Moody Gamer

Since I updated. Lots happened during that time: Ramadhan, Eid, started Masters program, excessive workload and working on some new reviews at MEGamers. So on the gaming scene, a huge amount of new stuff came out and/or happened that I don’t know where to start. Maybe a good starting point is what was I doing related to gaming.

First of all, I played and finished Devil May Cry 4 on the PC. Easy recommendation for button mashing players. You get to play as both Nero and Dante with each having their own play style. The game does suffer from one of the most horrible repetition of levels and boss fights. It is also worth to mention that it runs great on the PC compared to it’s older brother DMC3, so good job Capcom.

I also managed to grab a PS3 and a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4. All I can say that it is AWESOME. I can’t remember a game having a more complicated, twisted and emotional story better than this. I must warn you that it is very much recommended that you play MGS 1 to 3, which you can play on the PS2 (MGS1 was released on the PS1 and PC, while MGS2 was released later on PC after PS2 release). Keep in mind that MGS4 is about granting the player an experience through both cinematics and gameplay which both complement each other very well. The game is quite lengthy since I managed to go through it in about 19 hours without checking many features out because I aimed for the story. Though that time can be extended thanks to the replay value MGS games have. I haven’t checked out the multiplayer part of the game but from various feedbacks, it seems to be a blast.

Going back to PC, As I told you before, I purchased Crysis Warhead from Steam. Being in Oman, I totally recommend against this. It is both slow and expensive to get the game that way. Since you will have to pay 30$ for the game and then pay for the gigabytes to download through Omantel which many of you know, is bloody expensive (1RO per GB or about 2.6$ per GB). So you will end up paying more that 60$ for the game over here. Check out the review of Crysis Warhead to know more about the game.

One thing many of you know, Warhead is quite demanding on the PC, so I went ahead and bought me a Gigabyte Radeon 4870 512MB card (Contact me if you want to know where to get one in Oman) and am happy that I did. The game is now very playable on Enthusiast setting at 1680×1050 resolution. Though I can’t enable Anti aliasing ore Anisotropic Filtering. I also got me an extra 2 GB of RAM which helps a lot since Warhead is very resource hungry. Of course I did suffer the penalty of using Windows XP 32Bit version hence my PC shows only 3.25GB instead of 4GB. I guess 64 Bit OS is the way forward, but an extra GB is still useful.

I still have a lot to write about and because of time, I have to stop here and will update another day. Feel free to let me know of your experiences about the games mentioned above.

I have written a small guide in august that could help you decide what card to buy at the time for your gaming PC. You can still check out the August Graphics Card Upgrade guide since almost all the points I mentioned are still valid.

While I was checking around, I stepped on this really useful guide at Tomshardware.com. It skips all the charts and technical stuff that many are forced to go through to decide if a certain card really meets their criteria and requirements. Instead, the guide goes directly to the point. By going through price points and advising on the best card that such a price point can buy. The card prices go from sub 100$ to the 400$ point. Of course since cards like the mighty AMD 4870×2 and runner-up nVidia Geforce 280 are not included in the list simply because their performance/price ratio don’t fit in that guide. Hey, if you can buy such cards, you shouldn’t be even reading this!

To add the icing to the cake, the guide includes the best AGP graphics card out there PLUS a graphics card hierarchy chart which lists, from best to worst, cards out there including mobile versions.

The guide isn’t long and will definitly make your life easier in selecting the card that fits your pocket. Check out the Best Graphics Card for the Money September 08.

Seems Sony still wasn’t satisfied with their PSP Slim model and went ahead to improve upon it. The new PSP 300 model is scheduled for release in October 2008. The improvements include the following:

• Anti-reflection technology: Much needed since playing outdoor sometimes gets annoying due to the reflections.
• Improved LCD contrast and color: Nice but nothing to brag here.
• Built in microphone for use with new games and out of the box Skype application: Based on your preference if you will use it or not.
• Slight improvements in size (very slight): Hardly noticeable.

So as you can see, the PSP 3000 is more of an update rather than something new. So if you haven’t got a PSP yet and was thinking to get one, then get this model. If you already have the PSP Slim, there is nothing you really missing out and the new features don’t warrant a purchase over the Slim. If you have the old PSP model (the bulky one), it might be worthy to check this out.

