Author - Jerry Paxton

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB Hard Drive Review

2009/03/05

Western Digital, one of the grand daddies of hard disk drives, has recently split its internal hard disk drive line into three ‘weight classes’. On the ‘lighter’ end of the spectrum, you will find the ‘Caviar Green’ class, which sports higher energy-savings as well as cooler operating temperatures. In the middle is the ‘Caviar Blue’ class, which is classified as being the ‘everyday computing’ drive. Then there is the ‘Caviar Black’ drive class, which is touted on Western Digital’s official site as having ‘Maximum performance for power computing.’ This last line of hard drives is the one that intrigues us the most, both as gamers as well as geeks. With Western Digital’s ‘VelociRaptor’ line costing upwards of $300 dollars, we are always looking for a better bang for our proverbial buck. So, let’s check out their 1TB Caviar Black drive (model WD1001FALS) and see how it holds up.

Visually, the drive looks like a fairly standard SATA 3Gb/s, 3.5” hard disk. As with the rest of the Caviar lines, you will not find the VelociRaptor’s heatsink/form factor here, allowing the Caviar Black to fit into any standard 3.5” drive bay with ease. Inside, however, you will find that Western Digital has added a few of the VelociRaptor’s features which help to make the Caviar Black a very reliable drive.

The ‘NoTouch’ ramp load feature prevents the recording head from directly touching the disk platters while the ‘StableTrac’ drive system provides a dually-mounted motor shaft. This helps increase tracking accuracy by decreasing unnecessary vibrations. The third feature taken from the VelociRaptor is the presence of dual processors on the drive which claim to maximize performance. All of these add up to make the Caviar Black one very solid drive. Western Digital seems very confident in this respect as well, given that they grant a five year warranty with the drive. In contrast, the other Caviar lines come with only a three year warranty.

But is it fast? That is the question that preoccupies us this day as what is reliability without speed, especially in a ‘performance’ hard drive? Our test programs consisted of three popular benchmarking choices: HD Tune, HD Tach, and File Copy Test.

Our test rig consisited of…
Intel i7 2.66GHz CPU
6GB DDR3 Memory
Nvidia GTX 280 Video Card
EVGA X58 Mainboard

Here are the results of the drive with HD Tune:

It scored an average read rate of 86.5 MB/sec with a burst rate of 134.4 MB/sec. Access time was rated at 12.0ms, which is in keeping with expectations. However, these results are fairly average for most drives in this class. Let’s take a look at how HD Tach scores the drive.

In this test, the Caviar Black scored a 224MB/sec burst rate and 90.5MB/sec average read rate. The drive did take an access hit of 0.5ms in the HD Tach benchmark. However, even with this slight access hit, the transfer rate scores are much more impressive.

Taking the drive into more real-world tests, we ran the popular File Copy Test benchmark application on the Caviar Black. In the program’s ‘Install Create’ test, it finished in 9.141 seconds. This is in contrast to the 18 seconds it took our Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 drive to do the same. In the ‘ISO Create’ test, the results were echoed with the Caviar Black performing in half the time of the 7K1000. Overall, it appears that in real-world situations, the Caviar Black is one hell of a performer. We believe the secret here is in the Native Command Queuing (NCQ) performance gain of having two processors within the drive. For those who do not know, Native Command Queuing is a way for the drive to access specific places on its platters in the most efficient route possible. If NCQ were not in place, a drive heads would take extra time back-tracking across the platters when they could have already grabed that data on the way to another destination. In short, be thankful NCQ exists!

For the green conscious, be aware that the Caviar Black does draw more power from the PSU than, say, the Caviar Green line (which is to be expected). The Caviar Black draws approximately 8.4 watts of power when performing read and write operations while pulling 7.8 watts while idling. In contrast, the Caviar Green line pulls 7.4 watts during read and write operations and only 4 watts while idling. In terms of standby and sleep modes, each drive is about 1 watt, with the Caviar Green taking a slight lead drawing 0.98 watts. This is still better than Segate’s Barracuda 7200.11, which requires 11.6 watts while performing reading and writing operations and a not so eco-friendly 8 watts while simply idling.

The enhanced reliability of Western Digital’s Caviar Black hard drive coupled with its dual-processors for bleeding fast Native Command Queing makes the WDS1001FALS one heck of a performer. Not only will it beat out most non-10k RPM drives in sheer speed, but it will also outlast them thanks to the features borrowed from its big brother, the VelociRaptor. The only potential issue we could find is in the drive’s cost, which at the time of this writing is $149 at the official Western Digital online store. This is $20 to $30 dollars more than most of its 1TB competitors. Still, in this case you are definitely getting what you pay for: Reliability and real-world performance. Think of it as an investment.

Caviar Black Official Product Page

GamingShogun Reviews Halo Wars

2009/02/20

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

To start, I must admit that I have been a Halo enthusiast for a while now. Some gamers especially love the multiplayer components of the FPS games, while I really like the story Bungie has crafted and continues to evolve through books and, hopefully, a movie at some point. It was with great geeky excitement that I started up Halo Wars. Also weighing on my mind was that this was to be Ensemble Studios’ last official production. They have been a big part of my PC-gaming enjoyment over the last twelve years with their Age of Empires series and I thank them for their efforts, talent, as well as the many hours of entertainment they have provided me.

