nVidia has released the ForceWare 100.54 for Windows Vista.
It is a beta driver for GeForce 8800 GPUs, it does supports GeForce 6/7 series.
Download the 32-bit driver.
Download the 64-bit driver.
To all the gamers who wants to save few hundreds bucks on the new Microsoft’s Operating System, Windows Vista, there is a good news here.
Windows Vista Ultimate, which is recommended for hard-core gamers, costs US$ 399 (retail price). I think you can buy half of a computer with this price. However, casual gamers should get the Windows Vista Home Premium, which costs US$239 (retail price). The upgrade version of these editions cost slightly lesser than the retail price.
According to this source, you can install the Upgrade version of Windows Vista, clean from nothing, i.e. you do not need Windows XP. Hurray! Save that money and buy new hardwares and games.
This installation methods save you money but not time. Practically you have to install Windows Vista twice, which may take hours to complete.
Here is the summary of the procedure.
By the way, if you install Windows Vista Upgrade on your Windows XP, your Windows XP Product Key will be invalid after installing Windows Vista.
An executive in Microsoft has leaked the release date of the much anticipated sequel to the Halo series, Halo 3.
According to this source, Halo 3 is set to release on November 15 2007, exclusively on Xbox 360.
This is the pending box art of Halo 3. Looks photoshopped to me. I believe a more stunning box art will be revealed in time to come.
Halo 3 may shipped in 3 editions, the Legendary edition, the Limited edition and the regular edition.
The Legendary edition will includes three bonus discs of extra content and a collectible replica of a Spartan Mjolnir Mark VI helmet (below).
The limited edition will includes special content and while the regular edition just gives you the game.
Pricing of the the Legendary, Limited and regular edition may be at 99.99, 69.99 and 59.99. Weird pricing, but I guess if there are 3 editions the pricing should be around these prices.
It has been a long time since Blizzard released patch for the all-time popular real time strategy game, Warcraft III. On recent days, Defense of the Ancient (DotA) has been a highly popular Warcraft III custom map, or so called mod. I wondering if there will be some bugs and minor problem to DotA when this new patch is in used. So far, it did have some minor glitches for previous patches. Awaiting for the new version of DotA.
This version mainly address problems encounter new classes of computers, namely the Intel-based Apple PC, the dual core PCs. And a new command that allows you to see your frame rate by typing /fps to the chat command. Cool! Check it out guys.
Here is the change log for version 1.21.
FEATURES
– The game now runs natively on both PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs.
– Player can now view frames per second using the “/fps” chat command.
FIXES
– Fixed a timing problem with the game on PCs with dual-core CPUs.
– Fixed a crash that could occur with the Frost Breath ability.
– Fixed a crash that could happen in multiplayer games.
– Fixed an exploit that could happen in multiplayer games.
Important Note on Patching for Mac Players: The file layout inside the
game folder is changed significantly by Patch 1.21. As a result, in order
to be able to install the Frozen Throne expansion from CD, you must
install Reign of Chaos first, then install Frozen Throne from CD, and then
patch to version 1.21, in that order. If you patch to v1.21 and then
attempt to install Frozen Throne after that, it will not install
correctly.
MAPS
– New maps:
– (2)SecretValley
– (6)BomberCommand
– (4)LostTemple (RoC)
– The 4 Forest Troll Berserkers by the natural expansions now drop Level
2 Permanent instead of Level 2 Charged items
– (4)TurtleRock
– The 4 Ogre Warriors along the outer pathways now drop Level 2
Permanent instead of Level 2 Charged items
– (6)GnollWood
– The 4 Gnoll Brutes by the central Item Shops now drop Level 2
Permanent instead of Level 2 Charged items
You can download the patch by logging on to the Battle.Net or you can download from the links below. I will recommend you to use the Battle.Net, because it is fast and easy.
Warcraft III : RoC 1.21a patch
FileFront
Fileplanet
Warcraft III : FT 1.21a patch
FileFront
Fileplanet
Since the release of Burning Crusade, patches have been releasing quite often by Blizzard. This patch does mainly on balancing on the different classes.
Hrere is the patch change log:
Hunters
– “Silencing Shot” now does only 50% of weapon damage instead of 75%.
– The base damage for “Arcane Shot” has been reduced by about 9% and
the bonus damage from ranged attack power reduced from 20% to 15%.
– The bonus damage for “Barrage” is now 4/8/12% for ranks 1/2/3.
– The bonus damage for “Improved Barrage” is now 4/8/12% for ranks
1/2/3.
