Mass Effect

When Mass Effect was released for Xbox 360, it was awarded with public and critic acclaim for its ground breaking features. Not long afterwards with Electronic Arts' acquisition of BioWare, PC gamers now get the opportunity to play this hugely anticipated title.

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GRID

When you think about the history of racing games, most major titles have been specific in one area, with few attempting to include everything at once. Not only does GRID deliver any racing experience you want, it manages to excel at them all.

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Crysis

If your PC can support Crysis' technical requirements, this is the best test you can run for all future video games. It must be said that Crytek have designed their portfolio around being a long term benchmark for others, not simply releasing everyday titles to be played and forgotten about, as is usually the case with most shooters on the market.

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Though they're a mainstay of the overclocking and benchmarking communities, Futuremark's 3DMark benchmarks have received considderable flak over the past few years for being nothing more than pretty, synthetic benchmarks that bear little relation to actual games. However, now that Futuremark has announced its own Games Studio, the benchmarks could represent a test of a real game engine. Of course, 3DMark also provides a vision of how games could look in the future - and they will look fantastic if 3DMark Vantage is anything to go by.

So what's new in this version? Well, pretty much everything. While previous versions of 3DMark have often nodded towards their predecessors with enchanced versions of the same tests, or at least one test that uses the previous version of DirectX, 3DMark Vantage is a completely new suite of tests. The whole benchmark requires DirectX 10 - you can't even run it without Windows Vista and a DirectX 10 graphics card.

The four tests that contribute to the score are also completely new. These take the form of two GPU and two CPU tests, although there's the usual set of optional feature tests, too. Presets are another new feature. Instead of just one standard 3DMark setting, such as 1,280 x 1,024 with no anti-aliasing, you can now pick from four.

As a result, scores obtained using the new 3DMark Vantage will be prefixed with a letter that identifies the preset, and then divided into a total score, GPU score and CPU score. For example, a 3DMark score at the Entry preset could be E15000, and a score for the Performance preset could be P4500.

The benchmark's new engine also features both opaque and translucent illumination such as subsurface scattering, shadow map generation and plenty of fancy post-processing effects, including bloom, depth-of-field, motion blur, film grain noise and volumetric fog.

Hey everyone, I'm back for a while. These past few months I've been occupied with MMO's and other single player games, which I'll talk more about later. Things have changed now though, as I'm starting work and attending college. This means I'll have less time for video games, but more time for internet browsing, Gamespot in particular.

The site's recent redesign and upcoming improvements have encouraged me to tidy up my profile and update my blog with some interesting content for everyone. I might even write up a review or two in my spare hours just for the fun of it. It feels like I've been away from all this for too long, but then again the future looks bright, not just for me but the community as a whole.

So I say to anyone reading this, remain active, keep posting, continue playing, let's make this the best place for gamer's to meet once again.

If you're wondering where I've been these past months, there is a simple explenation. I have returned to my favorite MMORPG, Ragnarok Online. Over the last four or so years I've played RO on and off, registering on various private servers and contributing to the development of new ones. If you've never heard of this game, let me give you a brief summary.
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Ragnarok Online, often referred to as RO, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game created by GRAVITY Co., Ltd., and was first released in South Korea on 31 August 1998 for Microsoft Windows and has since been released in many other locales around the world. Much of the game's mythos is based on Norse mythology, but its styIe has been influenced by Asian cultures. The game has spawned an animated series, Ragnarok the Animation, and a sequel game, Ragnarok Online 2: The Gate of the World.

The Ragnarok Online world is divided into a series of maps, each of which has its own terrain and native monsters, though many monsters are native to multiple regions. Transportation between maps requires loading the new map and monsters cannot travel from one map to another.

There are three major nations in Ragnarok Online, the first of which and where all players start is Rune Midgard. The Schwaltzvalt Republic, an industrialized neighbor to the North, was added in Episode 10 and Arunafeltz, a religious nation modeled after a combination of Israel and Turkey is the subject of Episode 11. A series of other, minor nations also exist, generally modeled after an ancient society in the real world, examples such as Amatsu, which is modeled after ancient Japan, and Louyang, which is modeled after ancient China.

Areas from Norse mythology are also included, such as Niflheim, the land of the dead, and Valhalla, where players can become Transcendent cIass. New map content is constantly being added to game in the form of Episode updates.

Jobs are one of the most important aspects of Ragnarok Online, as the job a player chooses will have profound implications on his or her strengths and weaknesses, both in a party and outside of one. The job system includes a total of 39 different jobs, divided into 6 categories: Novices, Super Novices, First Job cIasses, Second Job cIasses, Transcendent cIasses and Extended cIasses.
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Normally you'd have to pay to play RO, on the official international servers run by Gravity. However, you can also choose from hundreds of private servers run individually in order to have a free experience. This way you can custom pick the gameplay you are most comfortable with.

Typically there three types of servers; low rate, mid rate and high rate. This corresponds to the experience rate of leveling and drop rates of items. All three have very different playing habbits but are enjoyable equally for different reasons. Anyway, while I don't encourage you to start playing an MMO - since it can be addictive, I invite others bored with their World of Warcraft or Lineage 2, to give this a go.
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VALUABLE RESOURCES FOR RO GAMERS

+ kRO Sakray Client Download
+ Top 200 Private Servers
+ Game Info Database
+ New Player Guide

(gizmondo.com) -- We knew that there was a motorized, fully-articulated R2-D2 projector with built-in DVD, iPod dock, all kinds of digital media inputs, and Millennium Falcon remote control, but we never - ever imagined it would be so amazingly drooltastic as this video shows.

Time to put on your LEGO-made Han Solo jacket or Leia bikini, and buy this thing - because after watching it in action, I don't care about the lack of Full HD support: this thing is absolutely a must have, caress, fondle, and lick all over material. Reaching nerdgasm, however, still costs $2,995.

[Star Wars Shop via Star Wars Blog]