Think-Tech Reviews

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

2011-12-20T13:07:00.001+05:30

It sometimes surprises me why RPG games are a niche category despite the fact that some of the best games of all time are RPGs. Diablo, Fallout, Elder Scrolls series have never catered to the mainstream audience but have achieved legendary status among their own cult followings. I've recently gotten into RPG games myself. After playing Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, I wasn't sure how Bethesda could top them. And I was skeptical how an RPG game could manage to sell decently while being released within one month as Call of Duty : MW3 and Battlefield 3, but trust me, Skyrim did both.

Elder Scrolls series has been famous for sucking you in for about 200 hours and cutting you off from reality. Skyrim is no different. You start off as a prisoner about to be executed. You then get to customize your character's name, race, physical appearance and more. Just when you're about to say goodbye to this cruel cruel world, a ...hold your breath... dragon attacks and you escape. After a brisk walk through some dungeons, you're finally out in the open. And boy the world looks breathtaking!

The first thing you'll notice in this game apart from the 2 ton monster breathing fire over your head is the brilliant graphics. The environments are detailed, the jungles lush, the mountains capped with snow. Some might feel the textures are not as good as they could've been but I don't think current day consoles could've handled more. If you've got a decent gaming rig, you can always download texture packs to make it better.

Apart from the brilliant graphics, the storyline is gripping too. The word "storyline" doesn't actually do justice to the game. There are multiple quest lines apart from the main storyline. All of them are bound to keep you engaged for quite a while.

Gameplay mostly consists of exploring the vast terrain and doing quests given to you by various characters in the game. You randomly encounter various animals during your travels including wolves, trolls and of course, dragons. Speaking of dragons, Bethesda put a separate team of developers for programming the dragons and it shows. Fighting dragons with swords, axes and bows might sound crazy but it somehow works. The feeling you get after slaying a dragon is immensely satisfying. There are 5 difficulty levels allowing you to keep the game difficult enough to be challenging but not difficult enough to get frustrating. One thing, however, that sometimes does get frustrating is traveling. You might want to pull your hair out at moments when you miss the only route to a location and keep wandering all over the place. At least there are dragons and frost trolls to keep you entertained. Also, sometimes, you might get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of quests you can do in the game.

This is a normal day in Skyrim

The leveling system works well. Individual traits like one handed, two handed and destruction skills get better with usage and gaining up a level allows you to choose perks and increase one of three things, stamina, magica and health.

I can go on for hours but you have to play the game to truly understand how good it actually is. I can see the game might not be easy to pick up for those who haven't player RPGs before but once you get the hang of it, you will never want to play Call of Duty again(seriously!). If you are already into RPGs, then it's a crime to miss this one.

Rating : 9.0/10

Pros : Graphics, great storyline, good soundtrack, DRAGONS!!!
Cons : Slightly frustrating traveling, occasional bugs

Intel Core i7 980X

2010-03-12T12:58:00.001+05:30

We all love speed demon processors eating away tough benchmarks and high end applications without even burping, don’t we? We don’t like the idea of burping processors anyway! Intel has pushed up the ante by unveiling the Core i7 980X “Gulftown” processor which has 6 cores on a single 32-nm fabricated die.

FEATURES

This 6 core monster can handle 12 simultaneous threads. As mentioned earlier, Gulftown has a 32-nm fabrication process, 12 MB L3 cache. Apart from this, 256 KB L2 cache is provided for each core. 1066 MHz triple channel memory controller is thrown in with a maximum memory bandwidth of 32 GB/s. A sigh of relief for x58 chipset owners is that this processor is based on the socket 1366 and all x58 boards will be able to run this processor after a bios update. With 1170 million transistors, packed in, it is a serious number cruncher. Previous generation features like turbo boost are kept in.

POWER CONSUMPTION

The official power rating for the processor (TDP) is 130 Watts. Under full load, the temperature remains around 55-60 degree Celsius.

PERFORMANCE

This beast mauls the previous generation processors by a huge margin.

Some serious performance jumps out there.

VERDICT

This processor is definitely a performance monster but these benchmarks are multithreaded unlike most other applications. Most games support a maximum of 2 cores so it will be an overkill for gamers. For now, most of the quad core i7 owners not bother. Those with unlimited budgets (or have just robbed a bank) looking for the fastest computer on the planet can of course go for it. And the cost… a mere 999$ or Rs 50,000.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

2010-03-08T20:16:00.001+05:30

Filling up a bad guy with more bullets than you can count on your fingers is immensely satisfying, isn’t it? How about blowing up every tree and building up so that the baddie has nowhere to hide? Throw in some squad mates who keep you entertained with good humor and the recipe for a blockbuster game is complete. Bad Company 2 offers all of the above goodies (and much more) and will keep you entertained for hours.

The game begins with a prologue World War 2 mission which gives you an idea about how the game’s going to be. The rest of the game takes you to snow filled valleys, the unforgiving Bolivian jungle and snow capped mountains.

The gunfights are intense and the game throws in a lot of bad guys waiting to be stuffed with bullets and to satisfy the demon in you (just don’t tell your mom!). Your team mates are quite smart and don’t stand there in open trying to eat bullets (though they can because they don’t die at all!). They are mostly behind cover. In fact, they even tell you to do so. No cover lasts long due to great environment destructibility though. Stand inside a building during a fight and the building will be brought down in no time.

