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Κυριακή 26 Δεκεμβρίου 2010

Top 10 PC Games of 2010

2010 was a nice year for PC gamers. It could have been better, but still it was great. Strategy and adventure fans got to play a lot of quality PC exclusives, from Starcraft 2 and Civilization V to Gray Matter and The Whispered World. The indie devs once again proved that they can really surprise us and deliver some amazing games. Titles like Sleep Is Death, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Minecraft and Super Meat Boy are some of the best indie games we got this year.

Sports and racing fans were left behind but thankfully, EA managed to deliver a great PC version of Fifa11 and NBA2K11 from 2K Games is astounding. WRC 2010 was the perfect blend of arcade/sim rally racing and would have made it in our Top10, if only it had more stages and better menus/presentation. Split Second was a hell of a game, Blur was a fan arcade racing and even though F1 2010 was not as sim as we'd hoped to, it was overall a nice game. RPG fans got to play Mass Effect 2, Two Worlds II, Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol, whereas the action fans enjoyed games like Bad Company 2, STALKER: Call Of Pripyat, Metro 2033, Just Cause 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Τρίτη 21 Δεκεμβρίου 2010

JohnDio Presents The Dark Side Of Trance (Christmas Special Mix) [21-12-2010]

A couple of months ago, I promised you a mix that would be way different than any of my previous mixes. So here it is, as a Christmas gift to all of you. This is the dark side of trance. Leon Bolier, Kosmas Epsilon, Vadim Zhukov, Mike Foyle, Jose Amnesia, Solarstone, John 00 Fleming, Ashley Wallbridge, Robert Nickson, Aurosonic, Markus Schulz and Tom Colontonio in a hell of a mix. Hope you'll enjoy it.

Merry Christmas everyone!



JohnDio Presents The Dark Side Of Trance (Christmas Special Mix) [21-12-2010]


Genre: Prog Trance / Trance
Date: 21-12-2010
Quality: 320kbps
Length: 68:45
Size: 157MB


Tracklist

1. Leon Bolier - That Morning (Album Mix)
2. Kosmas Epsilon - I Trance You (Original Mix)
3. Mike Foyle & DNS Project - Cayo Norte (Original Mix)
4. Vadim Zhukov - Stop The Time (Original Mix)
5. Solarstone & Orkidea - Slowmotion (French Renaissance Extended Mix)
6. John 00 Fleming & The Digital Blonde - Melatron (Original Mix)
7. Jose Amnesia - Out Of Memory (Original Mix)
8. Ashley Wallbridge - Smoke (Original Mix)
9. Robert Nickson & Ruben De Ronde - Superlative (Lodos Remix)
10. Markus Schulz featuring Khaz - Dark Heart Waiting (Club Mix)[JohnDio Breakless version]
11. Aurosonic - Starcraft Anthem (Special For SC2TV)
12. Tom Colontonio featuring Michele Karmin - Colors Of A Tear (Nick Sentience Remix)

DOWNLOAD: RAPIDSHARE, MEGAUPLOAD, MEDIAFIRE

Σάββατο 18 Δεκεμβρίου 2010

Nail'd PC Performance & Screenshots

Nail'd is the new ATV arcade racing from Techland. We were quite impressed with it, given the fact that Techland doesn't have any experience in this genre. Forget about everything, this is an arcade racing with loose physics and speed. Seriously, Nail'd is the fastest game we've ever played with some insane jumps and amazing tracks. Kudos to Techland for trying something different.

However, Nail'd is cursed by the same damn game mechanics that haunt every arcade racing game. We're talking about the CPU cheats. We were shocked when we played half of the game and didn't encounter any CPU cheating. But alas, at the 3/4 of the campaign, all the 'familiar' CPU cheats come to surface. Opponents are almost invicible, points aren't given even when slamming your opponents or when you push them to brake down their bikes, rubber banding is kicking in and they'll always catch up with you and their touchdowns are flawless. Funny thing is that even when the leader is in front of you and doesn't take the shortcuts to gain points from passing through gates or circles, he'll keep getting points for unknown reasons. It's really sad, because the first half of the game (which doesn't have those 'features') is highly enjoyable.

