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Introduction
Round three is almost done! All the entries are in and it's time to vote. Just lookthe scores! The quality of writing has shot up fantastically and there's plenty to learn and enjoy in all the articles submitted for this round of our FiringSquad Editors Challenge sponsored by the Intel Core 2 Duo processor!
Old School Gaming: Geforce 6600GT still falls short
OldFriend goes over his GeForce 6600GT in a median rig, comparing how it performs in some older and newer games. Though the results are somewhat predictable, we're judging OldFriend's prose and syntax as much as his judgment. Then there's the added benefit of humor – check out the Pros and Cons.
Power666 looks into upgrading his ancient G4 system with a GeForce FX 5200. The problem? It's a PC card. The solution? Well, he flashes it – and he tells you how to do it. He then overclocks it, tests it, explains options for Mac Pro owners, and issues with other GeForce cards being run on Macs. Definitely worth checking out just for the different flavor alone!
Darrellwu provides a very in-depth review of the Venice-core Athlon 64 3200+. Complete with screenshots, graphs, and overclocking results. For added benefit, Darrell has overclocked the CPU and the GPU separately, to show where the bottleneck lies. To make things even better, Darrell isn't the only one to test the 3200+! Read his article so you can compare against the other entry.
KevinSpiess combines a fun rant about Moore's Law (something to do with Doritos and a screwdriver set, apparently), along with a painful review of this half-decade old processor. How painful? How about trying to run Company of Heroes and Half-Life 2! Ouch. Even more ouch was on the way, as Kevin tried to overclock the CPU by 1GHz! That's a bigger percentage overclock than the legendary Celeron 300A@450. Can he do it? Find out!
Deja vu? Or is this a mortal showdown between two authors with the same subject? Like Derek Perez and Brian Burke going at each other with knives, Droniac and Darrellwu circle around the Athlon 64 3200+ and try to produce the most interesting, insightful, professional article? Who will win (if either makes it at all)?! You decide!
CanadaDave commits assault by benchmark, a class 3 felony in at least six of the G7 countries, as he tests the Pentium D 805. The only thing his benchmark suite is missing is the amount of hamsters that need to power this Pentium with their spinning wheels. On the serious side, CanadaDave provides a historical context for the processor and explains its importance in the Intel-AMD war, as well as doing the tests and overclocking it.
The processor reviews continue, this time with OgreFade's analysis of the Athlon 64 X2 4200+. Not only does OgreFade test the processor in a variety of benchmarks, he also goes over some of the more esoteric features like Cool'n'Quiet. I'm pretty sure that's not how you'd contract “Cool and Quiet”, but hey, AMD's marketing department has millions of dollars and I only have Strunk & White. Though OgreFade fails to excuse AMD's horrible grammar, we still think his article is worth reading.
Jacob (hey, I like this guy already -ed.) reviews the fastest of the processors in our competition. He does so with the help of the most colorful and, well, bizarre graphs we've ever laid eyes on. It's like someone took a Wiimote and started drawing images behind the charts... Interestingly enough, jacob tests on Vista, rather than XP, while providing a full Core 2 Duo family tree.
DaugWok rescues us from the CPU assault with a graphics card review. Taking the venerable Radeon X800XL under the microscope, he puts it through its paces in a variety of games. And really, isn't that the prettiest graph you've seen in a while? Sure, it's a bit crowded, but the kid's got style!
What happens when a man ingests a white paper, chews it up, and spits it out? A big spitball, unless his name is BucNews (or Alan Dang). BucNews breaks down the NVIDIA 8800GTX and speculates where all of its power could be used.
Batman: Arkham City PC Review Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to 2009’s smash-hit action game Batman: Arkham Asylum. As the name suggests, you will be reprising your role as the Caped Crusader and going against an even larger 'prison' filled with Gotham's criminals and villains. A textbook example on how to do a proper sequel, Arkham City takes what worked in the original, excised or improved upon what didn’t, and elevated everything to an even greater scope. The PC version suffered from a few months of delay, but in that time, Rocksteady worked closely to NVIDIA to implement some familiar technologies from the last game, such as PhysX and 3D Vision, along with new DirectX 11 optimizations. But how well was the whole package executed? Read on to find out!
