Merry Xmas: JohnDio Presents - Best Of Emotions In Motion [Christmas Present]

It's that time of the year again. Oh yeah, it's Christmas time. And here is your present, a pack with the best parts of 'Emotions In Motion'. At first I was thinking in making a Top10 2011 Mix but, well... let's just say that I wanted to give you something different this time around. And then it came to me; how about a pack with the best parts of my emotional series. Damn straight right. So enjoy everyone, merry Christmas everyone and best wishes for a happy new year!

JohnDio Presents Emotion In Motion Part 17 [03-10-2011]

Wow. It's been over a year since the last part of Emotions In Motion but fear not as the series has not been abandoned. Lots of things happened during this year and to be honest, DSOGaming is taking most of my time. This, however, does not mean that there won't be upcoming parts of Emotions In Motion, Awakening and From There To Nowhere. As I've stated countless of times, I prefer quality over quantity and I wanted this next part of this series to be great. And trust me, it is. It's a trip full of different emotions and that's what really counts at the end of the day. Enjoy!

Section 8: Prejudice PC Performance Analysis

Section 8: Prejudice is a first-person shooter video game developed by TimeGate Studios. It is the direct sequel to the 2009 game Section 8 and is a digital download-only title that contains more content than its predecessor. It was released for PC on May 4th and it's time to see how this Unreal 3 powered game performs with modern day PC's.

As always, we used a Q9650 @ 4.2Ghz with 4GB DDR2 and a GTX295. As we mentioned, Section 8: Prejudice is a first-person shooter that is powered by Unreal 3 engine. Contrary though to all those games that are powered by Epic's engine, performance is not as good as we'd hoped to. This is particularly due to Prejudice's inability to take full advantage of quadcores. Yeap, you read it right. A game powered by Unreal 3 engine that can't scale perfectly with modern day quadcores.

JohnDio Presents From There To Nowhere Part 4 (Back In Time) [16-04-2011]

Hey everyone. Here is the latest part of 'From There To Nowhere'. Hope you'll like it. The latest uplifting trance records were kind of disappointing. As a result of this, I decided to offer you a mix with ten of my favourite uplifting tunes. This is a 'hands-in-the-air' mix, so hope you'll like it!

JohnDio Presents From There To Nowhere Part 4 [Back In Time Edition]

Genre: Trance

Quality: 320kbps

Length: 65:13

Size: 149MB

Date: 16/04/2011

March Trance Selection

And here we are today, selecting the best tunes of March 2011. March was a good trance year. We didn't have any breathtaking or mind-blowing tunes but still, we had a few good ones to keep us busy. As always, we were disappointed with the tunes of most well-known producers. It's funny but those tunes from all these 'triple-A' producers lack quality. There is something really wrong going on here and we seriously don't know what it is. Forget the 00's, even some recent years (like 2006) are way better so far than 2011. We can only hope that things will get better. Still, let's see what March had to offer us.

February Trance Selection

Let's get one thing straight. February was a shitty month. Yes, it was. In papers however, everything seemed perfect. New tunes from Bjorn Akesson, Armin, Jochen Miller, Markus Schulz (under the alias Dakota), Will Holland, Arnej, Greg Downey, Marcel Woods and so on. What could possibly go wrong? Apparently, everything went straight to hell. We can't help but feel way too disappointed from all those great producers. Their latest tunes were lacking imagination, peak levels and feeling. They were as generic as ever. Seriously now, we've heard those formulaic tunes a hundred of times and after sometime, it get's really boring.

All is not lost though, as we got four tunes that are worth mentioning. It's kind of sad that there were only four but what can we say? Just be grateful that there are at least some that are worth your hard-earned cash.

January Trance Selection

Each and every month, we'll be reviewing the trance releases of our previous month and be selecting the best of the best. January was an average month. We had high hopes from Roger Shah, Orjan Nilsen, First State and Nuera but their tracks were mediocre to say the least. It's getting really hard to find trance tunes that are worth mentioning. Still, things are not as bad as you may thing. It's just that quantity does not equal to quality. Enough of this though, let's see which were the best trance tunes of our previous month.

James Allan & Jamie Drummond - Counterpoint (Original Mix): "Counterpoint" is simply amazing and full of energy. Its intro is so powerful that sends immediately chills down your spine. As with all tracks that begin so energetic, the breakdown is critical as it can destroy it. Thankfully, its breakdown is terific. It retains the powerful vibe with an amazing melody and some amazing sound effects. The outro that comes after the breakdown is even more energetic and enters the tech area. Allan and Drummond delivered, this is a mindblowing trance track. Well done guys!

Benchmarking and Overclocking Q9650 Part 2

After our previous feature on overclocking the Q9650, we've been wondering how much we can push this CPU. We won't be bothering with water cooling solutions, as we want to see how much we can get with the air cooling solutions. So, time to see how much we can push the Q9650 on air.

We used a Gigabyte UD3LR EP45 motherboard with 4GB DDR2 Memory Kit from Kingston, a 1000W PSU from Coolermaster and a GTX295. As we said in our previous feature, in order to achieve a 4.0Ghz frequency we needed 1.45V VCore. That was before our latest tweaks. After messing with the CPU Termination, MCH Core and MCH Reference we managed to achieve 4.2Ghz with 1.4125V Vcore. This had a huge impact in our temperatures, so we strongly suggest not raising your Vcore above this value. Still, 1.4125V is quite high and you will definitely need a good CPU cooler.

Nvidia ForceWare 266.58 Drivers Released

Nvidia released today the much anticipated 26x.xx drivers for all their cards. These drivers are WHQL, so grab them if you were hesitant about trying the beta versions. The 266.58 have similar performance with the 266.44, so if you didn't encounter any problems with those drivers, there isn't any reason to move on. The same goes for the PhysX software, 3D and SLI profiles. Nothing is changed. Some users had encountered AA problems with the previous betas, although we didn't encounter any with our GTX295. Still, if you're one of them, we strongly suggest trying these latest drivers to see if your problems are resolved.

Enhancing the video playback quality

Due to the minor PC games releases of the past few days, we decided to include a simple guide to demonstrate how you can enhance your video playback quality. The easiest way is by buying the BluRay version of your favourite movie. But what if there isn't any high-definition version of it? And what if your camera can't record in HD?


We won't be using the various codec packs, like K-Lite. This is a simple guide after all. Instead we'll use the video enhancements of your GPU, provided you have an Nvidia card. For starters, you'll have to enter your Nvidia Control Panel. Simply click the left mouse button on your desktop and choose the 'Nvidia Control Panel' option. Your control panel will then open. Next, scroll down, find the 'Video' section and double click on it. You'll see two new options, one for the color and one for the image settings.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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. 

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.

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.

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.