Marty O’Donnell’s Halo Wars theme begins with the loading of the menu system, setting the perfect mood for the game to come. After taking a couple minutes to admire his musical mastery and how his themes have become so synonymous with the Halo series, I started a new campaign.

This brings me to the game’s CGI cutscenes. They are simply breathtaking. These cutscenes are so good at telling the game’s story in between most missions that if a Halo movie could not be made in ‘real life’ a CGI version from Blur Studios would suffice just as well, if not more so, given the capabilities of what is physically possible on regular film. Halo Wars’ voice actors all do great jobs in bringing their characters to life and never seem wooden or half-hearted. Believable acting is key in these kinds of story-driven cutscenes and a failure here in casting could have ruined the fourth wall entirely.

Playing the game is a very enjoyable experience and combat is fairly well-balanced to the Halo universe. Unlike most RTS titles, Halo Wars is not really ‘balanced’ with both sides being equal in capability. In the Halo universe, especially twenty years before the events of the Halo video game when Halo Wars takes place, humanity’s technology is simply not as good as the Covenant’s. While playing UNSC forces, you will have to make good use of cover and the unit-balancing trifecta: Infantry has bonuses over Air Units, Air Units have bonuses over Vehicles, and Vehicles have bonuses over Infantry. Even though your units, overall, are not as advanced as Covenant forces, by remembering those three rules you will maximize your combat effectiveness. It is said that one marine squad in a covered position is as effective as three uncovered marine squads, so plan accordingly. Covered positions are usually scattered throughout most maps and provide the player the ability to create choke points and defensive sectors.

Units often times have a special attack which, after recharging, can be activated by pressing the ‘Y’ button on a target. Be warned though that if you have a whole group of multiple unit types under your control when pressing ‘Y’, they will all attempt to use their special abilities even if they are designed for opposite purposes, e.g. one unit in the group tries to hijack an enemy target while another attempts to barrage it with missiles.

Thankfully, SPARTAN units are not the entire focus of the game. These legendary warriors are brought into the campaign in epic fashion and are used like a fine spice in a very complex meal. Too much and they would lose their potency as the gamer would get desensitized to them while not having SPARTANs enough would just displease too many fans entirely. Ensemble has balanced this nicely and you will find yourself always welcoming Group Omega, even yelling at them by their individual names, sometimes… When no one else nearby is in range to hear you.

Resources do not have to be gathered in the traditional sense, and are instead generated by Supply Pads that you build at your bases. Once built, the Spirit of Fire will happily begin sending down supply drops for your constructing enjoyment. Bases in Halo Wars are similar in usage to those found in the Battle for Middle Earth games. Once created, there are a set number of places for you to build things on. Some spaces are only good for turrets while others are only used for buildings. These structures run the gamut from unit-production to some that exist solely to upgrade your armies and bases.

Since the max population points of your side begins at 30 (upgradeable slightly later on in the game), and some units take up multiple population points, you may find that you do not have enough forces in reserve to act as base defense. For the most part, this is not too much of an issue as, once upgraded to the ‘heavy’ variety, your base’s four turrets will handle just about anything that reaches them. You can even specialize the turrets, giving them bonuses in attacking vehicles, air units, or infantry.

When we saw the controls demonstrated at this year’s CES in Las Vegas, I was impressed at how user-friendly they seemed. After having more in-depth play sessions with them, I can say they are the best RTS controls we have ever seen on a console. However, they are still sluggish when compared to a good ol’ keyboard and mouse. On a PC real-time strategy games you can usually assign groups of units into hot-keyed squads for easier selection while the fine-motor skills involved in using a mouse allow for much more precise targeting. Selecting individual units within Halo Wars, especially when the action starts intensifying can be a real challenge. Halo Wars will allow you to cycle through the types of units you have within a selected army by pressing the right trigger. This will definitely help you in your tactics but does not take the place of dedicated squad-creation. I digress…

Ensemble has added a great feature to the controls in the way of reticular tracking. By moving your reticule over a unit for a split second, it will ‘grab’ onto it, dragging the camera around with it. This is a very clever way to track your armies en route to a target without having to constantly maneuver your camera view.

Graphically, Halo Wars is a treat for the eyes and combat comes to life with vibrant weapons effects, detailed unit models, and passionate battle cries. There are some sound effects which seem to be recycled quite a bit in gameplay, especially when selecting multiple units with the right and left bumper keys (which select local and all units, respectively). The previously talked about CGI cutscenes often use unit models from the game, albeit their higher polygon count progenitors. The unit models in the game, while still nicely-detailed, obviously have level of detail settings applied to them at various distances to maximize game performance.

There were a few occasions when we found ourselves getting very frustrated with Halo Wars’ missions. There are a scattering of them that feature a countdown timer or some repetitive gimmick that takes quite a while to accomplish with no end in sight. Even worse is that sometimes a countdown timer or gimmick will appear X number minutes into the mission when you have already built up your forces in a certain configuration that proves to be ineffective given the time remaining or task assigned. Due to our review agreement with Microsoft we can’t say specifically what these missions are, suffice it to say that you will know it when you get to them. Stay the course, gamers, and you will not be disappointed in the end.