The game has a few bugs too. Sometimes, your teammates refuse to move ahead when they are supposed to. When you encounter enemies, they just magically appear on the spot.

The game sounds amazing and immerses you aurally. Your team mates shout out instructions to you and even the enemies do so. The grenades sound good and all the weapons can be distinguished by just hearing their sounds.

The game is visually appealing. It is one of the best looking FPS games right now. The jungles look vivid, the snow covered mountains look extremely realistic.

Overall, this game is really awesome and any gamer worth his salt should play it.

MSI 890GXM

2010-03-04T22:08:00.001+05:30

With new 6 core processors knocking on the door, AMD has launched its new chipset 890GX. AMD has thrown in a some new features like SATA 3.0 and some minor changes to the 790GX chipset. USB 3.0 is not natively supported but can be added by manufacturers like MSI did on this board.

INTEGRATED GRAPHICS

The IGP is based on the Radeon HD 4290. HD video decoding is not a problem thanks to UVD 2.0. AMD has also thrown in a dedicated 128MB memory cache (128 bit) for the IGP. The chipset also supports hybrid crossfire which lets you combine the IGP and a discreet GPU in crossfire.

PERFORMANCE

The chipset brings a considerable amount of performance jump over previous generation chipsets as we can see in the performance tests.

A little improvement here and there.

VERDICT

This board is definitely brings small a performance jump but nothing groundbreaking really. AMD will probably release a bios update for 790 series to support the upcoming 6 core processors anyway so, if you own a 790 series board, this board is totally avoidable.

FIFA 10

2009-10-28T10:21:00.001+05:30

Creating a new game in an already successful series that lives up to the high expectations created by over a dozen of brilliant games is difficult but EA has managed to do just that.

Last year’s game was quite awesome except for a few minor problems. FIFA 10 has not only fixed these problems, but also thrown in some new features.

Though the game can be played on a keyboard, a gamepad is recommended because it is nearly impossible to pull off skill moves with keyboard controls (without pulling your hair out in frustration at least).

Player control has been overhauled and you can control your player with great fluidity thanks to the great 360 degree player control. This is only possible using a good gamepad. Those not having a gamepad can also control the movement using your mouse. The “Be a Pro” and "Manager Mode” are the highlights of this game. In Be a Pro, you control a player through his career, guiding him through the League matches and International matches. The manager mode has got a whole lot of improvements as well which includes a whole new transfer system, scouting reports and a few minor tweaks. Other new features include a Legendary difficulty mode (not for the faint hearted!). All these minor changes make the game a treat.

Gameplay has got its share of steroids too. The players now move more realistically. Players can now chest the ball instead of waiting for it to land on their feet. Goalkeepers animations have been improved significantly. Now they can move in a more life like manner rather than a few jumps and dives previous games offered.

The graphics are great, right from the lush green turf to the player models. Player faces are easily recognisable. This game shows that game character models have come a long way from the cardboard cut outs that barely looked like creatures from the homo sapien race.

One of the annoying features of the game is the menu music which is primarily in Portuguese (or whichever language that is). What we have is a bunch of idiots mouthing totally annoying songs which are nothing less than a torture. The reason I chose to ignore this is that the thick of the action takes place in the stadium. The crowd sounds are excellent. Its great to hear the crowd go wild the moment the ball reaches in the vicinity of the goalpost.

Nothing on this earth is perfect and this game is no exception. Your mates in the Be a pro mode are really dumb. They rely too much on your orders. If you don’t make calls quickly, they just keep running towards the other end unless another equally retarded teammate comes in their way. If you happen to call for a pass from a short range, your brain dead teammate will pass it so hard that it will bounce off you and land anywhere. The CPU AI is not really great either. Sometimes, you have players who let you get through without putting up a fight and sometimes, they can get so aggressive that keeping possession for more than a few micro seconds will be tougher than scoring goals. These problems, somehow vanish when you are playing on higher difficulty levels.

Overall, this game is great unless you’re playing “Be a Pro” mode on a Easy difficulty level. This game is probably the best football game ever made.

Dell Studio XPS 15

2009-10-21T10:05:00.001+05:30

At a time when most laptop manufacturers are turning to netbooks, Dell seems to be the only brand not guilty of flooding the market with dozens of netbooks. Dell’s Studio XPS series brings a breath of fresh air by offering great value for money and a great configuration.

EXTERIOR

Dell studio 15 looks classy to say the least with a glossy lid (which is also a fingerprint magnet) that comes in a variety of colours and a few artist editions (which, by the way, look too eye catching for my liking). It has just 3 USB ports (one of them also doubles up as an eSATA port). It 2 audio out ports and 1 microphone jack. Apart from that, it comes with both D-Sub and HDMI ports, LAN port, eSATA and 4-in-1 card reader. A slot loading DVD writer is also thrown in.

OPENING THE LID

When you open the lid, you are greeted with a glossy, 16:9 15 inch screen. Above the screen, there is a barely noticeable webcam which can be used for face recognition as well. The speakers are present above the keyboard. The multimedia keys are integrated with the function keys.

