Change Your Keyboard According To Your Mood

ROCCAT Isku FX Gaming Keyboard.

                                     Though there are lot of backlit gaming keyboards in the market, most of them are restricted to one colour. But this ROCCAT Isku FX keyboard can change its color to almost any color you want. There 16.8 million colour options and 6 levels of brightness to select from and you can programme the colour according to match the gaming action. 

                                      There is a Easy-Shift[+] key duplication system that allows for a total of 36 macro keys, which includes three thumbster keys which enables you to use them for custom game commands. The keyboard also has a 1000Hz polling rate with a 1ms response time. There is also a large wrist rest to keep your hands comfortably when you are gaming. This keyboard would get released during this week and the price of this would be 100 US Dollars.

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The Future is Black

Call Of Duty: Black Ops II Get Released

                                           After teasing the fps fans for more than half a year, finally Call of Duty: Black Ops II got released on 13th of November. The story line of this is connected with the previous Black Ops game which was set in the cold war era. This time the game goes to that era as well as the year of 2025, where a Nicaraguan Militant is plotting to undermine the US military. Alex Mason, the protagonist of the previous game comes as the hero in the cold war era part of the game and Alex Mason's son David is the protagonist in the latter part. 

                                           The game has already got good reviews from the critiques and IGN has rated the game 9.3 out of 10 and it is also the editor's choice. The sales are doing very good and it is predicted that it would either tie or break the sales record of MW3. Over one million copies were sold on the first day at GameStop. The game is released for Xbox 360, PS3,Wii U and Microsoft Windows platforms. Here are the minimum specifications you need have in order to play Call of Duty:Black Ops II on your PC.

Minimum Requirements

• OS: Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7
• CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E8200 2.66 GHz or AMD Phenom X3 8750 2.4 GHz
• Memory: 2GB for 32-bit OS or 4GB for 64-bit OS
• Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512 MB or ATI Radeon HD 3870 512 MB

                 Here are the list of supported functions for PC game players.

Supported Functions

• Online
• 16:9
• 480p
• 720p
• Dolby Digital
• Mic/Headset Voice
• Online Versus Multiplayer
• Online Co-Op Multiplayer
• Online Leaderboards

                  There would also be a live YouTube streaming facility for Xbox and PS3 players.

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Gaming Under a Budget

Building a gaming PC for under 1200 Dollars.

                                      Recently one of my friends asked whether I know a place to buy a good gaming PC for under 150000 Rupees (Approximately 1200 US Dollars.). I searched everywhere and I couldn't find a place to get a decent one. There are so called gaming PCs here in Sri Lanka that are in this price range which carry GT545 VGAs and 4GB rams. Seriously,  who puts a GT545 in to a gaming PC (It also costs around 1000 US Dollars here.)? Then it hit me. I used to go to the web site of I Buy Power (A company which makes custom gaming PCs) those days and try out different settings just to amuse my self. Sadly they only deliver these custom build rigs to USA and Canada. But yet I wanted to find out what I could build for a budget of 1200 US Dollars.  Finally I wound up building this.

                                                Lets see the specifications of this beauty. The casing is a CoolMaster Storm Enforcer one and the casing is Laser Engravable. It has a Gigabyte B75M-D3H motherboard and the processor is a quad-core 3.4Ghz Intel 3rd gen Core i5 3570 one with 6MB Level 3 cache. The cooling system is a Liquid Cooling one with a standard 120mm fan. I also selected the overclock option which boosts up the speed by 20% for just 20 Dollars. You might be wondering why I choose an i5 processor instead  of an i7 one. Firstly i7 one costs 100 Dollars more. Secondly it doesn't have any affect to your gaming performance. Because what i7 processor does is, it makes a virtual core for every physical core (Hyper Threading), which is not supported by games. So if you are solely buying a PC for gaming giving that extra bucks for an i7 processor is useless. But if you are using softwares like photoshop then an i7 processor would benefit you.If you are thinking of a higher FPS rate the overclocked i5 would do better than i7 one in that category too. 

                                                       I choose a 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3 ram option with a clock speed of 1866Mhz, which is faster than the 1333Mhz ones we see here. When it came to selecting a video card I had to be careful because I was under a budget. So I went with an AMD Radeon HD 7870 single card with a 2GB graphics memory. The other option I had was the Nvidia GTX 660. But Radeon 7870 outperforms the Nvidia one in a reasonable margin in benchmark tests. It is also better than the GTX 660Ti in most areas and 660Ti costs about 100 dollars more than 7870. So the Radeon 7870 seems like the best option for the budget. When it comes to the power option I had to pick a Power Supply over 550 Watts as Radeon 7870 craves for it. So I choose a 850 Watt AZZA Dynamo power supply for all the power needs of my PC. 