Τετάρτη 8 Δεκεμβρίου 2010

James Bond Blood Stone PC Performance & Screenshots

There is a curse that haunts every movie-to-game adaptation. Most of them suck. Let's face it, this is true. It's also true that due to the low standards and budgets of those games, companies don't support them for a long time. They don't address major performance issues and they don't fix small bugs. That was the case with Nightlife and Quantum Of Solace. So let's see what happens with Bond's latest game, Blood Stone.

We have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Nvidia has an SLI profile for this game and there is not a 30fps cap this time. The bad news... this is a console port that is CPU bound. So yeah, it's one of 'those' games that you'll need a I7 CPU to enjoy it at its fullest. We tested it with a Q9650 @ 4.2Ghz, 4GB DDR2 and a GTX295. Blood Stone was running most of the time with 60fps at 1080p with 4xAA and max details, although there were rare occasions where the framerate was dropping to 40-50.

Τετάρτη 1 Δεκεμβρίου 2010

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit PC Performance & Screenshots

The latest installment of the legendary series, Need For Speed, has just been released. As usual, it's time to see how well the PC version performs and if Criterion did a good job porting the game. Yeah, you read it right. Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit for PC is simply a port from the console version, with all the cons of such a thing.

Although there is an option for High Resolution textures, Criterion didn't bother with taking advantage the additional raw power of the latest GPU's. Moreover, Criterion doesn't provide us with a lot of graphical options to adjust the game. FSAA is also not supported, although you can force it if you have an ATI card and Nvidia will likely support it with a better game profile in the next version of ForceWare. Graphically speaking, we have some great lighting effects and amazingly detailed cars. Stages are well designed, although they lack some fining details that would earn them some extra points. You won't notice their absence while driving, but still we'd like more environmental detail. All in all, Hot Pursuit is a nice game but nothing breathtaking!

Παρασκευή 26 Νοεμβρίου 2010

JohnDio Presents From There To Nowhere Part 3 (26-11-2010)

After almost six months, here is the next part of "From There To Nowhere". As a reminder, 2010 is almost over. Instead of a Top20 mix, we'll have something special. A mix that will be an experiment on the dark side of the trance. It will be different, it will be dark and it will be surely memorable. Anyway, enjoy the third part of "From There To Nowhere"

Genre: Trance

Date: 26-11-2010
Quality: 320kbps
Length: 60:08
Size: 137MB

Tracklist

1. Virtual Vault featuring Orjan - Too Late (Original Mix)
2. ReOrder - Miracles (Original Mix)
3. Giuseppe Ottaviani featuring Faith - Angel (Vandit Night Mix)
4. Andy Moor & Ashley Wallbridge featuring Meighan Nealon - Faces (Ben Gold Vocal Mix)
5. Philippe El Sisi featuring Sue McLaren - The Last Hope (Original Mix)
6. Lence Alex Daf - Reserve (Kenan Teke remix)
7. Time Axis - Pasadena (Original Mix)
8. Nervous Testpilot - Five Years In Singapore (Miikka Leinonen Remix)
9. Simon Hunt - The Burn (Manuel le Saux Remix)
10. Ferry Corsten presents System F - Out Of The Blue (Original Violin Edit) [Classic Showcase]

DOWNLOAD LINKS: RAPIDSHARE , MEDIAFIRE

Παρασκευή 19 Νοεμβρίου 2010

Two Worlds II PC Performance & Tweaks

TopWare Interactive released a few days ago the much anticipated sequel of Two Worlds. In case you are wondering, Two Worlds II was released only in a few European countries, like Germany and will be released in early 2011 in UK and USA. Before you jump off your roof, know this. If it isn't released yet in your country, you can still buy it from GamersGate or Amazon. There there. Happy now? 

Reality Pump, the developers behind Two Worlds II, decided to address a lot of issues that plagued the first game. And frankly, they did. Two Worlds II is way better than its predecessor, with a deep leveling up system. Gameplay wise, it is quite good, though it could have been even better. There are also some technical issues that we will discuss later. Controls are sluggish, the combat system is awful and you'll have to grind a lot. And when we say a lot we mean... A LOT.
 

Τρίτη 9 Νοεμβρίου 2010

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 1 vs 2

Few days ago, Lucas Arts released the sequel of its third person action game based in the Star Wars universe. The Force Unleashed 2 is finally released and as before, Aspyr ported it to the PC. Let's see how is the second port and if the game, technically, is better.

