Posts Tagged ‘speed’
Need for Speed: Undercover on the Wii
This game was just the step up from NFS: Carbon that the public was looking for. If you are sitting at your computer and asking, “Why is the public looking for something similar to Carbon?” then you obviously are not part of the public trend that is the Need For Speed series.
From high speed pursuit to high speed racing, NFS: Undercover is the high speed thrill ride it should be. The one advance from NFS: Prostreet is the return of Free Roam. If you are asking what free roam is, you probably should go play one of these games. Free Roam is one of the greatest racing game inventions since the taco car from Top Gear Overdrive for the N64.
The basic idea of Free Roam is you get into a really fast car. That car is unable to be destroyed. You are now unleashed on a city. Sounds fun, right? Prostreet lacked this very intuitive feature from Carbon which has been upgraded in Undercover. The main upgrade is the three cities connected by highway. Although the cities are small, the tri-city of Undercover gives a feel of a realistic city.
The graphics of Undercover aren’t bad, but aren’t the greatest either. The main problem isn’t how good the cars look, its the physics behind those cars. If your car hits something, that something goes flying, and you do nothing. However, there are certain things that, if you hit them, you stop instantly and they do nothing. I suppose there can be some serious drawbacks to playing the Wii version of the game as opposed to the 360 or PS3 versions.
Overall, I would rate Undercover quite highly, with a good ending and reasonable plot line to keep me entertained for the 10-some-odd hours it took me to complete the game.
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)
Typeracer – The Online Typing Game That’s Fun
Typing is a very important aspect of using your computer, whether it be a Mac or PC, that takes time to master. One attempt at mastering this skill is TypeRacer, an online so called “competitive” typing game, which involves many users entering into a race, and then proceeding to all type the same random quote from a movie, book, song, and quotes from the popular media. As you type this quote, your racer icon moves along, and also displays a handy wpm (word per minute) icon by your name. The races range from a few racers to many competing to win the title of ultimate racer so that you get absolute reverence from your peers! This game also has incorporated an anti-bot, which was instituted very quickly after its release, due to the huge number of bots typing 180 wpm or higher. After the anti-bot was instituted, every time you type 110 wpm or higher (until they incorporate a permanent account system) you must complete a CAPTCHA-style paragraph in your wpm – 20 or higher. Still, even with the anti-bot, there are some true freaks typing 150 wpm or higher every day. This is one of the most effective games at boosting your typing speeds (for whatever purpose you have) because of the variety. Since the quote you type is random, you get a large variety of texts with odd punctuation here and there, to stop you from getting in bad habits. It even makes you correct every single mistake before you can move on.
I personally thoroughly enjoy TypeRacer, as it gives me a 30 second long break in between studying. The only flaw I personally can see in the game are periods of lag every few minutes, which has mostly been fixed since the launch of the game. I found that every once in a while you can learn something from the quotes, because of the diversity in the subject matter of the typing. Even though it may not be the best waste of your time on the internet (and it has it’s flaws), it certainly ranks well for its creativity.
Speed Up Your Computer with Automatic Process Priorities
Even though the title may be confusing to some, the idea is simple. If your computer is trying to run a process (program/application) that is stealing a ton of your computer’s memory, then Process Tamer tells the program to watch it, or you (the user) is going to get mad and break something. For example, I open up Internet Explorer, and gasp!, my computer gets all slow because IE is stealing of my computer’s resources to make it run. Insert Process Tamer, and IE realizes its bad behavior and lets the rest of the computer take some juice.
I have been using this program for a couple days now, and I can actually feel a difference in my computer speed, whenever Firefox trys to eat my computer alive, PT slows it down and the computer continues running normally. Plus, it’s free (like I’ve reviewed shareware?), so why not give it a try? If you don’t feel like visiting the homepage for this program, here is a direct download link. If you want a license key for the software (I don’t know why you would), just signup and the website and have fun.