                                                             Then it came to the memory option. I so badly wanted to install a SSD but my budget didn't allow me to do so. So I took the next best option. I choose a SSD cache drive which caches your most used applications as they were installed in a primary SSD. So that means even though your data is in a normal magnetic hard drive the SSD caches the data you use frequently and make them work faster as if they are stored in a SSD drive. We are able to do this thanks to the Intel's Smart Response Technology. So I choose a 60GB Kingston V+200 as my SSD cache and a 2TB 7200rpm ,6 Gb/s, single hard drive as my primary storage. I choose a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy SE sound card as I am kind of an audiophile. I also selected an Intel Pro 10/100/1000 Network Card and an Asus 300Mb wireless USB adapter for connectivities. I used a 24x LG DVD R/RW as my optical drive and a 12-in-1 card reader to plug in the memory cards. I also choose an iBuyPower gaming keyboard and a mouse as it was the only option I could choose without exceeding the budget. But if you want some real gaming gear go for Razer or Logitech. There are also giving Nexuiz and Sleeping Dogs for free because I choose the Radeon HD 7870 and also a 16GB USB 3.0 flash drive for the systems over 1000 Dollars. 

                                            The price of the whole setup was 1199 Dollars(about 150000 Rupees). It is not the best gaming rig out there. But it is a pretty decent setup (Which would enable you to play Battlefield 3 in the Ultra mode without any lagging) ,specially under a budget . If you are searching for a gaming desktop for a budget this would be an option that you could consider.

                                                 

                     

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Fulfill Your FPS Fantasies

Delta Six Gun Controller.

                                                 When I was a kid I used to have this TV game console and there was this game called duck hunt that came along in which you had to shoot the ducks using a handgun connected to your console. It was so cool  and felt realistic (well at least more realistic than using the mouse to shoot) and in later years when I was playing COD I always wondered why there isn't such a thing for the PC's. I think that you FPS lovers might have got the same idea at some point. But now you don't have to wonder anymore. There is Delta Six gun controller for FPS lovers who wants a much more realistic gaming experience.

                                                   You can basically add or remove components to Delta Six gun controller to make it a SMG, a Sniper or an Assault rifle. The buttons that are needed for interaction are located on the hand grip. You could attach silencers, scopes and attachments like that make your gaming experience more realistic. It has an accelerometer and force feedback motors to make it work out of box without any additional hardware and physically react according to the gun fires. The availability of this gadget is not yet available but it would cost you 89 US Dollars.

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Become the Supernatural Assassin driven by Revenge.

Dishonored

                  After a lot of teasing Dishonored is finally released. The game is being published by Bethesda Studios which is famous for its Elder's Scroll series. Dishonored has already got good reviews from critiques. IGN has rated the game 9.2 out of 10 and it's the editors choice. As Machinima says "Dishonored is a good first outing; it’s creative, visionary, and ambitious. I want more of this universe because it's clearly ripe with amazing potential." and they have rated the game 8 out of possible 10.

  

                  The central setting for the game is an industrial city called Dunwall. The game's main protagonist is an Assassin named Corvo Attano ,a former bodyguard to an empress who ultimately get framed for her murder. Corvo was legendary for his efficient combat skills and stealth capabilities, along with his supernatural abilities; which were bestowed upon him by a supernatural being called The Outsider. The gamer has to take the character of Corvo when he goes on a mission to avenge the death of the empress and to rescue her daughter. But on the way you have to get rid of other obstacles and complete various quests. You can select your own way of completing each of these and every decision you make affects to the gameplay. You can purchase Dishonored now for US$ 59.96 from Amazon.com.

Here is the official gameplay trailer released by Bethesda studios.

   Viewer Discretion Advised

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If You Want It Like It

Razer Might release its concept gaming tab, Project Fiona.

                     Razer unveiled their concept gaming tab Project Fiona in CES 2012 (Consumer Electronic Show) that was held in Las Vegas at the beginning of this year. It won the Best of CES 2012, People's Voice Award. Though it was really cool and people liked it Razer didn't make it public. But now Razer's Co-Founder Min-Liang Tan says that they would release it if they get more than 10000 likes to the Facebook  photo he uploaded. Project Fiona is a hardcore gaming tablet for people who wants to enjoy something more than Angry Birds. Though the name of it sounds girly Project Fiona has some serious specifications that would make it the ultimate gaming tab.