First and foremost, Aspyr did a better job porting the game. In the first game, there was a buggy launcher, minimal options, no mouse selection and everything was really messed up. Even the videos were with wrong aspect ratio. All of those are fixed in the sequel. We have proper aspect ratio videos, PC menus that can be navigated via our mouse and some in-game graphics options (instead of the high option that was available in the first game). The only thing that Aspyr didn't fix, was the 30fps cap. It's annoying and we can't understand why Aspyr didn't remove it. Thankfully, 'jackfuste' from Rage3D made a 60fps unlocker and you can download it from here.

Δευτέρα 1 Νοεμβρίου 2010

Medal Of Honor PC Performance & Screenshots

After a long time, Medal Of Honor is back in action. This time though, you won't be fighting in the WW2 era. Like COD, the latest part of MOH is taking place in modern day. You take the role of various elite members in a war with the Talibans. The game uses the Unreal3 engine for its Single Player part and the Frostbite engine for the Multiplayer part. Was it a wise decision to use different engines and how do they perform? We'll use a Q9650 @ 4.2Ghz with 2GB DDR2 and a GTX295 to find out.

Let's start with the Frostbite engine. This is the same engine we've met in Bad Company 2, but as we can see it runs smoother. The major reason for this is the limited destructibility. Contrary to BC2, Medal Of Honor has a lot of buildings that are indestructible. Graphics wise, the MP part looks good but nothing breathtaking. As with Bad Company 2, the Frostbite engine is CPU bound so you'll definitely need a quadcore to enjoy it or a dualcore with a high CPU frequency. Frostbite doesn't tax the GPU, so you won't need a high-end card to enjoy it.

Τρίτη 26 Οκτωβρίου 2010

Front Mission Evolved PC Performance

Front Mission Evolved is the latest part of the well known mech series. Instead of a turn based game though, this time we have an action oriented title. We won't discuss if it was a wise decision or not. We'll concentrate on how well it performs and if it is a good port!


We used a Q9650 @ 3.96Ghz with 2GB DDR2 and a GTX295. Performance was good, although we expected something more. The game doesn't take full advantage of the quadcores. As we can see below, the game engine uses mainly two cores. Also, when we lowered our CPU overclock to 3.6Ghz, there were noticeable slowdowns. The above observations mean that you'll need a high CPU frequency if you want to enjoy Front Mission Evolved without frame drops.

Τρίτη 19 Οκτωβρίου 2010

Going Back In Time

There are occasions when everything goes to hell. And frankly, it’s natural. We’re dealing with PC’s after all. Everything can brake down, from your PSU to your motherboard. In these weird ‘PC’ occasions, you are faced with two options. You can either forget about PC gaming and everything that has anything to do with the PC world till you sort out everything, or return to your previous PC set-up and wait patiently for a fix, a solution, a replacement or whatever.

As my motherboard broke down some days ago, I figured I could give a shot to my old PC. It is an Athlon XP @ 1.15Ghz with 512MB SDRAM and an integrated graphics card. Clearly, this PC set-up is old. In fact, it’s reaaaally old. One of the reasons I wanted to give it a shot is the whole nostalgia thing. I mean, we remember all those great days of our past and want to relieve them, but what happens when you relieve them in a modern day with the same old hardware? Were our systems powerful enough for our daily activities? How come we were able to play games with GPU’s that had 8MB RAM? How were our systems performing with only 512MB of RAM? Well, it’s time to find out.

Τετάρτη 13 Οκτωβρίου 2010

Benchmarking and Overclocking Q9650

I'm pretty sure a lot of you are wondering if your systems are indeed CPU limited. Do you need more Ghz or is the extra cache of a new quadcore more important? So here we are with a Q9650 CPU and will overclock it to a "safe area". We will also compare it with a Q6600 (at the same speed) to see how important is the extra cache.

For starters, we used the Gigabyte EP45 UD3LR with 4GB DDR2 @1000Mhz and a GTX295. You can see our bios screens in our previous overclocking feature. The Q9650 needs lower vCore to achieve the same results we had with the Q6600. Therefore, we used 1.42V instead of 1.55V that was used for the Q6600 (and that was the limit of our Q6600). We also used 1.280V MCH Core. Everything else was at stock volts. Our system was stable 100% with these settings but you may need to tweak yours differently to achieve these speeds.