TURNING IT ON

The notebook comes loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit which, thanks to the fast processor and ample RAM, runs quite smoothly. Being a multimedia notebook, it comes loaded with a copy of Power DVD DX. Watching HD videos on the 1366x768 screen is a good experience as the videos are free of framing issues. The keyboard is good with right sized and well spaced keys. The touchpad supports multi touch gestures like pinch to zoom. Sometimes, while typing, the palm of your hand can rest on the touchpad without you noticing it. When you try to use the touchpad, the zoom function gets activated. This can be quite irritating. Moreover, there is no button to turn off the touchpad. One minor problem with the laptop is that pressing the function keys executes the multimedia functions. To use the F1-F12 keys, they have to be pressed with the Fn key pressed. This can be inconvenient if you use shortcuts like Alt+F4, F5, etc.

UNDER THE HOOD

This notebook comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 2.1 GHz processor, which is enough for most tasks coupled up with 4GB DDR2 RAM. The discreet graphics solution is ATi Mobility Radeon 4570 with 512 MB GDDR3 memory which can run HD videos and run most recent games on low to medium settings at decent resolutions. The roomy 320GB hard drive will be enough for most users. Connectivity options like WLAN 802.11n and Bluetooth are present.

ACCESSORIES

The notebook comes bundled with an AC adapter, a pair of Creative earphones and a laptop backpack. Driver CD and Windows reinstallation CDs are provided too.

VERDICT

This is a good multimedia notebook that offers great value for money.

Need for Speed: Shift

2009-10-21T09:55:00.001+05:30

After a long chain of not so good games, NFS franchise is back with a new game Need for Speed: Shift which promises to do a lot of things that a thousand other games have already perfected.

Shift goes back to the ProStreet style organized and totally legal (damn!) racing. Like ProStreet, it’s not clear whether it is a simulation or an arcade game.

There are two game modes, Quick Race and Career. Quick race, lets you race on quite a few tracks with a car of your choice. In career mode, you start off with a tier 1 car and have to play through races to earn stars and upgrade your tier. After the race, you earn up to 3 stars for position, 2 for precision and aggression and 1 for bonus acts which can be anything from performing clean sections to reaching a particular speed. The star rating system adds a level of replay value to the races. Talking about replaying races, there will be moments when you need to replay 10 lap races all over again just because you hit that @#$%*^ wall just near the end of the race. The opponents are not very polite either as they don’t hesitate to slam you into walls or grind you off the track. The drift mode is a tad difficult for average gamers.

Car modification is not very different from previous games. Applying performance upgrades like new engine and transmission not only makes your car quicker, but also changes the engine sound which is a nice touch. Menu music (by the way, it’s a sin to call it music) starts getting on your nerves as soon as you hear it. Apart from that, morphing vinyls is so time consuming that you will be better off without vinyls altogether.

Graphics are not eye popping but they aren’t too bad either. It’s nice to see the environments blur when you are driving your car at 150 miles per hour. You can almost smell the asphalt in the heat of an intense race.

As I said, this game is neither a simulation, nor arcade so it won’t satisfy fans of any of these but casual gamers might like this game provided they can handle the steep learning curve.

Rating: 7.5/10

ATi Radeon HD 4790 vs Nvidia GeForce GTX 275

2009-04-03T09:21:00.015+05:30

The battle between ATi and Nvidia seems to be getting fiercer everyday and each one of them is trying to gain the upper hand be releasing new, faster and better GPUs every now and then. Today, nvidia has released GTX 275 which is a lower variant of GTX 285 and ATi has thrown in HD 4890 which is a slightly faster HD 4870. Both are based on the same 55nm fabrication process and not 40nm and both are similarly priced.

HD 4890

4890 is slightly higher clocked than 4870 to start with. It also has 1 GB GDDR5 memory as opposed to 4870’s 512MB (though we did see some manufacturers releasing 1GB variants). Power consumption under full stress is about 30W higher than the 4870.

GTX 275

It is clocked slightly slower than GTX285, has 896 MB 448-bit memory. It needs two 6-pin power connectors. The temperature can be anywhere between 45 degrees in idle mode and about 80 degrees under full load.

Far Cry 2

Clear victory for team green.

Call of Duty : World at War

4890 leads up to 1929x1200 but both cards show equal performance at 2560x1600.

Crysis Warhead

Victory for Nvidia Here

Verdict

At nearly the same price and performance, the choice is pretty much yours. Mind you, none of them offers anything revolutionary compared to their predecessors. So a 4870 or GTX 260 SP216 will do just fine with even lower prices. ATi has an advantage of being DirectX 10.1 capable so expect a performance increase in compatible games.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 295

2009-01-17T14:28:00.001+05:30

We all love really fast graphics cards don't we? After launching two dual GPU cards (7950GX2 and 9800GX2), which were both pretty ill fated, Nvidia is brave enough to have another go! ATi was much more successful with their dual GPU cards (HD 3870 X2 and HD 4870 X2). Let's see if Nvidia is third time (un)lucky...

The Card

You can say that GTX295 is basically two GTX 280s glued together but wait there's more. GTX 295 has the core of GTX 280 and amount of memory and memory speed of GTX 260. GTX 295 is built of the 55nm fabrication process and has 480 shader processors. GDDR3 Memory is used in the card just because the chipset doesn't support GDDR5 memory. For a GTX 295 in your system, you need to have at least 700W PSU and if you want to go for two of then, then you will have to have a 1000W PSU.

Power Consumption

Our test system consumed about 220W in idle and with full GPU stress, it draws about 420W. For a quad GPU set up, add another 300W to that. Sorry mother nature, crysis is the first priority. Caution : Get a quad GPU solution only if you don't mind environmentalists harassing you and a big dent in your pocket.

