to compare them directly. Currently, I feel the 360 wins hands down in games actually available (and the coming months look quite strong as well). Since I already have a 360, the PS3 needs to get enough games the 360 doesn't have to convince me to buy it. Merely getting the same games is not enough.

This comment was edited on Jul 23, 15:47.

Wth kind of poorly written story is this? Some highlights:

Chip makers are no longer racing to have the fastest microprocessor and have shifted their focus away from building chips with a single, super-fast calculating core. Instead, to save energy and reduce heat, they're putting multiple cores on the same chip — the equivalent of several computers on the same slice of silicon.

Really? I wonder which chipmakers aren't racing to have the fastest chip, because Intel and AMD sure are. And as for saving energy and reducing heat, how exactly do two (or more) cores generate less heat or use less energy than one? While the C2Duo uses less energy than, say a P4, that's because of improved manufacturing and a new chip design, not because there are two cores instead of one.

"You can imagine a scenario where people stop buying laptops and PCs because we can't figure this out," said David Patterson, a computer-architecture expert and computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Yeah, I'm sure the general population is just going to stop buying PCs because MS Word doesn't take full advantage of their multicore processor. I can just hear my mom saying "you know, I was sending an email the other day, and I noticed that only one of my cores was being fully utilized by Outlook. I'm not going to buy another PC until more software uses both cores."

As processors sped up, software developers tagged along by making their programs faster and faster.

Strangely, I was under the impression that faster processors ran software faster than slower processors. Apparently, it's actually the programmers that go back and tell the software to run faster.

"We'd be in uncharted territory," Patterson said. "We need to get some Manhattan Projects going here — somebody could solve this problem, and whoever solves this problem could have this gigantic advantage on everybody else."

Good analogy; I can clearly see the link between a WWII project to develop the nuclear bomb to end the war, and the need to develop software that can take advantage of eight or more cores. Just imagine if the terrorists developed this technology before us!!!!!!

PS3 just doesn't have the games, it's as simple as that. I have absolutely no incentive to drop $500 on a PS3, when the only games I want are on 360. Yeah, the 360 hardware has all the longevity of fruit fly, but at least it's fun while it lasts.

Perhaps once Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, God of War, or any of the other franchises that are good reasons to own a PS2 show up on PS3 things will be different.

If I have to watch advertising in games, I'd better be getting the game for free or dirt cheap. The game that requires me to sit through advertisements before I can play it, is the game that I don't play. Hopefully such a game will get panned by reviewers, and do so poorly financially the idea is quickly killed.

I take Peter's comments as "yeah we suck in Japan, but it's exactly what we expected; our business model is based on selling well everywhere else." Microsoft knows that it's wasted effort to try to sell well in Japan and has focused on the rest of the world. If I'm not mistaken, the 360 is the number 1 selling console overall. This has caused Japanese developers to still support the console, as the rest of the world is a far, far bigger market than one country.

Sony on the other hand, no doubt expected to be #1 in Japan and planned accordingly. They are currently leading nowhere in the world in next-gen sales.

I think the comments on the original video page are correct; it's a fake. You'll notice there's no movement anywhere. It looks like you're just staring at a few images. If you look closely, you'll notice that the progress bar on the loading screen never moves.

This is a bit of a kick to the face for early adopters. I'll just do what I did with the ps2, wait till I can get a cheap refurbished one then play all the greatest hits 3 years down the line.

Just imagine how the total idiots poor people who paid ebay prices 8 months ago feel.

This is quite possibly the only series that has more iterations than the Sims.

For the love of.... Is Sony getting so desperate for PS3 exclusives that it's come to this? "We're making a PS3 exclusive game and it's going to be really mega ultra cool and you'll all want to play it and it'll be sooo amazing! You'll see, uh huh!"

This press release has absolutely no worthwhile information in it. Wake me up in a couple years once the game has actually been made and we'll see how groundbreaking it really is.

Man I would have loved to be in that court! Had I been the presiding judge in this case, I think I would have burst out loud laughing as the guy broke down while questioning himself about his pants.

Roy Pearson: And how did those pants make you feel?

Roy Pearson: They were the best pants I've ever owned! *sniff* I used to cuddle them and make sweet, sweet love to them, and *sniff* now I'll *weep* never *cry* be able to again!! SOMEONE HOLD ME!!!!! *sob*

Paris Hilton was released from a Los Angeles County jail early Thursday because of an unspecified medical problem and will fulfill the reminder of her sentence in home confinement, a sheriff's spokesman said.