Δευτέρα 11 Οκτωβρίου 2010

Nvidia ForceWare 260.89 Beta Released

Nvidia released today the latest beta version of ForceWare. You can download them from the links below. For testing purposes, we used the previous version of ForceWare. Our test system was a Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz with 4GB DDR2 and a GTX295. As we can see, the latest ForceWare didn't increase or decrease dramaticaly our performance, with the exception of Lost Planet 2. Nvidia seems to have tweaked the SLI profile of Lost Planet 2 and as a result of this, we got better framerates.

Τρίτη 5 Οκτωβρίου 2010

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light PC Performance

The latest installment in the Tomb Raider series is quite different from every previous game. This time, instead of a classic third person game, we have an isometric 3D action/adventure/platform game that emphasizes a lot in looting and upgrading your beloved girl. It comes as a shock that this experimentation is among the best we've seen and shows the way Tomb Raider should had evolved. We all love the breasts of Mrs Croft but after a while, what matters is the game itself and not the boobies. And here we have a refined gameplay that isn't ruined by the problems of yesterday (regarding game and camera controls).

Δευτέρα 4 Οκτωβρίου 2010

JohnDio Presents Greek-Cypriot Alliance [04-10-2010]

Here is my latest mix with tunes from Greek & Cypriot producers. Huge respect to each and every one of them. Keep rocking guys, we need you. Also, although i love Kosmas Epsilon, i kept "I Trance You" off the list as it's a really dark tune. Therefore it will be added to my Experimentation mix. Anyway, here is the tracklist and the download links. Hope you'll like it!

Genre: Prog Trance / Trance

Date: 04-10-2010
Length: 63:24
Quality: 320kbps
Size: 145MB

Tracklist

1. Perasma - Swing 2 Harmony (Original Mix)
2. Viton & Stel - Wooden Swordz (Christian Cambas Forgotten Dub)
3. John Aleph - Placebo Effect (Original Mix)
4. George Vemag - Himalaya (Original mix)
5. POL featuring Chucka - Clear Bull (Vangelis Diamantidis Remix)
6. Afternova & Andy Blueman Vs Hans Zimmer Feat. Lisa Gerrard - Now We Are Free For Serenity (DJ Osiris Mashup)
7. Bobina & Mikkas vs Robert Miles - Time & Fable (VoRo & AngelDream Presents Sanitarium Unification)
8. Lange vs Gareth Emery - Another You Another Me (Original Vs. Austin Leeds & Terranova Remix) [JohnDio MashUp]
9. Luke Terry presents Akemi - Alone Without You (Michael Angelo & Jim Remix)
10. Haris C - Room With A View (Kuffdam & Plant Remix)

Rapidshare , MediaFire

Τρίτη 28 Σεπτεμβρίου 2010

PES 2011 PC Gameplay

Here is a HD match from the PC retail version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2011. Greece vs Spain in Top Class mode. PES2011 run smoothly and Konami fixed the framerate issues of replays and corners. No more 30fps sync, as you can enjoy them now with 60fps. We won't discuss the gameplay or if it is better than Fifa11.You can decide for yourself. Enjoy and get ready as the game will be released in a few days!



Τετάρτη 22 Σεπτεμβρίου 2010

Codemasters F1 2010 Performance Analysis & High Resolution Screenshots

One of the most anticipated games of 2010 is definitely the F1 game from Codemasters, which was released today. As usual, it is time to test it and see how it performs. We'll use a Q6600 at 3.6Ghz, 4GB DDR2 and a GTX295. Thankfully, Nvidia has already an SLI profile so we won't have to mess around with the SLI compatibility flags.

The game takes advantage of quadcores as we can see bellow. F1 2010 is CPU bound and it really needs a high-end CPU. Even though we had our Q6600 at 3.6Ghz, our framerate was not ideal (meaning, constant 60fps) and the CPU usage was 65-80%. To truly shine, F1 2010 needs a CPU with more cache, so be grateful if you have a Q9x50 or an i5/i7. We simulated a E6600 by disabling two of our cores and performance dropped around 10-18% (5-11fps).

Παρασκευή 17 Σεπτεμβρίου 2010

R.U.S.E Performance Analysis

R.U.S.E is the latest strategy game of Ubisoft. Instead of relying in the old-school gameplay mechanics, R.U.S.E follows the path of World In Conflict. This means that you won't be gathering resources and building carefully your base. Instead, you will be thrown right away to the action.