Test System

We used the following components Motherboard : Asus x58 Rampage II extreme Processor : Core i7 965 3.7GHz Memory : 3x1GB DDR3 1800MHz OS : Windows Vista 32 Bit SP1

Far Cry 2

As you see, GTX 295 shows quite some power by thumping HD 4870 X2.

Call of Duty 5

Scaling issues here, nvidia is has not been able to optimize their drivers to make use of the pull potential of two GTX 295 in quad SLi. Crossfire X fails miserably here. ATi has got a lot of driver issues to fix.

Crysis Warhead

At 2560x1600, all cards run out of memory which spoils the show. The game doesn't quite scale well with multiple GPUs. Again, two 4870 X2 are rendering with only two GPUs instead of four.

Verdict

GTX 295 is a great product it is definitely worth considering. Quad GPUs don't quite scale well with some games but if you've got a cabinet with good ventilation and a huge pocket, then you can go for if for bragging rights. 4870 X2 is still a good product to buy if you are an ATi fan.

AMD Phenom II X4

2009-01-09T19:51:00.001+05:30

After being thrashed by Intel ever since the introduction of their Core 2 Duo lineup in 2006, AMD was never able to get back on its feet. The infamous TLB bug gave the Phenom nightmares. Things started to improve with the B3 revision of Phenom. But the top end AMD processors still competed with Intel's mid range processors. Now, finally, AMD has released the Phenom II 45nm based processors. Along with Phenom II, AMD has launched its codename "Dragon" platforn, the successor to the Spider platform, which basically is a combination of an AMD chipset and processor and a ATi graphics card.

The Processors

Two new processors released under the Phenom II lineup are Phenom II X4 920 and Phenom II X4 940 which clock at 2.8 and 3.0 GHz respectively. They have 128 KB and 512 KB L1 and L2 cache respectively for each core and 6 MB L3 cache shared between all the cores.

Compatibility

The new Phenom II processors use socket AM3 which has 938 pins as opposed to 940 of socket AM2+. Wait! don't throw away your old AM2+ based motherboard yet! Unlike Intel's core i7, Phenom II is backward compatible with AM2+ socket. But AM2+ processors can't be used in AM3 based boards. The two extra pins in the former makes it impossible for you to pop a AM2+ processor in AM3 board. The first AM3 chipset, AMD 790 is yet to be released. Why? Because AM2+ boards don't support DDR3 memory. That's the reason you can't plug in an AM2+ processor in an AM3 board because of the lack of DDR3 memory controller.

Queen's CPU Test

At stock speed, QX9770 takes the cake because of large L2 cache and 1600MHz FSB. Overclocking X4 940 to 3.8GHz instantly shows a jump in scores.

Memory Test

Here, core i7 obviously wins due to DDR3 memory. We tested Phenom II with DDR2 memory because AMD 790 chipset is not released yet.

3DMark Vantage CPU Test

Here, Core i7 sails ahead of the phenom II.

Verdict

Phenom II takes on Core i7 valiantly and does well too. It is a great product and has plenty of headroom for overclocking. Don't be fooled by the numbers though, the AMD 790 chipset will definitely improve things for AMD and maybe, the X4 940 will surpass even Core i7 920.

Need For Speed Undercover

2008-11-22T05:07:00.001+05:30

NFS series is back and so are the cop chases. So that means that I can 1. crash, 2. ram, 3. topple............ 1834. @#$% the police cars! Whoopie! But wait there's more. NFS: UC feels like NFS Most Wanted and for me, it is a good thing, I don't know about you.

In undercover, you play the role of an undercover officer (!!!!!). You mission is to take down a group of street racers cum smugglers. Sounds like a B Grade Hollywood action flick... I said sounds! It looks better. The story is predictable.

The racing will take place in the Tri-City Bay area. You will easily find yourself in a fast car. Well, one thing I like about undercover is its galore of vehicles (more than 50) that you can drive. You can, as always upgrade your ride to add frills (you still can't make it fly though). You earn money for not only winning a race but to win it by a big margin. Driving with style recharges your nitrous faster which is a good thing.

The cop chases aren't challenging enough because after hanging around for a while, they get off (owing to the fact that you are a police officer yourself I guess). You can still 1. thrash, 2. shatter..... 1693. @#$%! the police cars as much as you like. A note of caution, never try this in real life because the real cops don't get thrashed easily.

The PS3 version runs like a sideshow whereas the XBox 360 version runs perfectly fine. The graphics aren't much different to Pro Street.. The online mode is great but the races are short.

If you loved NFS Most Wanted like I did, you will love this game too. The game lacks originality.

Intel X58 Extreme DX58SO Motherboard and Intel Core i7

2008-11-16T06:26:00.011+05:30

The hugely anticipated Intel "Nehalem" series of processors is out tests show it is a performance beast. Now, it is such a beast that it deserves a chipset that can tame the beast. That is exactly what x58 does. It supports triple channel DDR 3 memory and Socket 1366. It uses the same ICH10 southbridge but that's where the similarities end. Another excellent feature of this motherboard is that it is the motherboard apart from "Skulltrail" to support both Crossfire X and SLi making it the perfect choice for hardcore gamers.