A feature we are having a blast with is the ‘Halo Timeline’. In this area of the game menu, you can browse the entire recent history of the Halo universe chronicled in the various games and books. These events are laid out in linear fashion, with many being concealed until you unlock them by finding ‘black box’ and ‘skull’ resources during missions. You will have to play the game through all the difficulty settings as well as complete all optional objectives to get all of them though.

Being that Ensemble Studios were masters at online features thanks to their years of PC-development, Halo Wars is privy to all the online modes you could ask for. Along with these online modes, the player can even choose to create offline skirmish games against AI opponents/allies to hone their skills. I had to laugh when I saw that one of the multiplayer/skirmish maps available was named ‘Blood Gulch’! It looks so much different from on high. In non-single player modes, you can chose to have a specific leader from each side lead your side. Depending on the leader you chose, you will be granted different sets of ‘leader abilities’. For instance, choosing Capt. Cutter will allow you to fire MAC rounds at targets while Sgt. Forge will enable you to drop special ‘Grizzly’ main battle tanks on the field.

Overall, Halo Wars is everything a real-time strategy game should be: Fun, easy to pickup, and hard to put down. It is not only a great time for RTS fans, but also hardcore Halo fans as well. With the relatively few issues I encountered while playing, Halo Wars is really the best console RTS to date. I only wish there was a PC version available so I could really crank up the graphical effects and resolution to see what it would look like.

Halo Wars is set to ship to North American stores on March 3rd.

Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage Review

2009/02/01

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

After delving into the large open-world of Fallout 3 playing in a smaller, simulated encounter seems bit claustrophobic. You see, while the player gets to take an integral role in the Battle for Anchorage, it is done in a computer simulation with some strict barriers. We downloaded the expansion pack via the new Games for Windows client. The process went very smoothly and we hope this is just the start of a true PC analog to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. After the download was complete it detected the base game and automatically installed it. We started Fallout 3 up, signed into our Games for Windows LIVE account and began playing.

Getting to the new content of Operation Anchorage is fairly simple. Upon entering the D.C. Wastes you will receive a new radio station to listen to. This radio signal is basically an emergency transmission from a group of Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts calling for reinforcements. A new location will appear on your world map (although you will not be able to fast-travel there until after your first visit. Stumbling upon a group of Outcast members on the way to the location, you accompany them as they fight through a band of Super Mutants blocking the way. Once to the Outcast’s base, you find that they have stumbled upon a cache of advance technology that can only be unlocked by completing a computer simulation of the Battle of Anchorage. This historic battle is where the US Army forced back Chinese invaders prior to the nuclear exchange which effectively ends life as we know it. Due to your Pip-Boy 3000’s capabilities, you seem to be the Outcasts best chance at finishing it. In return, they promise you all the advanced tech you can carry.

Which brings us to the sim itself. The landscape of Anchorage, Alaska is sufficiently bleak with snow and high-winds racing through the land. Once you complete the opening bits of combat and setup, you will make it to the US base in the region. Your mission is to lead a strike team to three different locations before you clear the way for a big T-51b power armor-equipped push towards the Chinese base. Health and ammo will be given via stations scattered throughout your path, while enemy corpses and items just vanish into thin air with a transporter-like blue energy. As this is a simulation, you are not able to loot anything in the normal manner. Also among the war-torn tundra, you will find ten scattered pieces of intelligence in the form of briefcases which, when collected, give you the new Covert Ops trait.

The Chinese soldiers come in two main flavors: stealth suited and not. The Chinese regulars carry assault rifles and sniper rifles while the stealth-suited ‘Crimson Dragoon’ troops can become invisible ala the Predator and carry a variety of weapons. These stealth troops are a neat new foe to fight and present the player with a challenge not seen in the base game, namely: fighting nearly-invisible bad guys.

My biggest complaint with this DLC pack is that when you finally reach the Chinese base, the story is abruptly stopped after a small, final bit of fighting. It feels extremely jarring and anti-climactic as you are yanked out of the simulation and back into the present. Perhaps this was Bethsoft’s design, I do not know. Thankfully, not all of the story feels so jarring. During the course of the missions, you recover several holodisks featuring some personal stories from the battle which helps set the tone of what you are re-enacting. Also, I would have like to have seen a larger number of enemies throughout the operation. For one of the largest battles in US history, it feels a bit too empty and, frankly, easy. I was able to get through the entire thing at level ten without too much trouble.

After the sim is completed, you are able to open the locked door to the advanced tech room and you will be able to loot pretty much everything in it. You will be able to pick up the new Gauss Rifle, stealth suit, and electrified sword to name a few items.

