Posts Tagged ‘release’
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
Portal: Prelude Trailer, Download, and More!
As Portal comes to its first anniversary today, the one of the first full mods for the game releases in its full glory. Portal: Prelude puts players into the pre-GlaDOS era of Aperture Science where real scientists did the dirty work, not that cake-promising machine. This story has great potential, so great in fact the Valve announced back in June 2008 that they were working on a prelude to Portal themselves, but the man behind the mod, Nicolas “NykO18″ Grevet, continued to create and now release his vision of the game.
Update: Download links are now available at Filefront, Fileshack, Mininova (torrent), and more.
FilePlanet managed to get 24-hour exclusivity rights from Grevet (a bad decision in my opinion, mods should be free to everyone at all times), and the mod is set for release to the general public tomorrow. You can watch the trailer below for the mod while the 775 MB gets onto your computer. If you are unsure of how to get a mod properly working on Steam, Planet Half-Life has a tutorial on installing mods.
Peggle Nights Released With DLC in the Future
For those of you who haven’t already heard of Peggle, it’s a highly addicting game that has similarities to Plinko in that you fire a ball from the top and see what it does on the way down. The goal is to hit all of the orange pegs before you run out of balls. Peggle Nights expounds on the game by adding in a new character, 60 new levels, new style shots like “Double Long Shot,” and 60 new challenges to keep you playing all night. The cost of the game is $19.95, and hopefully the original Peggle will receive a price drop soon.
The most exciting feature about the new game is undoubtedly the downloadable level packs that Popcap is planning on creating, and hopefully they will even release a level editor for players to create their own levels, but that has not been confirmed.
Left 4 Dead Demo Confirmed on PC and Xbox 360
Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve (the greatest gaming company ever), confirmed at Videogamer.com that the demo of Left 4 Dead will be for PC and Xbox 360. Gabe, while unsure of the final content that will be in the demo, assures gamers that both singleplayer and co-op will be in the demo as a taste of what the game will be like. The game itself is due out on November 18th in the US, and November 21, 2008 in Europe.
The Pxl Lab is also planning on reviewing both the PC and Xbox versions of the game, so be sure to check our reviews of the game when it’s released!
Inside the Team Fortress 2 Heavy Update
The Heavy update for TF2 has been out for about a week and a half now, giving players time to earn and use their new weapons and sandviches on normal maps. Here’s a rundown on the content introduced in the Heavy update:
- A fan-made map, CP_Steel, is added to the offical map list
- Arena mode released, giving TF2 a deathmatch gamemode
- A new Valve map, Badwater Basin, released for both Payload and Arena gamemodes.
- 38 new achievements for the Heavy to unlock
- 3 unlocks for the Heavy: the Sandvich, Natascha, and the Killing Gloves of Boxing.
I played on an achievement server to unlock the 3 new unlocks, then I went onto my favorite Gib$Ru$ server, Dustbowl 24/7, and tried them out. I ended up using the Sandvich more than I thought I would on defense, but on offense, it does absolutely no good because you never have 4 seconds of spare time. Natascha, which slows down enemies but doesn’t do as much damage, doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on gameplay, so I would recommend staying with Sasha. Finally, the K.G.B.’s are a great new unlock, and even with the “slower” punch times, you’ll never want to go back to normal fists.
DirectX August 2008 Update Released
Microsoft put out the newest version of DirectX, the newest release since June 2008. DirectX, for those of you who don’t know, is what developers use to help power games on Windows-based computers. DirectX 10.1, which is the latest version on the market, allows things in-game like motion blur, god rays, and other sweet effects. If you are currently having any problems with your games or would just like a little speed boost in-game, upgrading to the latest version of DirectX is always a good way to try and fix it.
DirectX Runtime Download (this download installs any versions of DirectX you may not have)
August 2008 Only Download (just get the latest version)
Runescape – The HD Update
The popular Runescape game, created by Jagex in 2001, has been going quite strong until recently. On December 10, 2007, after years of botters, gold sellers, and hackers messing with the game, Jagex decided to impose a horrifying rule. The rule stated that you could only trade within the market prices set by the Grand Exchange. For example, you cannot trade a certain item of x value for another item of y value if the difference between those two items is greater than 5000 gold. They later repealed this and allowed you to trade up to 30000 difference based upon your quest points. This update made it so you could not give items away, or even worse, you could no longer use botting programs on wimpy characters and then transfer the money to your main character.
This update, along with the destruction of the wilderness, was a huge blow below the belt to all Runescape users. Jagex lost a lot of its players, nearly cutting its attendance every day in half. They needed something big to strike back, and they delivered! On July 1, 2008, a High Definition version of Runescape was released to members only in the beta stage. The graphics are noticeably different from the previous version. On July 14, 2008, it was released to free players as well as members. This has not returned Runescape to it’s full glory, but it is a step in the right direction. Runescape has never been on “par” so-to-say with games such as World of Warcraft, and has gotten much criticism for it’s so called childish gameplay, but with recent updates Runescape has turned into a more mature game.
So, if you have quit Runescape because of recent updates, or are looking for a versatile MMO to play in your downtime, it’s definitely worth a checking out.
Here are some pictures from the HD update(click on the image to enlarge it):
Face of Mankind: Rebirth Canceled
Face of Mankind: Rebirth was an MMOFPS that had some great potential. I personally played in the beta for Face of Mankind (not Rebirth, check out this article if you want some more information on the history of the game), and I thought it was an awesome blend of FPS, MMO, and RPG. It had “raids” where players from one of the factions in-game could take over another planet from another faction. The unique quest system let higher level players create quests for others, such as mining a certain ore or assassinating an enemy of theirs.
Even with all of the game’s potential to be something excellent, the recreation of an MMO is not easy for a small team of people financing their own work. Sadly, the game is coming to an end because of the team’s financial problems. Here is an excerpt from the offical FoM site:
FoM, as many other MMORPGs today, is a game that relies heavily
on visual content. For us, being only a small development studio with very limited
resources, it would be nearly impossible to make the game we want it to be. You
might wonder what there is to change? It runs fine and works in a way. That’s right,
but not the way it’s supposed to. And spending so much more power and private funding
into the project made not much sense anymore. There might be a time for FoM in the
future, but it’s just not now.
The developers of FoM, Duplex Systems, are working on another MMO that they hope to release in place of Face of Mankind, called NanoVerse Online. As of right now there is no content on the site besides a nice logo, but Duplex promises that if you continue checking back that more content will be there.
Team Fortress 2 Pyro Update Announced
Valve announced in their weekly update news that the Pyro would be receiving the next major update with 3 new weapons to unlock along with a lot of achievements. For people worried about how this will effect the game as much as the Medic update did, here’s a quote that should put your mind at ease:
We’ve spent time looking at how the recent Medic release went, and have rolled feedback from that release into the new item designs for the Pyro and into the design of the achievements required to unlock those items.
The Axtinguisher, as pictured to the left, is one of the three new unlockable weapons for the Pyro. This axe will only do half the damage of the standard axe in a normal situation, but if your enemy is on fire, then the Axtinguisher will always hit a critical. For those of you who aren’t into the whole unlocks thing, then Valve has some news for you too:
Along with all of the new content, we’re also going to be making some significant changes to the Pyro class for everyone, regardless of whether they have unlocked any new items.
Valve did not announce an official release day for the update, but expect it to come this month.