Saints Row: The Third PC Review Saints Row is one of most unique series of games to build upon the open-world action template forged by Grand Theft Auto, and has met with plenty of critical and commercial success since it began on consoles back in 2006. This latest iteration, titled Saints Row: The Third promises the most outlandish fun and freedom of customization of them all, and in a much more PC-friendly package than its predecessor. Does it live up to those expectations and, more importantly, is it worth the price of admission? Find out in Will's latest review!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC Review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda Softworks’ latest offering in their series of epic fantasy RPGs, as well as one of the most highly-anticipated PC titles of 2011. As the Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, prepare to take the fight to the mythical beasts that have returned to the realm after centuries of slumber, all the while exploring a huge and highly-detailed open world.
The PC version of the game promises enhanced graphical fidelity, standard RPG trimmings such as hotkeys and quick-save, as well as unbridled mod support, something we’ll all be thankful for once they release that SDK. Skyrim has already sold millions of copies and set records for play-time on Steam... Find out why in today's review, which happens to be one of the biggest and most in-depth articles on the subject out there!
L.A. Noire Complete Edition PC Review L.A. Noire, as the name clearly states, is a video game built on the tropes of one of the greatest periods of American cinema: film noir. Developed by the now defunct Australian developer Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, this title has been out on consoles for a full six months before finally making its way to the PC. This “Complete Edition” of the game features improved graphics, keyboard/mouse controls, and every bit of previously-released DLC for free. But was it truly worth the wait? Read on and find out!
Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E Performance Review
Today marks the launch date for Intel’s Sandy Bridge-E line of processors, a new family of high-end Core i7 products based on the LGA 2011 platform. This new socket is poised to replace the existing LGA 1366 specification used by the more powerful Nehalem and Westmere parts from the past couple years, specifically Bloomfield and Gulftown, the Core i7-9xx+ line of CPUs.
With 6 cores, 15MB of cache, and support for quad-channel DDR3-1600 memory, the Core i7-3960X sounds like quite a catch. Want to know more about it and how it performs? Read on!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360 Review
The self-appointed "most anticipated game in history" launched worldwide this past Tuesday. Why, it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, of course (of course), what else? Unsurprisingly, the military FPS debate between this and Battlefield 3 rages on, but now that both have been released, surely we can take a look and objectively evaluate them both? Luke's taken the Xbox version of MW3 for a spin this week, so to find out what he thinks of it in today's review!
Stronghold 3 Review
The latest sequel in the long-running real-time strategy franchise from FireFly Studios, Stronghold 3 is all about building your dream castle and defending it against sieging enemies. Almost exactly one decade after the first game was released, this new title promises a return to the classic and well-received gameplay that has been strayed so far from in more recent iterations. Does it live up to those expectations? Will (AKA Synchronous Failure) tells us all about it in his first official FiringSquad review, so read on!
Battlefield 3 PC Review - Single-player Impressions
One of the most highly-anticipated PC games of the year is upon us; Battlefield 3 is now available in North America! EA/DICE have finally delivered a sequel to the core Battlefield franchise, a proper follow-up to BF2. Having played through the game's single-player campaign already, ahead of the multiplayer festivities kicking off around midnight, I figured I'd share my impressions ASAP. Is it really a worthy addition to the core Battlefield series, or just another bullet point on the back of the box? Read on and find out!
Wrecked: Revenge Revisited Supersonic Software Interview
Following up on our hands-on preview from earlier this month, here's an interview with Supersonic Software, creators of Wrecked: Revenge Revisited. The game's coming out on XBLA and PSN in a matter of weeks, but for now, Luke chats with the developer about its predecessors Mashed and Micro Machines, how difficult it can be to get an indie game published, the closure of Codemasters' Guildford branch, and more!
Orcs Must Die! PC Review Orcs Must Die! is the first release from an independent developer named Robot Entertainment. Fans of classic real-time strategy games may have heard that name before, as the outfit is comprised of many veterans from Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires series.
Equal parts action and strategy, this is a tower defense game that not only puts you in command, but on the front lines of combat, as well. Slaughter thousands of orcs, ogres and other vile creatures of fantasy that invade your fortresses through 24 levels of the story-based campaign. With high levels of replayability thanks to its scoring and leaderboard functionality, multiple difficulty levels, and various styles of play, it sounds a steal at only $15. Does it deliver on all that’s promised, though? Read on and find out!
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