The Processor

The processors we are testing are i7 920 and i7 965. The former is mid-range while the latter is high-end. But make no mistakes i7 920 can easily slaughter previous generation High end Core 2 Duos and Core 2 Quads.Both of them are quad core processors like Core 2 Quad series.

SLi and Crossfire X
Finally, an Intel motherboard that supports SLi. Manufacturers though will have to get the motherboard certified by Nvidia which will release new drivers supporting SLi on the board. Anywhere between 2 to 4 (yes! FOUR) Nvidia cards can be set up in SLi. The fourth card will be dedicated to PhysX processing.

DhryStone CPU Test

It is clear from the test that Core i7 is really fast and overclocking makes it even faster.

Memory Test

Here, x58 demolishes the others by a huge margin due DDR-3 memory kicking in.

3D Mark06 CPU Test

Call of Duty 4 (2 x ATi Radeon 4870 X2)

Well the performance of the Core i7 is earth shattering. The performance difference between the two processors is huge even at higher resolutions. Please note that we have used the highest possible settings.

Far Cry 2 (2 x Ati Radeon 4870 X2)

Even Core i7 is not powerful enough to use two 4870 X2 to their full potential. We run into CPU benchmark which is ideal for testing processors.

Verdict

It is not often that I recommend a new processor for gaming but this one definitely falls into that category. The sheer power of this processor makes a huge impact in your FPS count let alone other tasks. And the chipset, well I cannot comment on its performance because its socket is not backward compatible but it shines in the features department.

Nvidia GeForce GTX280

2008-06-22T23:09:00.001+05:30

The graphics cards are getting better by the day and the market is getting heating up. Flashback 2007, when 8800 GTXs and 8800 Ultras were ruling the graphics card market, eating all the games for breakfast. These cards seemed to get through every benchmark thrown at them even without SLi.................Then came Crysis, the game with great graphics but sadly, no card was able to run it in its full glory. Nvidia tried to borrow some time to get their 9 series ready by introducing 3 way SLi. The game couldn't even run decently on these so called "High End" 3 Way SLi rigs. When the 9 series was out with 9800GX2, which was 2 8800GTs on one card, Crysis remained a tough nut to crack. Even two of these were too less to handle crysis. Meanwhile, ATi had released their top end card HD 3870 x2, which was had two HD3870s as a single card. But, the attempt was in vain. Crysis was just too good for this junk (Crysis made them junk!). But now the time has come when Crysis is to be run with all the eye candy turned up and resolutions cranked up to 2560 x 1600. Nvidia's new card, GeForce GTX 280 is the new monster. This card is a beast with 1.4 billion transistors. It is based on the same old 65nm fabrication process. It also supports Nvidia PhysX which will make the physics calculations to a new level. We have to wait for the new drivers to see it in action though. It has 240 shader units and CUDA parallel processing which will reduce the load on the processor in regular tasks other than gaming.

Performance

Call of Duty 4

This card doesn't perform really well if you compare it to 9800 GX2 in quad SLi. But still it shows that it's undoubtedly the best single core card money can buy.

Crysis

Finally, a card that can run crysis in its full glory, that's what you may be thinking but hey, think again. If you believe that a single GTX 280 can run this game at highest settings, think again. It takes three of these cards to achieve that. But that's the only way you can play this game at maximum settings at 2560x1600.

As you see, 3 of these cards run crysis ad 38 FPS at the maximum possible settings at 2560x1600 resolution in the most graphically intense area of the game. Hmmmm......not bad!

Verdict

The verdict doesn't need to be long. The benchmarks show everything. Three of these cards will make the best rig money can buy but at a very steep price of about $640. So, three of them will cost you about $1900. Buy these if you have robbed a bank recently else it may bankrupt you!

Nvidia 9800GTX

2008-04-01T21:11:00.001+05:30

With 9800GX2 breaking the performance barrier a week ago, expectations are high from the 9800GTX. Before you throw away your twin 9800GX2, read this review. There is no doubt about the fact that 9800GTX is a sibling of 9088GX2, but the question arises, elder or younger. Lets see.

Basically, the formula behind 980GTX is, take a 9800GX2, rip it into two, overclock it like hell, throw in some changes and you're done! So all of you, stop screaming like hell as this is a card whose performance is roughly the same as the 8800GTX. So, is there anything new? The answer is yes and no! Performance wise, it is the same as the 8800GTX. The price is lesser than its previous generation counterpart, apart from lower power consumption. So, this card is based on the same old G92 core which is used in 9800GX2 and 8800GTS 512MB. But the performance is better than the 8800GTS because of higher clock speeds. The fabrication process has moved to 65nm as opposed to 90nm of 8800GTX.

PERFORMANCE

The performance of this card is a huge letdown. It is at par with 8800GTX which has been around for atleast two years now. However, two of these are a shade better than the 9800GX2 due to the higher clocks.

Call of duty 4 shows that this card is slightly faster than 8800GTX.

You can draw absolutely no conclusion from Crysis. At lower resolutions, the card is better than even the 9800GX2 but higher resolutions show an absolutely different story.

VERDICT

If you were planning to buy an 8800GTX, dump the idea. 9800GTX is the way to go. Although, the performance of both these cards is similar, go for the 9800GTX because of lower power consumption, lower price and slightly better performance.