Yeah that'll show her! Being confined to her home mansion is most likely a better life than 99% of the free world lives.

I can confirm what the article states. I have 4gigs of ram along with 2 8800 640MB GTS cards. 32-bit operating systems allow me ~2.75GB of system memory. I run 64-bit Vista Premium for this very reason, and the full 4 gigs are definitely available. So far I've had no driver problems and games generally run fine.

Here's the official MS article on the 4GB issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us


Back when the Athlon 64 was just coming out, the websites downplayed that we'd need 64-bit anytime soon, as desktops wouldn't need more than 4gigs of ram for the foreseeable future. It's funny how they missed this little issue; you can hit the 4gb barrier without having more than 4gb of main memory.

Why do I have 4gigs you ask? I had two, but I was experiencing disc swapping at the start of missions in Company of Heroes. It turns out that at max settings, the game alone uses 1.5 gigs of memory at the beginning of each map. This is not a rumor I've heard, this is what I've observed with Windows Task manager. Interestingly, this same game is currently hitting the 32-bit limit as we speak since the DX 10 version was released. Windows apparently allocates 2gigs per program, and under DX10 with the highest settings, Company of Heroes can surpass this.

From the Company of Heroes DX10 (“d3d10”) FAQ and Benchmarking Guide ( http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=150531 ):


Q. Can I do anything to prevent CoH from running out of memory when playing certain maps at very high resolutions and anti-aliasing settings?

A. No, you must lower your display settings. By default Vista 32 gives each application two gigabytes of virtual address space. You can look up how to change this to three gigabytes, use Vista 64, try the -notriplebuffer or -novsync command line parameters, or try newer display drivers when they are available.

Running at very high resolutions and anti aliasing settings

Due to the limited address space of Vista 32 if trying to run at very high resolutions and/or anti aliasing settings the driver may consume so much virtual address space the application crashes. Running with -novsync for performance testing will disable triple buffering to recover a tiny bit of memory, but the best solution is to run Vista 32 set to give applications three gigabytes of virtual address space or to just run Vista 64 which gives all 32bit applications a full four gigabytes.
This comment was edited on Jun 4, 00:59.

I have a Derek Smart-powered turbine.

LOL. That's why I prefer console gaming, I'm not blowing through PC parts due to inadequate power supplies.

Actually, Derek Smart turbines are quite powerful and environmentally friendly. They convert all the hot air Derek gives off into usable electricity, thereby saving natural resources. I've found that just one Derek Smart forum post is enough to power my computer for days!

Didn't they charge for this on the 360?

I think this is our most civilized 3000AD thread in.... well.. EVER!

Yeah, but at least it's been funny and, most importantly, the summoning was successful!

*In loud, booming voice* BEGIN THE SUMMONING!

At least DS has realized he has a better chance of making a playable game if he doesn't try to simulate every inch of a universe. (Not that I'm expecting much, of course)

I honestly think it sets a new standard for just how console to PC ports should be handled, it's nay perfect mind (no widescreen support, button configs are a tad iffy, save system? etc) but overall it's a damn impressive demo.

No widescreen support!?!? Now that's just sloppy... the 360 version was designed with widescreen HDTV support in mind.

but I just thought about possibly considering to maybe start thinking about potentially infringing a copyright. How many years in jail does that get me?

At this rate, in 10 years possession of an MP3 player will be enough to send you to jail for life.
This comment was edited on May 15, 11:06.

Exsqueeze me? I just paid 400 bucks for a 320meg 8800gts card 3 weeks ago. Seems we're the smart ones.

Is that US dollars in the US? If so, ouch: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130071

I picked up this 640MB card months ago for the $389.99 price, with a $30 MIR.

Here's an overclocked 320MB version: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130038


Edit: I forgot to mention that I love these new drivers. I was getting so-so performance at best on my SLI GTS setup. These new drivers have given me a remarkable performance increase in SLI. ~1100 3DMark06 increase, a near doubling of performance in the HL2 Lost Coast benchmark, and drastic (but not benched) performance increases in Guild Wars, D&D Online, and Oblivion... all three of which were giving me single-card performance at best in SLI previously.
This comment was edited on May 15, 10:27.