Is this DLC pack worth picking up? For 800 Microsoft points, or roughly $10 dollars, sure. While the pack does not feature any one thing that you will not be able to live without, it does offer a few nifty technologies as well as a relatively fun diversion during its short duration. Plus, it gives gamers a chance to continue supporting the developer, hopefully paving the way to their development of a full-fledged sequel. Let’s just hope that Bethsoft learns from our criticism about Operation Anchorage and gives us a bit more to chew on with ‘The Pitt’ and ‘Broken Steel’, which are due out sometime in February or March.

Fallout 3 Official Site

Creative Vado HD Review

2009/01/28

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

With the decreasing cost of parts, pocket camcorders have been all the rage in the last couple years. Creative has been a late entry to the market and did so with their well-received Vado, which featured 640×480 resolution as well as 2GB of internal memory. However their newest camera, the Vado HD, completely surpasses their previous offering with 720p resolution, 8GB of internal memory, and a huge helping of sweetness.

When talking about the Vado HD’s design, it is important to get a sense of scale for the device, which lists its official measurements as 3.9” x 2.2” x 0.6”. Seems fairly small, but I like pictures so take a look at the following pic which helps give a better sense than those numbers.

As you can see, the camera is very small, well-enough so that it can easily fit in your pocket staying true to the ‘pocket camera’ moniker. The layout of the camera’s controls is fairly standard and should not confuse anyone who has used a pocket camera. The 2” LCD screen is vibrant, capable of displaying up to 16 million colors and below this you will find the five-way control pad as well as play/pause and delete buttons. The five-way control pad allows you to turn volume up and down when reviewing a movie with the up and down directions (or controlling the digital zoom while in recording mode) and the left and right directions control video selection in playback mode. Speaking of playback: You can easily navigate and review the videos you have shot on the Vado HD thanks to its onboard screen and controls. Deleting videos is done by clicking the delete button once to initiate the deletion and a second time to confirm it. The center button starts and stops video recording. Along the sides of the Vado HD, you will find an HDMI output, audio output, power button, and lanyard loop.

Along the bottom of the Vado HD you will find one of its best features: a nested, flexible USB dongle. Some pocket cameras out there use a rigid pylon of a USB connector, but this is unstable and feels awkward when connecting to a PC. With the flexible dongle, it is very easy to attach and remove to your nearest hub or PC. And because it nests itself within the camera when not extended, it won’t get in your way while handling the camera.

The software is a snap to install, and goes with the Vado HD wherever you take it as it lies in the internal memory of the camera. Plug the Vado HD in, hit the ‘okay’ button to run the Vado Central software and off you go. All of your videos stored on the camera will appear in a nifty UI for your perusal and uploading (it even allows a bit of video editing). Notice that on the upper-right corner of the UI you will see buttons labeled with popular video sites like YouTube. By clicking on one of them it will ask you for your account info and allow you to upload any of the videos from your camera in a couple easy steps. You can take a look at the UI in this next image, but know we have shrunken it down to fit the article window – it will be bigger on your desktop.

Creative even saw fit to include a silicon skin protective case, HDMI cable, and USB extension cable to help you connect to those hard-to-reach ports. The aforementioned HDMI output will allow you to send up to 1080i out to your television screen should it accept the cable type, of course.

Using the Vado HD in real-life situations is a breeze as well, as it features a tripod mount on the bottom of the camera to make it easy to use by yourself. Also, beginning to record a video is as easy as hitting the power button, waiting through the short boot up sequence, and then pressing the center button. This lack of complexity makes it a great choice for those moments when you need to record something right away. You get into a fender bender and need to record automobile damages? Whip that sucker out and start recording!

The 3x digital zoom, while not as good as an optical zoom, does a nice enough job thanks to the camera’s overall 720p resolution. There is really no pixelation worth mentioning in the process. Creative was smart in limiting the digital zoom to 3x, as many times when you start getting past that in cameras you notice all sorts of artifacting as the camera’s internal logic tries to compensate for the lack of image information.

Unfortunately, the Creative Vado HD does have a couple things I would like to see improved upon. The first thing is that there is no 3.5mm audio input jack. While the onboard microphone works for general usage, if I wanted to take the unit to a convention or some other noisy place, it would be nice to couple the great video quality with a more directed audio source such as an external microphone. If an audio input existed on the camera, the Vado HD could easily replace our standard HG-10 for use at such events. The second point of contention I have with the Vado HD is that there is no flash memory slot to expand the storage capacity past its internal 8GB. While you get about two hours of recording time with the internal memory, that can fill up fast if you don’t off-load it over the course of a day or two.

Aside from these issues, Creative’s Vado HD is the only pocket camera I would recommend at the time of this writing. The Flip Mino HD still has their clumsy, rigid USB pylon while also only allowing an hour of recording time. Meanwhile, the Kodak Zi6 has a larger form factor and is, IMHO, not as ‘sexy’ of a camera. For $229 dollars at Creative’s website, you can’t go wrong with their new Vado HD. Whether it be to record video podcasts, quick on-the-spot segments, or even industry happenings, the Vado HD is an excellent choice that gives you most of the full-fledged HD camcorder benefits in a much more economical package.