God of War: Chains of Olympus

2008-03-28T16:46:00.001+05:30

Ever played a God of War game? If not, you are missing out something you shouldn't. The first two games of the series were released for the playstation 1 and 2 leaving PSP users feeling like second class citizens. But the wait is finally over. Finally, a god of war game for the PSP. And it is as good as, if not better than the PS2 version.

The action takes place before the original God of War game when Kratos, the main character of the game is loyally serving Ares, the god of war in exchange for his freedom from his messed up past. The story unfolds in cutscenes which rival the best of Oscar winning movies.

The combat system is awesome, just like the PS2 version. The graphics are way better than the other PSP games. But the great graphics don't compromise on the frame rate. The game runs smooth even in the most intense scenarios. Dodging attacks involves pressing both the shoulder buttons and moving the analogue stick. This is more complicated than the PS2 version as the PSP has only one analogue stick but once you get used to it, its good.

The only alternate weapon in the game is the Gauntlet of Zeus which is used to pummel the foes and is great fun to use. Every enemy kill yields red orbs which are used to learn new attacks and upgrade skills.

The gameplay is mostly linear but contains some alternate paths leading to upgrades and extras. There are a few puzzles to solve though not as taxing as the ones in the Prince of Persia series. Like the PS2 version, there are a few extra costumes and movies unlocked after completing the game but the replayability is limited.

This game has a few not so good elements. The worst one is that it is nothing new. Everything in the game is the same as the first two games. It feels like a stripped down version of the original games. Another problem is that it is too short. After finishing the game, you'll be left asking for more.

If you don't have a PSP, beg or steal it. Or alternatively, you could buy it too(though that's a secondary option)! This is by far the best game on the PSP and a good reason to get a PSP too.

THE GOOD

Great gameplay
Best looking game on PSP
Loads of blood and gore

THE BAD

Limited replayability.
Too similar to the original GOW games.
Too short

Quad SLi(2x9800GX2)

2008-03-25T21:47:00.022+05:30

Hardly a week has passed since the launch of the new monster 9800GX2 and nVidia has launched a product to blow ATi out of the competition with its (partially)new technology-Quad SLi! This technology makes an enabled rig a different animal altogether.

REQUIREMENTS

I know you cant wait to know what you need for setting up a quad SLi rig! Here it goes:

2(yes! two!) Nvidia 9800GX2
A number crunching processor(at least 2.7GHz dual core)
2GB of ultra fast memory
Fully patched Windows Vista
A monitor supporting at minimum of 1920x1200 resolution.
850W or higher PSU
Games!

As you can see, Quad SLi is a costly affair and you'll have to pay your nose out to get your hands dirty on one. A piece of advice- spending such a huge amount will be pointless if you won't be playing games at very high resolutions(above 1920x1200).

OUR TEST RIG

Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme 3.2GHz

Motherboard: Nvidia 790i SLi

Memory: 2x1 GB Corsair DDR3

That's some serious horsepower for our beast.

PERFORMANCE (Call of Duty 4)

The rig shattered our first benchmark- Call of Duty 4. At a resolution of 2560x1600, 4x Anti Aliasing, 16x Anisotropic filtering and all the settings maxed out, the rig cruised at 104 FPS versus 57FPS recorded by a single 9800GX2 with the same components!

PERFORMANCE (Crysis)

The rig performed poorly in crysis. The rate went down terribly at higher resolutions. The frame rate was only 4FPS better than a single 9800GX2. Maybe, a few driver updates will fix the problem.

The main problem with Quad SLi is that due to the huge load of data transfer between the four GPUs, the processor is put under a lot of stress. So, QSLi shows its real power only at resolutions above 1920x1200.

PERFORMANCE (3d Mark 06)

The performance at default settings was nothing special. At 16152, it was slightly lower than the single card.

PEFORMANCE(GRAW 2)

Again, here, due to the CPU bottlenecks, Quad SLi shows its power only at higher resolutions. The QSLi setup beats the single card by a huge margin at 2560x1600, amazing!

PERFORMANCE(F.E.A.R.)

This benchmark shows exactly what was expected from it. Forget words! Look at the results!

FINAL WORD

So, is four better than two? Both yes and no! Yes when Quad SLi works well. And no when scaling problems arise like in Crysis.

But at present, I don't see the need to invest in a second 9800GX2 as the games run just fine with "one" 9800GX2. And when they don't, like in Crysis, the Quad SLi fails too.Also, 56 FPS is equally playable as 110 FPS, so, why invest so much? You could add another card to your setup at a later time.

Nvidia 9800GX2

2008-03-24T12:12:00.006+05:30

The graphics card market is getting heated up now. Nvidia is coming up with a new card every few weeks. The 8800 Ultra had been reining the graphics card market for quite some time now. To change it all, comes a new contender (or champion should I say), the 9800GX2. It is basically two 8800GT s bridged together and mind you, this is not any other card, it is a monster! With a gig of 512-Bit memory, this card eats every benchmark for breakfast.

PERFORMANCE
Benchmarks show that this card can take on two 8800 GTX in SLi! It shows blistering frame rates with all the eye candy cranked up in most of the games. It completely knocks out all the cards out there. You won’t like to waste such insane amount of power for running games at 1024x768 resolution, so you can pretty much ignore those benchmarks. It scores 12992 points in 3dmark 06 which is lower than 8800Ultra and HD3870X2 but the real world tests are more reliable than synthetic tests.

