Posts Tagged ‘games’
ATI Catalyst 9.2 WHQL Drivers Released
ATI released their newest set of Catalyst drivers, which brings the improvements listed below. You can read through the entire changelog (PDF) if you want more in-depth information. Also, be aware that there is a hotfix released for the HD2000 and HD3000 series, which you can download along with the drivers below.
- Crysis DirectX 10 performance gain up to 20%
- Crysis Warhead DirectX 10 performance gain up to 20%
- World in Conflict gains up to 5%
- There are also multiple bugs resolved, both in the CCC (Catalyst Control Center) and in various games like Call of Duty 4.
Download: ATI Catalyst 9.2 drivers
Download: ATI Catalyst 9.2 hotfix for HD2000 and HD3000 cards
nVidia 182.06 WHQL Drivers Released
nVidia released their latest set of drivers, 182.06, which come packed with improvements in many games and full OpenGL 3.0 support. These drivers work with GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, and 200-series cards. Here’s what comes with the download:
- Recommended for the best experience in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.
- Boosts performance in several 3D applications. The following are examples of improvements measured with Release 182.06 WHQL drivers vs. Release 181.22 WHQL drivers (results will vary depending on your GPU, system configuration, and game settings):
- Up to 8% performance increase in Fallout 3 at high resolution and AA.
- Up to 10% performance increase in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.
- Up to 9% performance increase in Half-Life 2 at high resolution with AA.
- Up to 11% performance increase in Left 4 Dead at high resolution with AA.
- Up to 10% performance increase in Race Driver: GRID at high resolution and AA
- Includes full support for OpenGL 3.0 on GeForce 8-series, 9-series, and 200-series GPUs.
- Automatically installs the new PhysX System Software version 9.09.0203.
Download : nVidia ForceWare 182.06 for Windows XP 32-bit
Download : nVidia ForceWare 182.06 for Windows XP 64-bit
HomestarRunner Is Still Going Strong
HomestarRunner is a wonderful site that caught my eye many years ago. When I first discovered the site, the graphics were on par with Pong. Over the years it has developed into what we it now is today. After a very long break from this site, I returned only to find a million new games, stories, and great new graphics! When I used to regularly visit it, there were a few games, extra videos, and a weekly Strong Bad email. The basis for this site is a group of 11 characters who are the only apparent residents of a town. The original producers Mike Chapman and Craig Zobel created HomestarRunner in 1996, and later in 1999 Mike’s brother Matt joined the crew to assist in the production of the site itself.
The site itself has 6 main sections: Toons, Games, Characters, Downloads, Store, and Email. Toons consists of a collection of random flash videos put together for any reason whatsoever. The videos range from exploits of an R-Rated movie by Strong Bad to the famous Teen Girl Squad episodes. But even more famous than TGS is the weekly Strong Bad Email. This is one of the original features of the website that many remember from years ago. There are also many games like Peasant’s Quest and Trogdor. Most of the games originated from previous Strong Bad Emails. A lot of these games are purposefully horrific looking, to impose an old school feeling to them. They are rather fun to play, however. Peasant’s Quest is perhaps the most famous of the games on HomestarRunner. You are a peasant whos cottage has been burninated by Trogdor. You must walk around and become a hero by acquiring items and typing “look” and “search”, etc, to be allowed up the mountain before your impending doom. The Character’s section just gives a video description of each character presented by themselves. Downloads is where you can get all of you Homestarrunner sounds for your computers and desktop icons and such. You can get into the “secret” section by clicking on the “0.00 dollars” in the “$” area, dragging the credit card into the slot at the top-right, and typing in 5675 as the pin code. The Store is an external link where you can buy t-shirts, hoodies, dvds, posters, and many more things to keep the website going! All of the merchandise also originates from toons on the site. The Email section is where you can email them with questions, or complements, and also for the F.A.Q. of the site.
HomestarRunner is a wonderful site that makes me laugh everytime I visit it. Its definitely worth checking out whether you have an hour or ten minutes. Most of the toons run under 3 minutes if you don’t have much time to watch.