Vado HD Product Page

*Note to the reader:
We actually prepared a test video of the Vado HD for your viewing enjoyment, but realized that in the bright, Sunny Southern California scenery you probably would not be that impressed. We found a video in HD on YouTube, however, which showed some night driving around Japan that we thought was cool for you to take a look at. Check it out here, but we warn you that the filmmaker has added a strange soundtrack. So, click ‘Watch in HD’ on the page and turn down that audio to fully-enjoy the video quality of the Vado HD in night time conditions.

Ultimate Gaming Chair – Reactor Review

2009/01/17

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

Ultimate Gaming Chair products have grown more and more popular in recent years thanks to more mainstream media coverage. In response to the demand for gaming furniture, more and more companies have thrown their hat into the very niche market. Some do it with bean bags, others with low-quality rocking chairs. UGC, however, is the grand daddy of gaming chair makers and you can usually find premium quality in their wares. Thankfully, this is still the case with their Reactor gaming chair.

The Reactor is the lower-cost alternative to their premier model, the UGC ‘v3’. Costing $199 dollars, however, you can be sure that even though its price is not as great as its bigger brother’s $499 MSRP, the Reactor is made from some high-grade stuff. The chair comes shipped in two pieces, the chair back and the chair base. Setup is very simple, as you have to line up the chair back with rails sticking out of the chair base and push. Aside from the basic mechanics of it, you have to connect a couple cables between the two pieces as well, but this is a simple task that even an untrained capuchin with a hangover could figure out. After that, simply plug in the power adapter and your audio input(s). Boom, done.

One thing I loved about the Reactor is that it is not a rocker-style chair. This is a fully-elevated chair that wont break your back every time you try to get out of it. Another benefit to the standard elevated chair design is that you won’t be craning your neck to see the television. The Reactor comes built-in with audio in and out ports as well as a headphone jack. On the same panel as these inputs you will find controls for the vibration motors as well as the chair’s volume knob. The Reactor is equipped with 2.1 channel audio that includes special vibrating motors attached to various points along the chair. These transducers create vibration from base noise which is sent to the chair. You can even use the chair as a massager without playing anything which is a great feature to have. In using it like that however, it makes you wish the chair could recline.

One feature we wish would have made it on the Reactor are armrests. On the higher-end UGC v3 they are prominently featured, but with the Reactor, they chose an open-arm design. While this works with the smaller overall profile of the Reactor in comparison to the v3, it does reduce comfort slightly especially while watching them moving pictures all the kids are talking about.

The sound quality of the Reactor is good overall, but we noted that at higher volumes, the audio would become a bit distorted, although the eight chair-shaking vibration motors do a great job of helping immerse you in the game by helping to make sounds ‘feel’ more powerful then the current volume is set at. Another nice feature is that if you are looking for a quieter experience, you can plug in some headphones and enjoy the chair’s comfort while at the same time playing stealthily.

The Reactor also makes for great party seating, as witnessed at a recent office party with twenty people or so. The chair became the must-sit on piece of furniture in the room. People were talking about it all over the place. So, if you are looking for a solid gaming chair that is a cut above the rest but still not in the completely bank-breaking high end chairs out there you should seriously check out the Reactor. It is available now from Ultimate Gaming Chair for $199 dollars.

Product Page

Demon’s Souls Trailer Shows off Gameplay and Atmosphere

2009/01/06

Jerry Paxton

News

Don’t get me wrong, the third-person fantasy RPG has been done before, but Demon’s Soul look sufficiently atmospheric enough to be entertaining. Under development by From Software and being published by SCE Japan, Demon’s Souls is setting up for a Japanese release on the PS3 this year. There is no word yet on a North American or European release but, as with all things, patience is a virtue.

Defense Grid: The Awakening Review

2008/12/31

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

Hidden Path Entertainment has released their highly-anticipated tower defense game, Defense Grid: The Awakening. For those of you unfamiliar with tower defense titles, they generally put you in charge of placing defenses along a predefined route on which enemy ‘creeps’ will attempt to pass by in an effort to attack your home base. These started quite a while ago but in recent years have become extremely popular as casual web titles. Defense Grid raises the bar, however.

While keeping the same tried-and-true tower defense gameplay, it boasts vibrant and well-detailed 3d graphics, which is something that cannot be said about most other TD games. In addition, it features an evolving storyline over its campaign which adds a much-needed narrative to what is going on. Finished, a level can be played from other modes such as sandbox-games, etc which allows for quite a bit of replayability as you try out different tower combinations.

Speaking of towers. In Defense Grid, you will find a vast assortment of tower-type, from basic machine gun turrets all the way to unguided artillery pieces. Each can be upgraded and look sufficiently different in each level of capability as well which is a nice touch. Effects are well done with vivid explosions and other weapon effects. All of these options in terms of which towers to place where creates a big dilemma for the budding player: what to put where? Certain towers play better off one another, such as starting off with a slowing ‘temporal tower’ followed by some area-effect ‘inferno’ fire towers. By learning what each tower does and planning accordingly, your wins will be far more elegant and brilliant to watch unfold.