POWER CONSUMPTION
The power consumed by this card is good. The idle consumption was around 165 watts (The 8800 ultra consumes 160W). Under stress, the consumption jumps to around 375 W which 10W more than 8800 Ultra. So, the performance is doubled and consumption is the same! This is due to the 65nm fabrication process.

VERDICT
It is too early to say now. Buy this card only if you have money to throw. Moreover, this card cannot run Crysis in its full glory. To do that, you have to get two of these cards, a fast processor and a large hole in your pocket.

ATi Radeon 3870X2

2008-03-21T10:56:00.022+05:30

The year 2007 was a real nightmare for ATi. There cards were slaughtered by their Nvidia counterparts. This year, ATi is making an attempt to better it. Their first attempts this year were HD3850 and HD3870. These cards offered enormous value for money as they performed nearly as good as HD2900XT at half the price and less power consumption. This was mainly due to the 55nm fabrication process. Now, ATi is moving on to the high end category with the launch of HD3870X2 which is basically two HD3870s bridged together on a single PCB much like Nvidia's now ancient 7850GX2. With a massive 1332 million transistors and 640 steam processing units, the X2 is expected to give stiff competition to Nvidia's high end cards.

PEFORMANCE
The card shows pretty decent performance in Crysis at 1024x768 resolution. The 8800GTS 512 MB beats it by a good 9FPS. But as the resolution is scaled up to 2560x1600, it is a shade faster than 8800 Ultra. In Call of Duty 4, at the lower resolutions, the card is a shade better than 8800 Ultra. Scaling up the resolution brings the two cards neck to neck.

VERDICT
The only thing I say about this card is that buy this card only if you have a very large monitor supporting resolutions upto 2560x1600 or if you are an ATi fan(this seems to be the only reason to buy Ati cards nowadays).

iPOD NANO

2008-01-30T13:03:00.000+05:30

The Apple iPods have been reigning the PMP market for quite sometime now. From the days of the original iPod to the latest generation iPod Touch, each one of them has been successful due to its unique design.
The users of the previous generation iPod nano users started wishing when it will support video. Good news for all you folks, it already does!

DESIGN
This one has a funky look and is wider and shorter than the previous gen nanos. The glossy finish of the previous generation is gone and is replaced by a matte finish which, thankfully is less prone to scratches. It measures 2.75 x 2.1 inches and is .25 inches thick(or should I say .25" thin!). It begs to be held. Despite being insanely thin, it is quite sturdy. The back is still stainless steel. The bigger and better 2.5" screen has a resolution of 320x240 making it one of the crearest displays I've seen. It is even scratch resistant. The clickwheel is the same and the hold button is at the bottom. The headphone jack is awkwardly placed at the bottom right curve.

MENUS
The menu has been redesigned to take advantage of the wider screen. It has been split into two halves. The left side shows the fully customizable menu and the right one shows the album art of the track being played.
Cover flow feature of the iPhone has been used in the nano. It arranges the album arts of all the albums on the nano in a very appealing and useful way.

PLAYBACK
The audio playback of the nano is, as usual, awesome. A custom equalizer is still missing. While playing audio, then center button can be tapped repeatedly to show the playback menu which allows you to shuffle songs or albums without going back to the main menu.
Video playback is crisp and brightness can be adjusted duting the playback though watching movies on such a small screen is not a good idea. There is no TV output feature. Strangely enough, it is available in the menu. The battery lasts up to 5 hours which is a good thing.

EXTRAS
The nano has been bundled with quite a few games but its a pity that the previous generation ones can not be played on it.

VERDICT
The nano 3G is a great device and the only problem with it is there is no 16GB version available.

NERO 8 ULTRA

2008-01-30T11:14:00.000+05:30

When was the last time you had to burn a disc and you didn't click on that nero icon on your desktop?
Hard to remember? Years have passed since the first release of nero and it has evolved from a CD burning software to a full multimedia suite. The latest one in the series is nero 8. It features a completely revamped interface from the previous version and much more....

THE INSTALLATION
The installation is the same as the version 7; its plain and simple. It has a custom installation mode which, I recommend because the typical installation installs a hell lot of junk on your computer. The rest of the installation is a breeze.

WHAT'S NEW?
The whole interface has been redesigned to give it a vista like look. It even has a start menu! Another new feature is that you can burn data and audio discs from the start smart interface itself. It finally supports the burning and playback of HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. For vista users, it also has a nice sidebar gadget that can make copies of non copy protected disks with a click of a button(literally!)

THE BAD
The problem with this new version is that it unnecessarily hogs resources. For those having slower systems, you can get a cup of coffee till nero starts! Even on decent machines, it starts after a delay of ten seconds or so which can be frustrating. Another problem is that the interface is redesigned so, it gets difficult to find things in it...(er...someone tell me where the erase disc option is).

THE VERDICT
This upgrade is nothing great and unless you want to burn HD content, DONT upgrade!

Nokia N81 8GB

2007-12-31T21:59:00.000+05:30

The Nokia N series has been around for quite some time now(or future computers as nokia likes to put it). The latest one in the block is the N81 8GB version which, along with its elder sibling N95 promises to be the next episode in entertainment.