Here are the Known Specifications of Project Fiona

• Hybrid user interface for PC gaming
• Intel® Core™ i7
• 10.1″ 1280×800 display
• Full-screen user interface supporting multi-touch
• 3-axis gyro, magnetometer, accelerometer
• Force feedback
• Dolby® 7.1 surround sound.
• WiFi 802.11b/g/n
• Bluetooth® 3.0

                                Some of these features may change as it has been about 10 months since they have introduced it and technology has developed more during the time. So we might be able to see something more powerful than this. Most probably they'll update their processor to a  Ivy Bridge one rather than the first gen one they had in their concept model. Click the title or to go directly to put a like to Min-Liang Tan's photo if you want to see this tab in the future.

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Beauty with a Beast inside

The All New Qosmio X875

                     When you think of a gaming laptop, you normally think of a ruggedly built bulky machine. But do you want a gaming laptop with a classy look that make others jealous. Then here is an option for you. Toshiba brings the all new Qosmio X875 to give you a gaming experience with a class. Qusoimo range has always being the performance range of the Toshiba laptop line-up. The selected model for the article is Qosmio X875-Q7291 and lets check the specifications of this beauty.

                      The selected version comes with an Intel 3rd generation Core-i7 -3610M processor that has a clock speed of 2.30Ghz. It comes with a 16GB DDR3 ram that has a clock speed of 1600Mhz. The GPU is one of the most important things when it comes to gaming. This version comes with a 3GB GTX 670M GPU. So with this combination it is safe to say that this laptop is capable of running any game ,that has come yet, in medium to high quality without a lag. The Q7291 version also comes with a 1.75TB hard disk that is the combination of a 750GB (7200rpm, Hybrid 4GB SATA) and a 1TB (5400rpm, SATA) one.

                          The display of this is a 17.3 inch 3D one that is capable of viewing 1080p resoloutions. It also features harmon/kardon quad speakers for a higher listening pleasure. It also has a Blu-ray player, a 3D stereo Webcam, a backlit keyboard, an Intel wireless network adapter, 6 USB ports (3 USB 3.0 and 3 USB 2.0) and all these features are powered by a 8 cell battery. The selected version comes with 64bit Windows  7 HP. The laptop weighs a bit more than the day to day use ones. But at 3.4 kg it is not the heaviest one when it comes to gaming laptops. So in conclusion we could say that this a good option for a gamer who wants some style and class. You could click the title to go directly to the Toshiba site to check about other versions.

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Driving towards Horizon

Forza Horizon Trailer and Demo released.

                         Forza Motorsport is a racing video game developed by Turn 10 Studios exclusively for Xbox systems. They revealed their latest installment to their series Forza Horizon. As per the trailer the game has some really good graphics and a vast line up of cars. The new 2013 SRT Viper GTS is also going to feature in the new version of Forza with a rare paint job. You can try out the demo from October 9th and the game would be released on 23rd of October. Sadly as the previous games it is exclusive for Xbox 360. So the PC gamers and PS3 users won't get this game.

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The First Gaming Laptop Revised!

The New Razer Blade

                    Razer is famous among gamers for quality gaming gear that they make. They also made the "World's First Gaming Laptop", as they say, Razer Blade about a year ago. You might be wondering then what should we call all those Alienware and Asus ROG laptops. Though they are made for gaming, you can hardly call them a 'Laptop'. You can't carry a Asus ROG laptop or a Alienware one where ever you go because of their size and weight. But this Razer Blade laptop had all the specifications that you need to have a good gaming time and the size and weight of a normal day to day laptop. It has been about a year since they introduced there first Razer Blade laptop and now they have revised it and made a up to date version that suits today.
                        The selected version of Razer Blade has a Intel Core i7 quad core processor that has a clock speed of 2.2 Ghz.The chipset of this beast is an Intel HM77 Express one. It also has a 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 ram (1600Mhz). The GPU of this laptop is a 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M one. The storgae consists of a 500GB hybrid hard drive with 64GB mSATA SSD drive(Cache Acceleration). It comes packed with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit edition. The new Razer Blade also comes with the cool Razer SwitchBlade interface that you saw on the previous version which acts as a touchpad and a touch-screen that enables a lot of interaction. As you could see the new Razer Blade is packed with some serious specifications. But what makes it the "First Gaming Laptop"? This 17-inch beast weighs only 6.6 pounds and is under 0.8-inch thick. So it is safe to say at the moment this the most portable gaming laptop you could buy for your money in the world.
Click the title to go directly to the Razer website.