Ubisoft developed a new game engine for R.U.S.E and we have to say that we were quite impressed with it. It is multi-threaded, although it doesn't tax the CPU as you can see bellow. To try and simulate the situation with a dualcore CPU, we disabled two cores and performance was almost the same. R.U.S.E doesn't need a high-end CPU to be enjoyed.

On the other hand, the game is pretty hard on the GPU. Nvidia has an SLI profile for this game and our GTX295 was used to the fullest. We are talking about 98% GPU usage at 1600x1200 with insane details. There were some places where the framerate dove to 40fps, but the average framerate was around 54fps.

Τετάρτη 15 Σεπτεμβρίου 2010

Fifa11 PC Demo, Performance & High Resolution Screenshots

EA released their demo of Fifa11 and for the first time, PC gamers have the chance to experience the next-generation gameplay and graphics of the Fifa franchise. Although the PC version is not the same as the console one (Personality is missing and the online mode supports only 5vs5 instead of 11vs11), the game is remarkable. As with PES2011, we won't discuss the gameplay but how it performs. The demo is 1.17GB and you can download it from here.

As with PES2011, we can clearly see that the new game engine of Fifa11 is multithreaded. The game takes utilizes all the cores of our Q6600, although as we can see it doesn't tax them. The overall CPU usage was 50-60%, which is exactly the same with the one of PES2011. This means that both games will run fine in most PC systems, even if they aren't high-end. This is great news to say the least.

Τρίτη 14 Σεπτεμβρίου 2010

PES 2011 PC Demo, Performance & High-Resolution Screenshots

What a great day today. Konami has just released the demo of their soccer franchise, Pro Evolution Soccer. Yes soccer fans, PES 2011 demo is finaly with us and you can download it from here. We won't discuss if it's a good game or not. After all, you can find out for yourselves. Instead we'll see how well it performs, how to enable SLI and some high resolution screenshots.

Let's get one thing straight. PES2011 is not demanding at all. In our test system (Q6600, 4GB DDR2 and a GTX295) the game was running amazingly with constant 60fps at 2048x1536. The game engine takes advantage of multicores as we can see bellow, although the overall CPU usage was around 50-60%. This clearly shows that Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 doesn't need a really high-end CPU to shine.

Πέμπτη 9 Σεπτεμβρίου 2010

JohnDio Presents Emotions In Motion Part16 [09-09-2010]

The latest part of Emotions In Motion is available bellow. Enjoy it!


Genre: Trance


Date: 09-09-2010
Length: 65:54
Quality: 320kbps
Size: 150MB


Tracklist

1. Luigi Lusini - Who We Are (Original Mix)
2. Jason van Wyk - Once Again (Original Mix)
3. Leon Bolier - I Close My Eyes (Original Mix)
4. Altitude - Silence Is Loud (Original Mix) [Classic Showcase]
5. DJ Eco & Badlands vs Jan Johnston - Calling Your Kids (DoubleV Mashup)
6. After Meridian & Dave Costa featuring Cat Martin - Empty Spaces (Original Mix)
7. Rex Mundi - Kalua Islands (Original Mix)
8. Yuri Kane - Whirlpool (Original Mix)
9. Bartlett Bros vs Mazza - Satellite Of Love (Claudia Cazacu Remix)
10. Gareth Emery featuring Lucy Saunders - Sanctuary (Club Mix)
11. Wezz Devall - This Is Your Day (Original Mix)

Download Links: RapidShare , Mediafire

Τετάρτη 1 Σεπτεμβρίου 2010

WRC 2010 PC Performance

It's been a while since we got a pure WRC game. Richard Burns Rally was the last great game in that category and since Codemasters literaly butchered the Colin McRae franchise, we were left with nothing. Untill now, as Black Bean is here to remind us why we all love rally games.

WRC 2010 will be released on October 8th and today we got our review code. So let's see how it performs. We'll use a Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz with 4GB DDR2 and an Nvida GTX295. The game utilizes all four cores of our quad-core, although as we can see it doesn't stress them. When using two cores, we saw better CPU utilization. Performance though was the same. So rest assured that WRC 2010 will run great if you have a dualcore.

Τρίτη 24 Αυγούστου 2010

Kane & Lynch 2 PC Performance

Few days ago, we had the chance to test the preview code of 'Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days'. The results were quite disheartening and we were really looking forward to the final version to see if IO Interactive addressed those issues. So, let's see if the final version is any better.