THE DESIGN

This one is a bulky slider(as awkward as it sounds) but still impressed me with its polished looks. Strangely enough the 3.5mm headphone jack is placed at the top along with the power button and the keypad lock switch(which holds the keypad in its place). The two sides of the phone hold the set of the stereo speakers. On the right side, the zoom/volume buttons and the camera capture buttons are placed. The bottom holds a charging port and a new type of USB port. The 2.4 inch screen is brilliant. It actually has the capability to be a great gaming device and it also features dedicated gaming keys on the either side of the earpiece. Gaming is done in the landscape mode. The music keys are placed awkwardly. The are placed where the erase key should have been placed so, you'll end up activating the music player while trying to erase a word often.

FEATURES

This one runs on symbian OS 9.2, series 60 v3.1. The music quality is great(do I have to tell that too...Its an entertainment phone!). This one has a 2 megapixel camera(WHAT!) which looks strangely out of place in its long feature list. It is definitely a huge letdown. ISO level and exposure adjustment and flash helps, it is still not up to the mark.

On the connectivity front, it has Wi-Fi, 3G, HSDPA and EDGE. Bluetooth with A2DP is a nice addition. It also has a bunch of handy tools like calculator, calendar, notes, converter, etc.

BOTTOMLINE

Overall, I am disappointed with this one. And with that price tag of Rs 22,000, buy this one only the price falls by a huge amount or if you want a huge dent in your pocket for nothing great.

Connectivity	MicroUSB v2.0, Bluetooth with A2DP, Wi-Fi
Dimensions	102 x 50 x 17.9 mm, 140 gm
Display	240 x 320, 16m colours, TFT, 2.4 inch
Memory	8GB
Media formats	MP3, AAC, MPEG4 WMA, Stereo FM, 3GP
Camera	2 megapixels, flash, video (QCIF), secondary VGA
Network	3G, EDGE, UMTS, GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Battery	400 hrs standby, 3.45 hrs talktime
Price	Rs. 22,000

Need for Speed Carbon

2007-12-16T13:23:00.000+05:30

Electronic Arts has struck again with a new NFS title to match the high expectations.

THE BEGINNING

The game starts off from where most wanted ended, your return to the gray city of Palmount.

SURPRISE!

Guess who' se back. While entering the city, you are chased by Cross. If you've played most wanted, you'll know who he is. For the rest of you, he is the best driver in the RPD(Rockport Police Dept). Your BMW M3 GTR is wrecked in the chase and Cross rushes towards your ride.

HOLD YOUR BREATH!

Cross catches you but you are freed by a guy named Darius. He lets you choose you between three rides:

THE THREE CLASSES

You have to make a choice between three classes-Tuners, which have great handling but low speed, muscles, which are insanely powerful and shoot like a bullet. They slide like oil on banana skin. The third class is Exotics which are natural supercars. Rewards and unlockables are different for the three classes.

NOW WHAT?

You have to capture the city by completing races. Each race unlocks a certain performance or visual upgrade and you earn money (that's the best part...you can earn money!!!!). After completing certain races in an area, you are challenged by the boss of that area. The race is a three stage affair. First is a regular race in the city streets. The second one is a canyon duel. You have to follow the opponent on a canyon track. The closer you follow, the more points you earn. In the second part of the canyon duel, you lead and the other guy follows. Your points decrease as he comes closer. You have to reach the end before your points run out.

THE GRAPHICS

The good part is the lighting effects. Cars look slightly better than most wanted but the road reflections are worse. Maybe because of the night time environment. This game hogs resources more than what it is supposed to.

BOTTOM LINE

If you've just finished most wanted, and the expectations are high, you'll be disappointed. Most Wanted was far better. Another thing, its too short(I managed to finish this one in four days flat!). For those who want to try out an NFS title for the first time, this one's good.

XFX PV-T88P-YDD4

2007-12-16T12:56:00.000+05:30

The new Nvidia core 8800GT(codenamed G92) promises to blow many cards out of water at a great price. This one beats even the 8800 GTS in terms of memory and core speeds and is designed by 65nm fabrication process.

XFX PV-T88P-YDD4 is based on an overclocked chipset(670 vs 600 MHz) 8800GT core.

Stock cooling solution can mean a fried GPU. Temperatures can reach as high as an 8800GTX which is a bad thing. It can even beat the mighty G80 in a few scenarios. The most amazing thing about this one is the price(Rs19,500) which is about half the price of an 8800GTX. Instead of an 8800GTX, you can buy two of these in SLi and that leaves the G80 far behind in all the benchmarks.

Nokia N73 Music Edition

2007-12-15T10:10:00.000+05:30

Gone are the days when mobile phones were about the size of a brick...and weighed a kilo! Nowadays, mobile phones are common as monkeys in a jungle. Nokia is releasing a new smartphone cramming as many new features as possible. If you're wondering why I am reviewing a smartphone six months old now and think that it is old enough to be kept in a museum, perhaps you're mistaken.

LOOKS:
This one is slightly oblong and its looks are definitely not the wow factor. I wonder why so much space has been left below the screen.

FEATURES:
This one comes with a 3.1 MP camera with flash which has great picture quality(one of the best on a phone), 42 MB onboard memory which can be expanded with the bundled 2GB memory card which should be enough for all those songs, videos and photos. It also has bluetooth v2 which is a good thing. GPRS takes care
of internet browsing on the move.

PERFORMANCE:
The OS is sluggish at times but that is not a big problem. Music quality is excellent. Camera is great too. Videos and photos look great on that 2.4" screen.

BOTTOMLINE:
At its price, this one's a great buy and certainly worth a try.