P.S. Firefox users can view the site in full screen with the addon known as “Full Screen Homestar Runner“.
OneBigGame Has One Big Idea
One day some veteran game developers got together and asked, “Why doesn’t somebody make video games for something other than profit?” This question is the foundation for OneBigGame, a non-profit organization that describes themselves like this:
Our mission is to bring together some of the most famous game designers and major development studios to create a number of unique games, specifically developed for OneBigGame, with all the proceeds going to children’s charities around the world.
The known developers that are working with OneBigGame at the time of writing are: Charles Cecil (Revolution Software), Eric Zimmerman (Gamelab), Ernest Adams (International Hobo), Avalanche Studios, Relentless, Kuju and Freestyle. The first games being made for OBG are likely going to be flash games, but the founders of OBG hope that one day console games will be made too. If you are good at any game developing skill, you can send an email over to OBG and volunteer your services.
You’ll likely start seeing games with the OneBigGame logo on them in the latter half of 2008, so keep an eye out and make a contribution to world by playing video games.
Bowman 2 Lets You Arrow Your Friends
I pulled up Addicting Games today and while looking for something to do, I rediscovered Bowman 2.
Bowman 2 is a well-made flash game in which the player’s job is to kill the other player without moving. You use the mouse to create an angle with the bowman’s arm and bow, and then let go and fire. It usually take about 3 hits to take down an opponent, or 1 hit in the heart or head.
There are multiple modes for Bowman 2 in addition to the original Bowman. There is a target practice in which the player shoots at a non-moving target. There is also Bird Hunter for those people who want to shoot at moving targets of different sizes.
While playing single or multiplayer, there are new editable features. You are able to create a wall between the two opponents, and change wind speed. These allow for a slightly more difficult game.
Though slightly on the easier side, Bowman 2 is an improvement over the original, and is great if you have another person breathing down your neck who wants to take a turn on the computer. Just tell them, “Hey! Lets play Bowman 2!” and maybe you can buy yourself a little more time in that comfy computer chair.
It’s Time for a Halo Flash Knockoff
I loaded up Addicting Games today and once again began rummaging around for a halfway decent flash game. In a desperate attempt to avoid another stupid stick figure flash game, I decided to play Vulcan. To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t finish this game. It was horrific. At first glance, it seemed promising, then I noticed the blatant Halo rip off. They basically come out and say it’s a Halo rip off. If you shot this game, it would bleed Halo rip off. The main character is a blue spartan-esq soldier named “Vulcan”. In the game you trapsing through the top-down world of narrow hallways shooting Covenant cop out aliens.
The game itself started off on a sour note. Incredibly bad dialogue along with subpar animations made the introduction quite unbearable. Then they thought it would be a good idea to give you every weapon right at the start of the game. Now, let me tell you my beef with this strategy. It may make it easier for the programmers, but it gives the players of the game no sense of progress whatsoever. They have nothing to work for except killing the next enemy in exactly the same way that they were able to kill the enemy on the first screen. They also made this game ridiculously hard. All of your weapons are completely ineffective until you’re almost in point blank range. The aliens begin shooting the second you step out of cover, and their aim is impeccable. They can hit you from the other side of the room the moment you poke your badly animated self out of cover. Along the same line, the game lags terribly whenever there are more than 2 or 3 people shooting at the same time. This makes the game incredibly difficult to play, considering after the 3 or 4th room you can reasonably expect 4 or 5 aliens to be shooting at you at the same time. The weapons themselves are also incredibly poorly designed. The Battle Rifle, my favorite gun from Halo, is about effective as throwing a dead rabbit at the enemies. Then the SMG’s are incredibly over powered. You can basically one shot every enemy using the SMG’s. And the Shotgun is entirely useless. The only way you can get it to work at all is if the muzzle of the shotgun is firmly placed against the targets chest. Also, the levels are designed in such a way that at least half the time every one of the enemies onscreen can shoot at you while you can hit maybe one or two of them. How did the designers manage to make it that way? I haven’t the slightest idea. It’s some sort of chaos theory engine, I guess. But I digress. Onto the finale.
