GMC, a Korean company, has been making its mark on the North American PC case market for a short time now. They usually offer cases with plenty of cool features and eye-popping designs. Their first gamer-specific enclosure, the X7 ‘X-Station’ is no different.
It seems as though everyone and their brother is making gaming PC cases these days. These folks put out all manner of crazy designs in an attempt to bait the perspective buyer into purchasing them. Problem is that most of these gaudy cases are nothing more than flash, with poor cooling and no useful features to speak of. Thankfully, the X7 is not one of them.
The X7 is designed with militaristic-looking black lines which lend themselves well to the gamer-centric motif. It actually reminds me of something you would see in Batman’s ‘Tumbler Batmobile’. The bezel features a couple of cool orange power lights as well as four USB 2.0 ports, power button, and reset button. We would like to have seen an eSATA and/or FireWire port on the front, but we digress. The X-7 also features a backlit LCD display which shows the case temperature and fan speed.
Speaking of fans, the case features three of them: One 120mm fan in the aft, an 80mm fan in the fore, and an 80mm fan in the side panel. The side panel doesn’t feature a window, but instead a cool protruding, vented area with a button to change fan speeds. These provide decent airflow, but if you are overclocking I would recommend modding out the side fan with a 120mm unit using an adapter. 
Inside the case, there is just enough room to accommodate a gtx 280 video card, making cabling somewhat of a challenge. This is not out of the ordinary though, as most cases have issues in this department.
The case has bays for four 5.25” drives, three of which are protected by an easy-open drive cover in the bezel. Instead of removing your case’s plastic drive bay cover and potentially losing it (I do this a lot), these swing open to the side, staying attached to the case. Once installed, the cover swings back into place, covering your drive with its cool Batmobile-esque design. The top-most drive bay does not feature one of these covers, but instead has been designed to house a CD/DVD-ROM drive. This particular bay has rounded corners and allows for easy access to your drive. The easy-access covers are removable, however, should you have a second disc media drive to install. 
The case allows for up to four 3.5” drives to be installed, right behind the 80mm forward area fan to promote hard disk cooling.
Overall, the X7 ‘X-Station’ is a fine mid-level gaming enclosure that balances form and function. While its fan system may not be the most optimal for overclocking your gear, its cool extra features make up for that in spades.
Q) What kind of a design process is used in developing new Pro-Flight peripherals? How much are real pilots used in this process?
Q) How would you describe the flight simulation market currently???
Q) And last, is there anything you would like our readers to know about that we have not covered here???
I had a vague idea of what to expect from seeing it played briefly at this year’s E3 Media and Business Summit. At least, I thought I did. I guess seeing it played in a brightly lit convention room flooded with fellow gamers is a lot different than sitting down in a darkened room to play it by myself.
The design of the necromorphs is perfect. They look to be inspired by Rob Bottin’s and Lance Anderson’s work in John Carpenter’s 1982 film, The Thing. This fact alone did not bode well for me, as growing up The Thing was the only movie to ever really scare me. The idea of something using your own body for its grotesque purposes just creeped me out, and still does. Killing these abominations is a matter of tactics, just not spraying and praying. You have to dismember them first by blowing off their limbs/tentacles. This will usually kill the creature. If you try shooting it in the torso or head on the other hand, you will usually just piss it off. Trust me, don’t piss them off if you can help it.
Your weaponry will consist mostly of unusual tools such as a plasma cutter. You will get a couple more standard military weapons, but ammo is nice and sparse in the game leaving you constantly hungry for more. You will also get some other engineering hardware which allows you to move things from far away, a sort of engineering telekinesis. Issac also gets to play with a stasis tool which slows down whatever object he hits with it. This can range from a fast-moving obstacle to a fast-moving tentacled infant-monster (creepy). This, coupled with your finite inventory space can lead to much pondering over what to keep with you and what to leave behind.
There are several other cool gameplay gimmicks in the game, even having to do with zero gravity, however I will not spoil anything more for you. Dead Space is one of those games which you just have to experience for yourself. If I can tell you one thing in this review, it is that if you usually enjoy shooters, creepy survival-horror titles, or sci-fi horror in general you will love Dead Space and should buy it right now. Go and support quality productions like this. There are far too few of them to let this one pass you by. And for goodness’ sake, try playing in the dark to start with just to get the full effect. Good luck…
Usually, we are nothing but excited with sandbox games. The freedom one derives from exploration can be quite liberating. In an RPG it is also equally nice to have some sort of overall quest which ties the whole thing together. TaleWorlds has decided to just keep with the sandbox part of that equation, ditching an overall quest and thrusting gamers into the unknown. 
The battlefield strategy employed in these large skirmishes is vital as one false swing or direction can mean the turn of the tide. Commanding troops is done easily by shouting commands at them. They are fairly basic commands but mirror what a human being would be able to shout while riding into battle. This adds an additional element of realism to the combat, as knights in the middle ages did not have GPS or other high-tech gadgets with which to organize themselves.
The character development is fairly complex, TaleWorlds taking a queue from Daggerfall in asking you a series of questions to determining your base character. From there, you allocate some skillpoints are off you go. Along the way you level up your character, increasing your skill points and personal wealth.
Reel Deal Millionaire’s Club manages to walk this line of graphics and budget nicely, as it is the first time I can remember a Phantom EFX game with 3d elements to it. All of the cards are 3d as is your character’s avatar. Yes, you heard me: in this Phantom EFX title, you will actually create a full-bodied, 3d avatar for your player. After creation, the avatar will sit in your ‘place’ at the table game and react to the game’s outcomes in an often humorous manner. I chuckled after losing a big bet in blackjack at seeing my avatar slap his forehead in disbelief. It was as though his small, pixelated mind had bonded with my own. While the 3d characters are not exactly the most attractive Johns and Janes this side of the Mississippi, they are modeled nicely enough, especially when viewed in their ‘shrunken’ state at the bottom of your screen.
Not to spend too much time discussing the graphical overhaul of the game, Phantom EFX has added eleven new slot machines to the game which are not found on any of their other titles. As usual, their video machine UI’s are crisp and vibrant. However, I did experience an odd bug in which the machines were completely silent while the MP3 player was active. Turning the player off unmuted the machines. I expect this and other bugs to be fixed in subsequent patches as is often the case.
Phantom EFX has a new edition of their popular Reel Deal Card Games series out. This one, dubbed the ’09 edition, contains over 80 card games for you to experience. While most of the Reel Deal series has something to do with casino gaming and is marketed as such, Card Games ’09 is geared to the average card player. By card player, I do not mean poker necessarily, although that is included within this game too. I mean the player of games such as solitaire or bridge. Even without it being casino-focused, the games featured in this product all have a gambling component. Nothing ventured as the old saying goes! If you are familiar with Phantom EFX’s previous games you should have no problem adjusting to this one. Their UI’s are consistently friendly and show a good degree of forethought. 
I suppose I would too if someone came up to me with a bone through their nose.
Although the destructable environment was a little bit too easily destroyed, it sure was fun taking that place down to kibble.
The Wizard was a great long range direct damage dealer. While the dogs were doing their thing and the spiders and disease slowly crumbled the undead, the Wizard’s spells simply decimated the remaining remains. I can imagine the Witch Doctor could play through the game without an issue by himself (although, what fun is that?). The Wizard would be a cautious solo artist, taking care to watch mana at all times because when it runs out, you’ll die quicker than a ninety year old smoker.