The New Xbox Experience came out yesterday, and it has added a new astethic and new features to Microsoft's console. But the qig question is: Is is better than the Dashboard and Blade system we have been accustomed to for so long?

For some reason, if you don't have it yet, when you boot up your Xbox, you will be treated to an interesting video showing various generic game elements and the XBox 360 logo. Then after a short install, it takes you to the Avatar (They're really Miis in...

Gate28

I hate to admit it, but its true. I'm sitting here running a system at complete stock frequencies. For those of you who have known me for the last few years, this is unbelievable. Once upon a time (2003-2006) I had an unquenchable thirst for overclocking. I bought the latest gear, and pushed it to the limits. I dabbled in high-end water cooling and even phase-change cooling. I voided warranties, removed heat spreaders, lapped heatsinks and CPUs, you name it.

As "extreme"...

lemonlime

This is a book review I did for my English 481 class. I wrote it rather last minute, and contemplated editing it for your viewage, but I'm simply too busy. I don't know if any of you will find it interesting, but it is somewhat about video games, so.




For my book review, I read What Video games have to teach us about Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee. This book takes an analytical...

Gnome Queen

Hadouken! I remember being six years old and passing by the arcade. The flashing lights drew me with my hand in my pocket clutching my precious quarters. There was a tall cabinet with two people playing at the same time. On the screen I saw a man in a white gi extend his two hands in front of him and produce a ball of energy. This flash of light struck his green-monster looking opponent promptly ending his...

rolleggroll

The second Warhammer 40K Escalation League tournament was Saturday. We had 10 players show up, so I was able to play my Khorne Berserker army against 3 new opponents.

Here's what I took:
HQ - Kharn the Betrayer
Elites - Chaos Dreadnought with 2 close combat weapons
Troops - 2 squads of 8 Berserkers, each with two plasma pistols and a Skull Champion with plasma pistol in Rhino transports with daemonic possession.
Heavy - Defiler with close combat weapons....

Buddy J

This applies for TF2, CS, CS:S, or basically any steam game by Valve.

When I built my new XP rig last week I immediately installed TF2 and Counter-Strike since those are my favorite MP games.

After playing TF2 for two nights I noticed a rather big problem.

I was getting really bad lag spikes within the game. Turning on the netgraph (net_graph 3 in the console) showed I was getting spikes where the choke would run high (30+) and I was often getting spikes where...

jared

We had a pretty big weekend at ICHQ, so I thought I'd share what's new and what's going on. First, we're going to CES! This is the first time Icrontic will officially be at a major trade show, and we're showing up in force; it looks like four staff members may be in attendance.

This weekend also saw some big improvements to the front page. Commenting on the front page now works exactly like the forum for members. Counters, "last post", and subscriptions should all update correctly...

Keebler

So, I love the Apple wired keyboard. I like the feel of it when typing. The fact that the keys are near silent, and the ultra-thin design. But, using it in Windows requires the install of Bootcamp and then using the newest Apple keyboard drivers to get all the functionality options (volume control, media player controls, cd eject). Also, the white keys get dirty quickly. So I retired the Apple keyboard back to my 17" iMac running OSX.

I really hate any keyboard that "clacks"...

fatcat

Who Can Save Us Now?, edited by Owen King and John McNally and published by Simon & Schuster, is a fun collection of 22 stories all, at least loosely, tied into the superhero genre. Which, in the beginning, is a place where this book seems to fail: While most of the stories are certainly superhero stories many of them are about people who only think that they are heroes, who are being discussed as if they are heroes when they truly are not, or who have only minor powers. However, while this...

CB

I've been pretty pleased with the results I've been getting with my newly constructed light tent. My recent Thermalright TRUE Copper review saw a lot of benefit from the relatively simple contraption and some patience with the manual mode of my camera.

As with many things in this world, "good" can always be "better". I've never quite been able to justify the high price-tag associated with Adobe Photoshop, so I've been a long time user of Corel Paintshop Pro and...

lemonlime

In the spirit of updates:

I've been playing with the lighting setup and some multi-sampling stuff. Also - some more "artistic" tricks are starting to come into play. See the attached images.

mondi

Well it was only a matter of time before the world-wide economic turmoil would spoil the fun of Canadian hardware enthusiasts. It is amazing just how quickly the price of pc components has jumped in response to the weak Canadian dollar (in comparison to the US dollar). In a matter of two weeks, I've seen CPU, memory and video card prices increase by almost 20%. Thankfully, the loonie has rebounded a bit since its recent nose dive but the fact remains—hardware is more expensive than it was only...

lemonlime

I've had a few days to let the game sink in, so I thought I would continue the trend of game reviews by reviewing Guitar Hero: World Tour. I reviewed this game on PS3, so bear in mind that there may be some differences between the PS3, 360, PS2, Wii, and PC versions.

First thing I noticed was the price. For the current-gen consoles, the game runs 180 USD for the game disc, guitar, drum kit, and mic, which is what Rock Band 2 comes with, but for almost 50 USD cheaper. I can only assume...

Gate28

This is part one of a three step plan. Step 1: Dead Space Step 2: Far Cry 2 Step 3: Fall Out. This would be a four step plan but Red Alert is not a step just part of my life. Enough with that---->

Dead Space the new F.E.A.R., I think not. This is a point I would like to make before I get into the game. Dead Space was meant to be a game with the concept of "In space no one can hear you scream" added to a fairly standard horror adventure/puzzle FPS formula. There are...

_k_

Many gamers have been drooling over LittleBigPlanet since its introduction at the 2007 Game Developer's Conference. I didn't start noticing it until a few months ago when I was wishing for a good game for my PS3. After watching a few videos, I was hooked. I definitely wasn't one of those crazy people that brought sites down looking for beta codes, but I was very interested in getting in the beta. I didn't make it, so I had to wait like most everyone else.

I'm not a creative person,...

Cyclonite