Creeps are of the anime ‘mecha’ variety and, while not as well-detailed as the environments or turrets, do their jobs nicely. There are light, medium, and heavy creeps to deal with. Some even have shields which are harder to break through. Then there are the air units, which do not always travel on the same path as their terra firma-rooted brethren. All of this makes for a brilliant display of action on the screen as you are not always watching the same creep go by a thousand times in a row.

Available off the Steam digital distribution service for $19.99 (with a current 2008 Holiday sale for $14.99), it would be a shame to pass up this engaging and addictive game. Defense Grid: The Awakening is truly the best tower defense game to date and I hope Hidden Path has plans to go further in the genre as they truly have a knack for it and we just can’t wait to see what they have in store for a sequel.

Official Site

Bigfoot Networks Killer M1 NIC Review

2008/12/15

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

Bigfoot Networks has always held a certain place of mystery in my brain. I never truly thought that their line of ‘Killer’ NICs would be capable of living up to the hype surrounding them. In an age where just about everything has a ‘*PU’ of its own (CPU, GPU, SPU…) now we have to worry about an ‘NPU’ (Network Processing Unit). ‘Just perfect’, I thought. Finally, I got the chance to play with their flagship NIC, the ‘M1’, and have been thoroughly and excitedly wrong about my previous misgivings. This review should shed a bit more light on my change of heart.

Tech Specs:

Design:
The M1 is almost identical to its ‘little’ brother, the K1, with the biggest exception being the M1’s very cool K-shaped heatsink. The thing looks like some sort of ninja weapon. Thankfully, the heatsink is fully-secured to the board so those of you with an inkling to throw it at deserving individuals will be denied from doing so. On the back of the Killer M1, you will find the standard LAN port as well as a USB port. Yup, you heard right, there is a USB port on the NIC. Why? Well one of the coolest features of the Killer M1 is its use of FNA applications.

FNA Applications:
FNA stands for ‘Flexible Network Architecture’ and represents a novel idea in network interface cards. Essentially, the Killer M1 is a small Linux-driven computer inside your computer. This small computer acts as a gateway from your PC to the network sure but with ‘FNApps’, as they are called, you can put this small computer to work handling various tasks without taxing your system’s standard hardware. Unfortunately, there are not too many FNApps out yet, but we hope this will change. Thankfully, what FNApps do exist are pretty cool. For instance, the FNA Torrent application allows you to download torrent streams onto a USB drive (attached to the port on the NIC). FNA Voice is a hardware-accelerated voice streaming program and FNA Firewall is, well, a firewall app. Using the Killer M1 as a firewall is an extremely smart idea as it can detect and deny attacks before they reach your PC’s bus.

Installation:
Physically installing the Killer M1 is simple, being really no different than any other PC card. Simply insert it in a PCI slot and boot up your PC. Install the software and you will be good to go. It is that easy and we must applaud Bigfoot Networks for such a simple, yet functional set of configuration programs. Handling the FNApps is equally simple, and adds a ton of value to this card, especially for those of your who like to use torrent programs while gaming. The following is a screen capture from the main Killer Configuration app. As you can see, it is a strictly no-frills piece of software that does not confuse or barrage you with needless information. This is indicative of all the FNApps’ software as well. They have really kept things simple and efficient for the best user experience possible.

Technology:
The Killer M1 NIC takes control of the Windows network stack and increases the speed at which the NIC looks at incoming UDP (User Datagram Protocol) packets which, incidentally, is what most high-performance online games use. This is opposed to TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) packets which require acknowledgement packets to be sent back to the sender and a lot more overhead in general. In that respect, using the Killer M1 won’t make too much of a difference when sending and receiving TCP packets, as the algoritm for doing so is set in stone. With UDP applications and games you will definitely notice an improvement as the NIC offloads this processing from your PC’s CPU to its own 400mhz processor. This amount of processing power on the card is what enables it to not only mind your network, but also run its FNApps.

Performance:
Bigfoot Networks touts that the Killer M1 will not only improve network ping, but should also increase my graphical frames per second as it takes on the responsibilities of the Windows network stack, freeing up the CPU to focus on the game at hand. They tout that in Age of Conan, tests have shown frames per second values to increase by up to 20fps. Also regarding Age of Conan, they claim ping improvements of up to 20ms. We thought we would focus our tests on this MMO from Funcom. Our test rig runs an AMD 6000+ 3.0Ghz Dual Core CPU with an Nvidia GTX 280 video card (stock clocking). Also on the test machine is 4GB of DDR2 800 RAM.

Our first run of the MMO without the Killer NIC installed (using the onboard Gigabit NIC) gave us an FPS rating of 38 and an average ping of 162ms. We then moved over to the Killer NIC instead of the onboard network adapter. This yielded us a frames per second rating of 45 and an average ping of 149ms. This represents an increase of 7 FPS and a decrease in ping of 13ms. Not an altogether stellar increase in visual performance but a respectable decrease in ping, especially in the fairly busy game-city of Tarantia.

Our our second run of the game, we moved over to an emptier zone on our server – the Lacheish Plains. This time, we rated values of 44 FPS and 159ms using the onboard NIC. With the Killer NIC, we received ratings of 57fps and 144ms. This is an increase of 13 FPS and a decrease of 15ms, a much better result

These two tests constitute an average ping decrease of 14ms and an average increase of 10 FPS in performance. To us, this test represents a success on the part of the Killer M1 NIC to provide a benefit to game performance, both on the graphical and network levels.

