Details at Shack News. Pay attention to the section entitled "Known Issues."
Feb 17, 2010
How not to be a noob at BC2
A console guy made this video, but his advice is nevertheless worth heeding:
BFBC2: day one DLC
From 1UP:
Bad Company 2 will include a code to download content that consumers who buy used won't have free access to. Specifically, the new customers will gain entry to an in-game store, which -- much like Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network -- will feature both free and paid DLC. On launch day, that content will include a handful of free multiplayer maps.
NB: buy it used, and you're out of luck. No longer a trend, it's a fact of life.
12 core AMD server CPU's in March
That's the rumor, as reported by Anton Shilov at Xbit:
PCgameshardware.com reports these beasts are already on Ebay:Advanced Micro Devices will launch its twelve-core AMD Opteron “Magny-Cours” central processing units (CPUs) for high-end servers in March, 2010, sources close to the company revealed. AMD plans to unveil a broad family of twelve- and eight-core chips for multi-processor machines with different performance and thermal design power points.
The mainstream line of twelve-core AMD Opteron 6000-series processors will consist of three chips operating at 1.90GHz, 2.10GHz and 2.20GHz. Besides, AMD will also release highly efficient (HE) and special edition (SE) AMD Opteron 6000 microprocessors with twelve processing engines functioning at 1.70GHz and 2.30GHz, respectively. In addition, AMD plans to launch three standard-voltage eight-core chips at 2.0GHz, 2.30GHz and 2.40GHz frequencies along with two HE eight-core processors at 1.80GHz and 2.0GHz clock-speeds. In order to ensure maximum stability, all AMD’s twelve-core processors will come with reduced clock-speed of integrated memory controller and L3 cache (1.80GHz) compared to six-core and quad-core products.
On Ebay the first offers for Magny Cours processors on Ebay have also been found already – a package of four CPUs for 6000 USD. There also is an offer for a full system with 48 cores including a Tyan motherboard and 64 GByte DDR3-1333 RAM – the price is 20000 USD.
AvP: early impressions
From Ben Kuchera at ArsTechnica. If you're thinking about getting the game, the piece is worth reading.
It seems the full game is has some noticeable graphical improvements over the demo, but all-in-all, Aliens vs. Predator still looks like a mixed bag at best.
Legit buyers take it in the ass again
This is over on Rock, Paper, Shotgun:
We barely need to say anything here (but we will), as where we’re going we don’t need words. We only need righteous fury. PC Gamer have experienced the controversial new Ubisoft DRM first-hand, in the PC build of Assassin’s Creed 2. We already thought the paranoid new copy protection was pretty bad, requiring as it did an online check everytime you played and giving you a hard time if you tried to launch it offline.
What we didn’t think – what we didn’t believe they’d be mad enough to do – was that it’d kick you out of the game if your net connection dropped for any reason.
Or, as PCG’s Tom Francis rightly observes, even if Ubi’s servers happen to have a funny turn. (A troubling precedent for which has already been set by EA – Alec experienced something similar yesterday, when Bioware/EA’s servers suffering extended maintenance meant all his Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 DLC was deemed unauthorised, which in turn prevented him from loading any savegames which used that DLC. The point being: don’t punish your customers because you’ve screwed up).
I'm well past believing this has anything to do with piracy anymore. No rational human being believes that problem is solvable.
This is about sticking it to the used game market. You cannot resell your game - or rather, the buyer will not be able to play it - and you cannot sell your Ubisoft account. It's all right there in Ubi's "online services platform" FAQ.
Sadly, Ubi is likely to implement the same DRM with Splinter Cell: Conviction and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. I've said this a million times: if you buy these games, you're supporting this nonsense. Full stop.
Feb 16, 2010
IUN webcast - February 13, 2010
Thanks to IT( )E Moto'freak, we can stream the webcasts again. Show notes will be posted tomorrow.
BioShock 2 image quality comparison
TechSpot has an article on BioShock 2 that provides performance specs for a number of graphics cards at different resolutions. The most interesting part, however, is the set of screenshot comparisons between the stock low, medium, and high graphics settings. The difference is remarkable:
These are the full 2560 x 1600 res screenies if the side-by-side shots above: [continue]
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