This game sucks. Not Dane Cook suck, or even Superman for the N64 suck. This game achieves its own special level of suck. Dante’s Inferno will be rewritten to include playing this game forever as the ninth level of hell. This game has absoultely no redeeming factors. Stay away from it at all costs! I think I made my point.
Giveaway of the Day Gives You Free Stuff
Giveaway of the Day is a site devoted to putting free software into hands of people both young and old. The software, which ranges from $9.00 to $50.00 or higher, is completely free and available for download over a 24 period. After that period is up, the program is no longer available for download. Also, after the period is up, you aren’t allowed to install it, so you must activate the program in the 24 time slot. The reason it is unable to install is that they have a 24 hour key associated with the file. They do this to ensure that no one shares the files, and only those that have directly downloaded the software can install it. They also might not allow the free software to receive updates, which is certainly a dilemma. The reason that companies put their shareware software on GotD is for public exposure, hoping to have downloaders tell friends about their product.
The software that Giveaway of the Day provides is varied every day. Some days there may be a game, various converters, 3d screensavers, or even photo organizer applications. Every day there is something different. The programs are usually not mainstream, and will not be recognized immediately. No Photoshop or Microsoft Word 2007 will be found at Giveaway of the Day, but it certainly does offer amazing programs for absolutely no cost at all! Make sure to check them out.
Steam Will Soon Hold Save Games Online
Steam, the service that Valve uses to distribute games online, is known for its excellent copy protection, easy game downloading, and large base of players. Valve announced that they will be adding two more features to help gamers in the near future, namely keeping save games and key bindings on the user’s account, so that players that play their games on multiple computers can keep their data with them. I, who use two computers to play Steam games, find this news a godsend from Valve. This news is also great for people on a single computer, because if a freak accident like a hard drive wipe or fire wipes out the data on your computer, then you still have it when you get a new one! The games that will first see the effects of this update are Half Life, Half Life 2, Counter Strike: Source, and the upcoming Left 4 Dead. I can only hope that they add it to Team Fortress 2 soon after. For those of you that don’t have Steam, you can take advantage of the download button below to get it.
M-Rated Games Are Harder For Teens to Buy
Each year, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) hires many 13-16 year olds to go shopping. They aren’t just shopping for anything though; these teens are out to buy products that have Parental Advisory Labels, or PAL’s. Specifically, they’re attempting to buy R-Rated movie tickets and DVD’s, PAL’d CD’s, and M-Rated video games.
As you can see by looking at the graph to the left, the sales of M-Rated games to minors has drastically decreased in the past couple years, from 69% being able to purchase the games to 20%. This means that video game retailers are paying closer attention to minors without parents trying to buy M-Rated content.
The FTC doesn’t just stop at grand totals, they track which stores allow the minors to buy the games. If you’d look at the table below, you can see, in order of percentage of sales, the stores that sell M-Rated video games to minors.
As you can see, Gamestop denies almost any sales, while Hollywood Video really doesn’t give a care who they make a buck off of.
Just remember kids, if you want to buy an M-Rated game, bring your mom, dad, or guardian with you to the store so you don’t look like an idiot.
InstantAction Brings 3D Gaming to the Web
Have you been looking to play some great-looking games without leaving the comfort of Firefox? Look no further than InstantAction, a website created just for that purpose. Made by GarageGames, the leader of independent game design, InstantAction brings quality games like Think Tanks and Marble Blast to you for free, with micro transactions helping to keep the site in business. InstantAction takes advantage of being a web-based service by letting you easily join groups/parties of up to 8 people to play games and chat. Currently only one game has a single-player option, which is Marble Blast; however, more games should have that option once the service is stripped of its beta tag.
The only thing I don’t like about InstantAction is that I seem to lose connection to the party leaders right before a game starts, so I have to try and find another host to play a game. Other than this, I think that InstantAction will shape up to be a really great online gaming service in the coming months as it grows in popularity.