Conclusion:
Bigfoot Networks’ Killer M1 network interface card provides a noticeable improvement in game performance, both from the standpoint of visual frames per second as well as lower amount of network ping. This fact, coupled with the promise and convenience of FNA applications and the added security of the NIC acting as a firewall makes it the perfect fit for that dedicated-gaming PC. Its price tag is hefty at $249 in most retail outlets, but if you can afford it we highly recommend it. We found it on sale at several web-based outlets for $209, so look sharp!

Tritton AX Pro Precision Gaming Headset Review

2008/12/08

Jerry Paxton

Reviews

Tritton has a fairly large line of gaming audio products. Their headsets in the past have generally been focused on one type of input. For instance, the Tritton AX PC is geared towards PC and Mac usage while the AX 360 is, as you can probably imagine, geared for use on the Microsoft Xbox 360 console. This AX Pro, however, is a new breed capable of utilizing multiple types of inputs while also including Dolby Digital and Dolby Prologic decoding for a true 5.1 channel experience.

The Tritton AX Pro comes out of the box in a very daunting fashion. Aside from pulling out a ton of accessory components which ship with it, the actual headset itself is large and covered in a sleek silver plastic shell. Its ear cups are gigantic, allowing them to cover your entire ear for maximum comfort. In the box, Tritton even sends along a set of feux-leather pads so that you can find the best fit and feel for your head.

This is really something to take note of, because if you look at most any other headset review I have done, you will notice I say it is ‘too tight’ or that the unit doesn’t fit around my ‘gigantic noggin’, or something to that effect. These Tritton’s fit extremely well, and kudos must be given to them for taking into account the large-headed. The AX Pro feels very sturdy, and the quality in which they were made is immediately apparent to the wearer. They come equipped with a detachable boom microphone which worked splendidly during Skype calls, and also was heard loud and clear during Xbox 360 gameplay.

The package contents:

Setting the headset up is a fairly confusing experience for the uninitiated. Tritton provides a large, fold-out poster detailing the setup procedure for each type of input, but nevertheless it is still somewhat confusing until you have done it a few times. The AX Pro comes with two power adapters, one for the Dolby decoder box and the other for the headset unit itself. Usually, the headset will plug into one of the two (yes you can connect an additional AX Pro headset) headset ports on the Dolby decoder box, and from the box to your input source. Technically, you don’t need to connect the decoder box for PC usage unless you want to make use of the optical or USB connections, or, the Dolby decoding coolness. You could use the PC adapter cable and plug it directly into the multiple speaker outputs of your sound card. However, I must say that the sound from the optical connection on the sound card is exceptional and what you should opt to use as much as possible. The problem with all this cabling going back and forth is that the area all of it will sit in gets a bit messy. Even with the initial confusion and mess however, the effort is worth it when you finally get the headset up and running. We would like to see a wireless version of the AX Pro (and rumor has it that CES might see the reveal of this – stay tuned).

We tested the headset out on a friend’s Xbox 360 (see here as to why) and played some HD-DVDs. The sound is just amazing and really replicates the theater experience, but better, because you don’t have to keep yelling ‘Shut up!’ at the annoying teens talking behind you. We took the AX Pro to our PC and, after plugging in the fiber optic cable (and enabling it as an output on our Sound Blaster X-Fi) were off and running in Fallout 3. The ambient noises of the D.C. Wastelands filled my ears from seemingly all directions. The channel positioning is just a hoot and it was never an issue to track which direction a molerat was coming from so I could introduce him to my ‘Shishkebab’. All of this is thanks to the four drivers in each ear cup which are assigned to a different channel. There is even a 40mm driver in each ear cup assigned to be the sub-woofer. While the bass response in the headset is not what you could get out of a bigger home theater system (obviously), I have to say it is very nice and firing my ‘Eugene’ mini-gun at some feral mutants made me crack a geek smile the length of the mighty Mississippi River! Turning the volume up and down on the headset is done via an attached control pad with color-coded levels of intensity on a per-channel basis which allows for a high-level of volume customization.

Official Specs:

Overall, the Tritton AX Pro Precision Gaming Headset performs like a champion worth twice its retail price of $179. If you are looking for a true 5.1 channel headset for use in most (if not all) of your devices you need look no further. Whether it is gaming or HD-DVD (we are what the kids call ‘old-school’) watching, the AX Pro will deliver every time.

Tritton’s Official Site

The GamingShogun 2008 PC Gaming Xmas Wish List

2008/12/02

Jerry Paxton

Articles

2008 has seen some really incredible titles released for the personal computer. I would say that this has been one of the best years for PC gamers in quite some time actually. It seems that while developers know that console games have the most market saturation, the PC gaming market is far from dead. If you are someone who is looking for that perfect PC game or peripheral to buy a loved one or even put on your own Xmas list this year, look no further as we have compiled our top choices by genre/type. Enjoy!

