Is the Half-Life 2 EULA illegal?
February. 07, 2005 @ 06:50AM GMT +10 |
WE REPORTED last week on the problems that many people are having connecting to the Steam servers to play Half-Life 2. We had lots of people emailing the INQ to say that you could always use offline mode to play without a net connection, but these people seem oblivious to reports online that many people are unable to get this mode to function properly.
More interesting, perhaps, are the legal agreements that surround a purchase of Half-Life 2. One is that no mention of Steam is on the HL2 box or in the End User License Agreement, yet it is required to play. The second is that where a gamer buys a copy of the game for which the CDKey has already been hacked, he will have to wait up to two weeks to get a replacement from Sierra/Vivendi, since shops will generally not take backd software. The third is that no copy of the game can be sold without paying Valve a $10 fee to transfer the CD-Key to another Steam account.
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AMD confirms support for SSE3
February. 07, 2005 @ 06:49AM GMT +10 |
IF YOU NEED to get asleep tonight and can't be bothered counting sheep, you could always look at AMD's 64-bit architecture documents, revised and re-edited over the weekend.
The downloads mean you have some serious reading to do. But thanks to our anonymous readers, we can flag up some highlights.
Volume V confirms AMD will support SSE3. Volume IV might be full of interesting stuff, but we and our readers fell asleep before we could read the headers.
Volume III is quite interesting, however. On page 134, there's a statement that says the number of cores "per package" is 256.
But there's a footnote saying that those are those that don't support CMP legacy.
You're probably wondering what CMP legacy is. According to our diligent reader, on page 126 that term is defined.
Read more |
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NVIDIA plunges 1 Million into games tour
February. 06, 2005 @ 07:28AM GMT +10 |
NVIDIA said it will put up a purse of $1,000,000* for the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) competition, which kicks off on the 10th of February next in Istanbul. The tour will flit to nine other international venues throughout the year...
Full Story |
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Sunday Morning Video Card Reviews
February. 06, 2005 @ 07:24AM GMT +10 |
Sapphire Toxic Radeon X700 Pro PCIe review by FiringSquad
Gigabyte 3D1 DualChip GeForce 6600 GT PCIe review by HardOCP
Leadtek GeForce 6600 GT PCIe review by Overclockers.co.nz
Gigabyte Radeon X700 PCIe review by RBMods
Sapphire Radeon X800 review by Techreport
Albatron GeForce 6600 GT PCIe review by Viperlair |
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Battle for Middle Earth 1.01 Patch Out
February. 06, 2005 @ 07:21AM GMT +10 |
Electronic Arts has finally released the long awaited patch for LOTR: BFME. The patch adds three new multiplayer and various bug and unit balancing fixes.
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Extreme FX-55 overclocking
February. 06, 2005 @ 07:20AM GMT +10 |
When you have the fastest CPU (at stock speeds) on the planet, you just have to push it further, although phase change cooling can get your underway, LN2 is bound to give you the edge. Letīs pour a few litres on this blazingly fast A64 FX-55 to see how high it can fly!!
Full Article |
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MSI responds to 6800GT problems
February. 06, 2005 @ 07:19AM GMT +10 |
On Friday last week techPowerup reported, that MSI is selling NX6800GT-TD256E's which show seriously degrated performance.
Today MSI has come up with a Press Release which offers "immediate and free replacement or a refund" of the defective cards.
According to MSI, 350 defective cards were sold. Those cards do have NVIDIA's NV45 chip, MSI says the real cause of the "still unknown chip problem" remains to be found.
Full Story |
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Why Does Windows Still Suck?
February. 06, 2005 @ 07:17AM GMT +10 |
Why does it windows still suck? Check out this article here if your interested  |
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nForce 4 6.39 WHQL Driver
February. 06, 2005 @ 07:15AM GMT +10 |
NVIDIA has released a new nForce4 driver version 6.39 for Windows 2000/XP.
Release Notes:
- WHQL certified kit
- Standalone drivers with support for nForce4 products, including support for dual-processor systems.
- Added support for NVIDIA Disk Alert System
- General compatibility fixes.
Driver Versions
- Audio driver 4.60 (WHQL)
- Audio utilities 4.51
- Ethernet driver 4.68 (WHQL)
- SMBus driver 4.45 (WHQL)
- Installer 4.60
- IDE NVIDIA driver 5.07 (WHQL)
Download: Windows XP | Windows 2000 |
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AMD64 and SLI Overclocked
February. 06, 2005 @ 07:12AM GMT +10 |
Performance computer guide by TweakTown:
It has been 14 months since our last Performance PC article was published where we collected the best performing computer parts around and built up one of the quickest and most expensive systems of its time. Today we bring you our much anticipated follow-up taking a look at exactly what almost $5,000 USD worth of hardware gets you. Based around an AMD Athlon 64 system with SLI, we have oodles and oodles of performance to play with. Read on as we bring you our recommended Performance Computing system for Q1 2005 |
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Most Common Ways to Kill a PC
February. 06, 2005 @ 07:10AM GMT +10 |
PCStats has an interesting article that guides you through the list of the most popular ways by which you will eventually kill your PC, despite your good intentions. This is a good primer for "what not to do" folks. |
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New ATI FireGL Drivers Released
February. 06, 2005 @ 07:08AM GMT +10 |
ATI have released a new set of FireGL X2-256t / FireGL X2-256 Display Drivers for Windows XP / 2000! Version: 8.083.
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PlayStation 3 Cell Chip Aims High
February. 06, 2005 @ 07:05AM GMT +10 |
Engineers from Sony, IBM and Toshiba are set to provide fresh details on the Cell processor that will power the next version of Sony's PlayStation video game machine, but at least one analyst already has a pretty clear idea of what's coming.
Read more at ZDNet.com |
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Star Wars: KOTOR II Review
February. 06, 2005 @ 07:02AM GMT +10 |
GameSpy has whipped up a quick review on the PC version of Obsidian Entertainment's RPG, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords. Here's a bit on the games storyline:
It's that storyline that immediately stands out as the single strongest feature of KotOR II -- and when I say strongest, I'm not just comparing it to its immediate predecessor or the other aspects of the game. The story in this game is one of the best I've ever seen in a video game, instantly joining the pantheon of classics like System Shock 2, the Baldur's Gate series, or Planescape: Torment. Where the choice in the first game was about choosing between the Dark Side and the Light Side, KotOR II probes that choice, revealing subtleties in what would seem to be stark moral choices.
The origional kicked some serious butt. Does the sequel? Read on. |
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Fallout 3 Interview
February. 06, 2005 @ 06:58AM GMT +10 |
Duck and Cover has sat down with Bethesda Softworks' Todd Howard for a chat regarding their upcoming RPG, Fallout 3. Topics range from combat to the games development. Here's a blurb:
Whilst every fan tends to have a different idea of what precisely Fallout 3 should be, there are a few things that most of us are unified on. Are you aware of the strong desires for turn-based combat and the classic 3/4 top-down viewpoint? Do you think pure turn-based combat in an RPG is viable in today's market?
Yes, of course we've heard many of the old-school fans regarding the view and combat resolution. What's viable today? Certainly turn-based combat limits your audience to a small number, but I do find that audiences will come if your game is good enough and the presentation is superb. Ultimately we'll do what we think will be the most fun. |
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