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Join the Republic Of Gamers.

Asus Launches ROG TYTAN CG8890 Gaming Desktop PC

                      Republic of Gamers has been somewhat of an icon in the Gaming World because of the raw powered gaming laptops and desktops they create. This time Asus launched its new ROG gaming desktop and when you look at the specifications, you could see that it is a true beast. the first thing you notice is the liquid cooling system of it. Asus has also included a one click overclocking feature to the liquid cooled Core i7 processor of this beast. This is of course a behemoth in power and also in size with dimensions of 11.8 x 20.8 x 24.8 inches (We could see why it's called TYTAN). It is powered by a 6 Core Ivy Bridge Core i7-3960X processor on an intel X79 chipset. The one-click turbo over clocking allows you to dynamically overclock this ROG TYTAN up to 4.2 Ghz without restarting. The ROG logo on the case and bottom grill lights indicate the three different system readiness states blue for 3.8 GHz (Startup mode), and red for both 4 GHz (Turbo Gear mode) and 4.2 GHz (Turbo Gear extreme mode) clock speeds.
                       When you turn the machine into the Turbo Gear mode the case of this ROG transforms (Yes you read it right. It transforms!)by automatically opening up its top and side panels to reveal its cooling fans that exhaust hot air and redirect cool air into the system. The CG8890 has a Rampage IV Formula motherboard which has four PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16*2 and two PCIe 2.0 x1 expansion slots, four 3 Gb/s SATA and four 6 Gb/s connections and this comes with a choice of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (with 2 GB of dedicated DDR 5 video memory) or 690 (with 4 GB VRAM and supporting up to four screens) GPU options.
                     The CG8890 is capable of having up to 15TB HDD and 256GB SSD storage. It also has dual channel DDR3 memory that is given upto 16GB. The in-built sound card is a Realtek ALC892 one but there is the option of selecting a ASUS Xonar DX sound card. Optical drive options include a SuperMulti DVD burner and a Blu-ray writer (with space for a second drive if required). A 16-in-1 media card reader, two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports have been included on the front and to the rear there are two 6 Gb/s eSATA ports, four USB 3.0 and six USB 2.0 ports, an optical S/PDIF out and a 8-channel audio I/O, a Gigabit Ethernet LAN port, a Clear CMOS button and a ROG Connect On/Off switch. All of these features are powered by a 900W power supply. The ROG Tytan CG8890 comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit edition pre-installed. It also comes with a USB ROG keyboard and a ROG 4000dpi gaming mouse. The pricing of this gaming powerhouse is yet to be revealed.

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Smaller and Lighter

Sony unveils a new PS3 model

                  Sony introduced a smaller and a lighter PS3 model at the Tokyo Game Show held this month. The new console would be made in three models. A 500GB hard drive model, a 250GB hard drive model and a 12GB flash memory model which is a budget version The 12GB version is only made for the European market. The new PS3 weighs 25 percent less than the previous model and 20 percent small in size. It is actually half the size of the original PS3 released in 2006. The super-slim PS3 measures roughly 290 x 60 x 230 mm (11 x 2.3 x 9 inches), weighs 2.1 kg. The 250GB model would be released in United States on 25th of September with Uncharted 3:Drake's Deception game of the year bundle for US$269. The 500GB model would be released in US on October 30th bundled with Assassin's Creed 3 for US$ 299.

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Android Bluetooth Game Controller

PowerA Moga

                   Smartphones are becoming more powerful than ever. That means you are also able to play good quality games using your phone. But the only problem is that you can't have that real gaming experience from a touch screen. But there is a good news for all the gamers who are using android phones. PowerA is going to release its Moga Android Bluetooth game controller next month. You just have to clip your Android phone to the Moga and there you go, you have a gaming console. Now you can play your favourite android games without smudging your screen. Also the Moga controller will come with the free downloadable Moga Pivot App and a soft case, as well as two free games, Sonic CD and Pac-Man, for a limited time. The price of PowerA Moga is US$50.

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Looks like somebody's getting a treat! Again.

Borderlands 2 get released.

                            The first game of Borderlands became famous for its cel-shaded graphics which gave a cartoonish 3D atmosphere which was really cool. It also had many missions and a random item generator as in Diablo which could generate over 17,000,000 weapons which assured you hours of fun game-play. The sequel to this 2009 game, Borderlands 2 got released in United States yesterday. The game was developed by gearbox and published by 2K games. The game is powered by the heavily modified famed Unreal Engine 3. In Borderlands two you are capable of developing your character as in a role playing game. So gearbox refers this game as a role-playing shooter. Have to wait for sometime before it hits here but lets hope it is worth the wait.