SHOOTERS
Left 4 Dead by Valve Software – Valve really has a winner on their hands in Left 4 Dead. In plainest terms, it is a cooperative, first-person shooter set in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. These aren’t Romero zombies we are talking about here – these are Dawn of the Dead re-make zombies and the come at you in very large numbers. Left 4 Dead isn’t just about zombies though. In fact, because of the threat you and your three survivor buddies face, the game emphasizes teamwork above all else. One day, I would love to see company ‘retreats’ where their team-building exercises consist of Left 4 Dead rounds (I wanna work there!). Coupled with the fact that it is available via Valve’s Steam service, allowing it a built-in community, means you will not have to wait long to get game going. Aim for the head!

Runners-Up: Crysis: Warhead, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Call of Duty: World at War.

SINGLE-PLAYER RPGs
Fallout 3 by Bethesda Softworks – If you never got the chance to experience the original Fallout or its first sequel, you are really missing out as they are truly some of the best RPGs ever made. Thankfully, this tradition has been carried on by Bethsoft even when taking the game into the first-person from the previous title’s overhead, isometric view. In Fallout 3 you will wander around a post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. in a quest to find your father, who mysteriously disappeared from the vault you have been living in since you were born. It features an incredibly immersive world replete with tongue-in-cheek humor and 1950’s retro styling. The game will take you many hours to get through, and even then you will not be able to experience everything, forcing you to play through it again and again.

Runners-Up: Dead Space, Mass Effect, Far Cry 2.

Hit the full list up After the Jump!
MMORPGs
EVE Online by CCP – The MMO with one of the toughest learning curves on the market is still one of the most fun, featuring a living, breathing economic model on a galactic scale. Upgrade components of your starship, take on missions, join up with player-run galactic corporations and more. The depth of this game is so staggering it can turn a new gamer away within the first forty-five minutes of play. Our advice: Stick with it and find a helpful player-run corporation, you will thank us. Oh, also watch for scammers as CCP takes a Laissez-faire approach to their in-game economy.

Runners-Up: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

SIMULATORS
Spore: This species simulation had some serious hype surrounding it and, while unfortunate that it did not live up to all of it, what we did receive was a very creative life sim that allows you to take your small, multi-cellular beasties all the way from algae eating to space colonization. Suffering from a fair mid-point, the game’s first and last stages are more than worth the play-through. Plus, this is one of those family-friendly games that makes a great gift for the little ones you do not wish to see blowing away wastelanders with their Fat Man!

Runners-Up: T-34 vs Tiger.

STRATEGY
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 by EA Montreal – While not the most advanced game when it comes to gameplay innovations or visuals, it is easily one of the most well-balanced RTS titles we have played in quite some time. This can lead to some very fun and highly-pitched battles between you and your friends (or enemies) in multi-player games. The single player campaign also stars the likes of Tim Curry, so get out there and defend Mother Russia for Dr. Frankenfurter!

Runners-Up: Combat Mission Shock Force: Marines, King’s Bounty: The Legend, Sins of a Solar Empire.

SPORTS
Out of the Park Baseball 9 by Out of the Park Developments – Unfortunately, aside from a racer or two, the PC market has not been very lucrative for sports gamers this year. Even though Out of the Park Baseball 9 is a baseball management game, it still tops our list as, well, nothing else was very notable. It features some of the most in-depth sports management ever seen in a PC game. Manage your players and team in both offline as well as online seasons against other players. Sorry sports fans, your future looks to be console-bound.

Runners-Up: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, Need for Speed: Undercover (Even though it is not a sports game by concept, it does deal with street racing and that is as close as we could find to a runner-up).

GAMING MICE

Microsoft Sidewinder X5 Gaming Mouse: Microsoft released a bare bones version of their feature-packed Sidewinder gaming mouse this year dubbed the X5. While cutting-down on the extras, it still features extremely responsive handling as well as a unique design that feels far more comfortable than it looks at a discounted price point.

Runners-Up: Wolfing Trooper MVP, Cyber-Snipa Stinger.

GAMING KEYBOARDS

Saitek Cyborg Keyboard: Saitek’s Cyborg is a large and very capable keyboard that, while looking like something out of a Tie Fighter’s cockpit, is sure to help your gaming performance. It features a multi-color, multi-region back lighting system as well as a touch-sensitive control panel and twelve macro keys. The keyboard is no slouch on construction either, featuring a very fine key-action and gold-plated USB connectors.

Runners-Up: SteelSeries 7G, Microsoft Sidewinder X6.

HEADSETS
Creative’s HS-1200 Digital Wireless Headset: When we first looked at Creative’s wireless gaming headset we were skeptical at best. Usually, wireless headsets that cost less than a couple hundred dollars are lackluster. What we found, however, was that the HS-1200s featured incredible sound quality and a generally comfortable fit that made gaming (or just listening to music while relaxing) a joy. Plus, the boom microphone’s muting system makes it very easy to tell when your broadcasting, minimizing the risk of accidental outbursts to your friends playing with you.

Runners-Up: SteelSeries 5H V2 USB, Creative’s HS-1000 Gaming Headset.