As always, we used a Q6600 with 4GB DDR2 RAM and a GTX295. The preview code didn't take full advantage of quadcores (or six-cores). This limitation has a huge impact to the GPU usage and the overall gaming experience, as there were some places in which our framerate dove bellow 50fps. So what about the final version? After playing the first two levels, we checked the CPU usage and saw the same thing. This game doesn't scale well with quadcores!

Πέμπτη 19 Αυγούστου 2010

Πειρατεία vs PC gaming

Κατά καιρούς θα έχετε όλοι ακούσει για την περιβόητη πειρατεία και τις επιπτώσεις της στο PC gaming. Developers που εκφράζουν παράπονα για μια ‘πεθαμένη’ πλατφόρμα, με ολοένα και περισσότερα studios να στρέφονται προς τα… ‘δελεαστικά’ οικιακά συστήματα (κονσόλες) και μια μαζική εγκατάλειψη των ριψοκίνδυνων αποφάσεων δείχνει με τον καλύτερο τρόπο την κρίση που περνάει την σημερινή εποχή το PC gaming. Μήπως όμως στην πραγματικότητα έχουμε να κάνουμε με μια γενικότερη κρίση, στην οποία χρησιμοποιείται η πειρατεία των PC games ως αποδιοπομπαίος τράγος;


Δεν είναι ψέμα να πούμε ότι η πειρατεία μαστίζει τον χώρο του gaming από την εποχή του Amstrad και του Atari. Πειρατεία υπήρχε, υπάρχει και θα υπάρχει. Και προσπάθειες αποτροπής της καταλήγουν σε έναν φαύλο κύκλο, στον οποίο ζημιώνεται ο αγοραστής κι όχι ο πειρατής. Το είδαμε στο παρελθόν με το Starforce. Το βλέπουμε και τώρα με το νέο online σύστημα προστασίας της Ubisoft. Το πρόβλημα δεν είναι η πειρατεία ή η καταπολέμησή της.

Τρίτη 17 Αυγούστου 2010

Lost Planet 2 Benchmark Analysis

Capcom announced that the PC version of Lost Planet 2 will be released on October 15 and to celebrate it, they released the benchmark of the game. You can download it from here. So it's time to see if Capcom optimized their engine for the PC.

We used a Q6600 (@ 3.6Ghz) with 4GB DDR2 and a GTX295 and we were clearly CPU limited, even at 1600x1200 with 16xCSAA HQ and max details in DX9. We got 75.6fps in the first scene, 71.3fps in the second and 61.4fps in the third. In all the scenes that had a lot of human characters on screen, the framerate was taking a noticeable hit. It comes as a shock, since Lost Planet 2's AI is average at best.

Παρασκευή 13 Αυγούστου 2010

Overclocking the Q6600

Αν υπάρχει κάτι που δίνει άλλη πνοή στο PC gaming, αυτό είναι σίγουρα η δυνατότητα να υπερχρονίσουμε το PC μας. Το overclocking έχει γίνει πλέον αναγκαίο, αν θέλει κάποιος να χαίρεται τα παιχνίδια με όλες τις γραφικές επιλογές ενεργοποιημένες και με ένα ρευστό framerate. Μολονότι όμως τα πράγματα έχουν καταντήσει απλά στις κάρτες γραφικών, στις CPUs τα πράγματα είναι λίγο πιο πολύπλοκα.

Να ξεκαθαρίσουμε κάτι, αν θέλουμε να υπερχρονίσουμε λίγο την CPU μας, δεν υπάρχει κανένα πρόβλημα. Το 'τσίρκο' ξεκινάει όταν αναγκαζόμαστε να πειράξουμε τα ρεύματα και κάποιες άλλες επιλογές από το Bios. Μετά από αρκετές ώρες, κατάρες, μπινελίκια και όλα όσα συνοδεύουν τον υπερχρονισμό, εδώ είμαστε με έναν stable Q6600 στα 3.6Ghz με μια Gigabyte EP45-UD3LR.

Τρίτη 10 Αυγούστου 2010

Mafia 2 PC Demo Performance Analysis

Mafia2 is one of the most anticipated games of 2010 and here we have its demo. So it's time to find out if those funky PhysX effects are worth the effort of the developers.

First things first though. You'll need to reinstall the PhysX software that can be located at " /streamapps/common/mafia ii public demo/3rd ". If you don't, the game will run the PhysX effects in CPU mode, so make sure you do it.