Sure is a nice month for graphics card upgrades. Why? Because AMD have released the monster 4870 x2 graphics card. This is the direct competitor to nVidia’s Geforce 280. Checking any of the reviews littered through out the web, it seems that the 4870 x2 easily beats nVidia’s best offering even though the 4870 x2 is priced at around 550$ compared to the G280 price tag of 400$.

Anyway, here is my advice if you are planning to buy a graphics card during this time:

• If you want the best single card solution, get the Radeon 4870 x2, period.
• If you are on a tight budget, then the Radeon 4850 is the best option priced at a low 200$.
• If you play at 1650×1080 resolution or a notch higher or lower and would like the best value, consider getting the Radeon 4870 (not the x2) priced at around 300$.
• If you want to play at higher resolutions (way above the resolution mentioned above) and can’t afford buying a 5xx$ card, consider the Geforce 280.
• If you have a Geforce 8800 GT or better, then consider waiting for another generation to upgrade since there aren’t that many coming games that your current card won’t be able to run (of course some will require reduction in graphics fidelity), especially if you are tight on cash.

As you can see, the Geforce 260 seems to be left out based on my analysis. When the 4850 is slight behind the Geforce 260 at a far much lower price point, buying the G260 isn’t a good decision. Even if you can buy the G260, going for the 4870 is a better option due to it being cheaper and faster.

Do also note that I didn’t provide any recommendations for Duel card setups (SLI or Crossfire), for the simple reason that I personally think that they are costly, consume a lot of power, generate a lot of heat and they still pose a moderate amount of headaches for the user.

Happy shopping

Am sure many will be or already at a phase of either upgrading some parts of their PC or buying a new one completely. Thing is, you only (if you ever do so) go on searching and reading up about new PC components reviews, comparisons and prices when you are about to do such an upgrade or purchase. So the issue is, you tend to lose track of what new products that came after you did the upgrade and it gets boring to do the research again. The time frame from your last upgrade and your new one is usually enough to see one to many generations of new products to show up in the market with new features that you know nothing of because you simply already got your upgrade that does what you expected from it.

Now for casual PC users who surf the net and use MS office, they don’t need to worry much as long as their PC can do the usual stuff. Though for gamers, it is a different story. New games always raise the bar a notch or two higher that require existing hardware to play catch up. Ending up at some point to the need of an upgrade or a totally new PC. I usually do my upgrades yearly, which is sufficient for both my gaming needs and budget. Within that 1 year, graphics card makers (AMD and nVidia) release two generations of cards (usually six month time frame). Now apply that to the processor, memory, storage and other computer components and you will end up with doing a lot of reading. Or simply you can visit Sharky Extreme. The site has three sets of PC building guides tailored for gamers depending on their budget. They got the value range (1000$), the high range (2500$) and the extreme range (4000$). They release updated guides every few months depending on the market. The guide doesn’t tell you how to build the PC though. It just points out the PC components that you need to get to meet your budget and end up with a gaming PC. They sometimes provide more than one option on a certain component to get. For example the processor, they tell you to go for a certain Intel version or the equivalent AMD version.

Of course no guide can be followed 100% but these can be used as good starting points and help minimize the headache to look up on each component. There are many sites on the web that provide such guides but through my experience, Sharky Extreme does it very well. Have a look yourself and see what you think.

You can visit the site here. Navigate to the guides tab and look up the latest guides they have.

With the abundance of duel and Quad Core CPUs and the their decreasing prices, it is wise to stop buying single core CPUs. Current and coming PC games already or will support multi core CPUs and a single core CPU won’t cut it. So when you go out to buy a gaming PC, go for a minimum of duel core CPU and no less. AMD’s Athlon X2 series are dirt cheap now and they can be considered the minimum for a nice gaming experience. I personally own a AMD Athlon X2 6000+ which does my gaming absolutely well after I upgraded from my ancient Athlon 64 3200+. Seriously, the price itself is enough reason to buy a multi core CPU.

So when you go to your computer dealer, make sure you got a duel core CPU installed and not a single core CPU.

Fact: Xbox 360 and PS3 have multi core CPUs!