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Software of the week

Fraps

                Ever wanted to show off your friends the kill streak you had in COD or Battlefield. Or how awesome you are at MMORPGs. Or have you ever wondered how people put up such videos in to YouTube. Here is the answer. The software is called 'Fraps'. It enables you to capture videos realtime. It is also a benchmark software which shows you the frame rate per second when you are playing a game. Also it can capture screenshots with a press of a key. And the best part is it's totally free.

              You have to do a simple thing to capture your favorite game. Just start Fraps as the administrator and then start your game and press the Hotkey when ever you want to record. To stop recording press the key again. And click the title to go directly to the Fraps download page. There is also a full version with more options, but you have to purchase it.

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Assassin's Creed 3 on Wii-U.

There is a previous post on this blog about Wii-U and here is a video of awaited Assassin's Creed 3 played on Nintendo Wii-U.

Video belongs to Nintendo. No copyrights intended.
If you are interested in Assassin's Creed 3, here is the official trailer.
Video belongs to UbiSoft.
Click here to go to the post on Wii-U

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Are you a gamer?

Alienware M17x R4

              Okay I admit that this is not something new. This was actually released about 5 months ago but I thought of writing about it as it is one of my dream laptops. I know that you might be thinking why buy a gaming laptop when you can make a better gaming rig that has better performances for a much less cost. But my fellow friends at university know how a good gaming laptop would make the difference between a kill or a death.
                Alienware is renowned among gamers as a Ferrari is renowned among Car Lovers. The company, owned by Dell Inc., is famous building quality gaming Laptops as well as Desktops.Alienware M17x R4 is one of their high end gaming laptops and lets what it offers to its staggering price of US$ 2499.00. It has large 17 inch 1080p HD 3D display which looks brilliant. Alienware is offering 3 variants of Intel's 3rd generation Ivy Bridge processors which are 3610QM, 3720QM and 3820QM ,all quad-core chips from the high end lineup, and the selected model comes with a 3610QM processor. The system comes with a 8 GB 1600Mhz DDR3 ram and you can upgrade it up to 32 GB. It also has a 2GB nVidia GTX 680M VGA, which all you game enthusiasts must know that is a killer. The hard drive is a 1TB (2x500GB at 7200rpm) one but Alienware offers more options including Solid State Drives(SSD) according to your preference.
                       It also bundled up with Windows 7 64Bit Home Premium edition, a Slot-Loading dual layer DVD burner(DVD+-RW,CD-RW). The other features include a Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 With Bluetooth 4.0,a Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di with THX TruStudio Pro Software,an Alienware M17X R4 with Soft Touch,an Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter,an English Keyboard, an Alienware Documentation,Additional Software,a 90WHr 9-Cell Primary Battery and the Standard Nameplate. The laptop weigh 11.6lbs which is of course too heavy for a laptop. But the performance that comes with it sure would worth carrying that extra pounds.

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Nintendo Wii U

Nintendo announces Wii U

                       Nintendo yesterday announced its latest gaming console Nintendo Wii U. Even though the name makes me laugh the revealed specifications showed that Wii U is not going to be a laughing matter. The Wii U includes a system RAM of 2GB with 1GB of accessible ram(Rest is dedicated to console's OS) that is double that of the PS3 and Xbox 360. It comes with a disk able to store up to 25GB of gaming data. The basic Wii U console is equipped with an 8GB solid-state drive as primary storage, while the Deluxe Wii U console is fitted with 32GB. It has a IBM Power7 multicore processor but Nintendo keeps a tight mouth about the exact processor model.

                         Wii U can read discs at a 22MB/s which is faster than that of both Xbox 360 and PS3. The most interesting part is the new game pad. The Wii U GamePad is unique from any of the other gaming pads. It has a display on it self. So you can play your games using the pad without connecting to a TV. The GamePad also includes motion control, a front-facing camera, a microphone, stereo speakers, rumble features, a sensor bar, a stylus, and support for Near Field Communication (NFC). So far the specifications assure a much better gaming console than PS3 and Xbox 360. Hope we would be able to see some good games and way better performances when it reaches the market. It hits the American market on November 18th. The Wii U Basic is priced at US$ 299.99 and Wii U Deluxe is priced at US$ 349.99.

Click the title to go directly to the Wii U official page.

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