We'll use a common PC gaming system (Q6600 @ 3.02Ghz, 4GB DDR2 and a GTX295). We've tested the demo with max details at 2048x1536. Without enabling the APEX settings, the demo run great, with some minor frame drops here and there. The GPU usage was around 80-90% and the game was taking full advantage of SLI and the multicores as you can see bellow.

Δευτέρα 9 Αυγούστου 2010

Starcraft 2 Performance Analysis

After 10 whole years, the sequel of one of the best RTS games is finally here. So it's time to see how well the game performs.

We'll use a Q6600 with 4GB DDR2 and an Nvidia GTX295 to see how well the game runs. We don't need to use a powerful I7 CPU, as we want to see the optimization of the game engine. We chose ultra settings with 1600x1200 resolution and fired up the game. SC2 merely supports quadcores as you can see bellow. It's funny but i expected better optimization from Blizzard, especially since the game is CPU intensive and is released only for PCs

Nightwish vs Orkidea - Bye Bye Beautiful (JohnDio Mash-Up)

Here is a mash-up of Orkidea's remix and the original metal song of "Bye Bye Beautiful". Hope you'll enjoy it guys!

Nightwish vs Orkidea - Bye Bye Beautiful (JohnDio MashUp) by JohnDio

Πέμπτη 5 Αυγούστου 2010

JohnDio Presents Awakening Part 3 [30-07-2010]

Time has come for the latest part of Awakening. Without further delay, here is the tracklist and the download links for it. Enjoy it!

Quality: 320kbps

Genre: Trance
Size: 150MB
Length: 65:39


Tracklist

1. Darioef featuring Vicky Fee - 2 AM (Original Mix)
2. Bartlett Bros Featuring Marcia Juell - Let it Flow (Gareth Emery Remix)
3. Toby Emerson Featuring Lauren - In The Night (Syphentek Mix)
4. Roger Shah & Ralph Fritsch Presents Black Pearl - Discovery (Kim Svδrd Remix)
5. Vincent De Moor - Flowtation (Digital Blondes Mix) [Classic Showcase]
6. Bjorn Akesson - Robot Religion (Original Mix)
7. Greg Downey - Show Time (Original Mix)
8. Arctic Moon - Afterworld (Original Mix)
9. Daniel Loubsher Presents Identikal - Rush (Manuel Juvera Remix)
10. PHATT Featuring Kate Smith - Worlds Apart (Will Atkinson Remix)
11. John Miller - Viper (Original Mix)

DOWNLOAD LINKS => RapidShare , MediaFire

Το φιάσκο της Crytek στην Ε3

Το Crysis 2 ήταν αναμφισβήτητα ένα από τα παιχνίδια που έκλεψαν την παράσταση στην φετινή Ε3. Τα γραφικά του και το νέο του περιβάλλον κατάφεραν αποτελούν κάτι το διαφορετικό σε σχέση με τα προηγούμενα παιχνίδια της Crytek, ενώ η multiplatform φύση του το έφερε κατευθείαν στο προσκήνιο. Ναι, οι console gamers θα έχουν την ευκαιρία να το χαρούν και η Crytek προσπάθησε να τους χαϊδέψει τα αυτιά στην φετινή Ε3. Και δυστυχώς γι αυτούς, απέτυχε παταγωδώς.




Όλα έμοιαζαν ιδανικά για την Crytek και ο τύπος παραληρούσε για το ομορφότερο παιχνίδι της έκθεσης. Το οπτικό θέαμα ήταν εκπληκτικό και ξεπερνούσε οτιδήποτε είχαμε δει στις κονσόλες μέχρι στιγμής. Σαφώς και δεν πλησίαζε τις επιδόσεις του αρχικού τίτλου στο PC, αλλά αυτό δεν έχει καμμία σημασία. Αυτό που μου κίνησε αρχικά την περιέργεια όμως, ήταν το ότι δεν υπήρχαν καθόλου frame drops στην έκδοση που παρουσίασε η Crytek στην Ε3. Κι αυτό γιατί στο δείγμα που είχε δείξει πριν από λίγο καιρό στην GDC, υπήρχαν αρκετές πτώσεις του frame rate και έντονο aliasin. Μήπως η Crytek σε αυτό το λιγοστό χρονικό διάστημα βρήκε την μαγική συνταγή; Ή μήπως παίχτηκε κάτι άλλο;