Mages
– Each rank of “Improved Fireball” now reduces your spell damage
coefficient by 2%.
– Each rank of “Improved Frostbolt” now reduces your spell damage
coefficient by 2%.
– “Counterspell” no longer triggers the global cooldown.
– “Mana Shield” now absorbs magical damage as well as physical damage.
Priests
– The bonus coefficient for “Shadow Word: Pain” has been reduced by
about 9%. This should result in about 5% less damage done by
“Shadow Word: Pain” for the typical priest.
Bug Fixes
– The “Frozen Shadoweave Boots” will now properly increase shadow
damage.
– Players will no longer lose control of their character if they try
to talk to an NPC while mobs are aggro on them.
– The /equip command will now work on pieces of gear that are not in
your primary bag.
– Fixed an issue that was causing some players to disconnect in
Hellfire Citadel:Blood Furnace.
– The “Corruptor” 4 piece set bonus will now be properly applied.
– The Legion Fel Cannons at Forge Camp Anger in Blades Edge will now
properly spawn above ground.
– The Arena queue tooltip will now show the arena that the player is
queued for.
– Fixed an error that was causing players to disconnect if they tried
to socket a gem that had been gift wrapped.
– Fixed an error that was causing players to disconnect forming a
party with other members in the same area.
– Pet icons will now properly update in the Stables window.
– Improved the robustness of the pet action bar display. It is now
less likely to be accidentally blocked by addons.
– Players will no longer hear the gong sound repeated after initially joining
a queue for the battlegrounds.
– Having a group invite declined while queued via “Looking for More”
will no longer remove you from the queue.
– Nethershards will no longer cost honor to purchase but will cost
gold instead.
– Players will no longer be given access to both quest lines following
the Declaration of Allegiance to the Scryers or Aldor in Shattrath
City.
You can download the patch from the links below (US version):
Please note that these are incremental patches, for version 2.0.5 to version 2.0.6. Full patch has not been released.
Just download it and explore the Outland!
Gawell, a gnome mage character in the World of Warcraft European server, Archimonde (French EU-PvP server) has reached level 70 in less than 2 days of playing time. While many of us are still grinding hard and running through the instances, killing all the elites and bosses with the raid groups, one has reached the top level, with the help of his guild mates.
The first ding of level 70, happened on 4:04 am (CET) on Januar 17, 2007. You can check out the page for the pictures and interviews. The owner of the character is a 24 years old French, named Gullerbone, member of the Millenium guild. He played for 28 hours straight, with his guildmates.
Well, for most of us, the casual gamers, we will take our time and enjoy the the journey of Burning Crusade and the path to Level 70.
Gizmodo has posted some leaked information of Sony PlayStation Portable 2 (PSP2). It’s cool. PlayStation Poratble (PSP) has been around for more than a year. Is it time for a new portable device? Well, if it is a yes, there will be some concerns regarding this new PSP2
The new PSP2 is codenamed Cobalt. Nice name.
Here is some of the features listed by Gizmodo.
• All Metal & Ruggedized Rubber Build
• 200% Brighter Screen
• Dual Analog Controllers
• Visual Battery Display
• 8GB Flash Drive
• Wifi (a,b,g)
• Bluetooth V.2 (A2DP, AVRCP)
• Firmware 4.0
This is the picture taken for Gizmodo.
Erm, not exactly that attractive as compared to the the current PSP. Maybe this is just some concept designs for the new PSP2. And some of the features have answered the concerns, however, there is a need for more details to be available in order for the gamers to make their decision on jumping to the new console.
And wait, the revealation of iPhone from Apple at the MacWorld Conference has sparked interests all over the world, including me. Will PSP2 match up to compete with Apple’s iPhone? We will see.
The Lord of the Ring Online: Shadows of Angmar has begun its beta testing in Europe and North America, according to Gamespot.com.
The Europe signup page is available http://www.lotro-europe.com/beta-signup.php and the North America signup is available at http://lotro.turbine.com/betasignup.
More news to available if any. Watch out for it.
For those who are still in dreamland, it’s time to go to the Outland. Burning Crusade is here and the new version of WoW is here too.
Version 2.0.5, the third patch that was released in the weeks before the release of Burning Crusade.
Here is the change log for version 2.0.5.
– Increased the maximum number of realms that can be listed in the Realm List.
– Updated the Terms of Use.
– Created an option to disable UI Acceleration for users of select video cards
experiencing graphical corruption of the User Interface. To use this option,
enter the following line to the Config.wtf file, located in the WTF
subfolder of the game:
Set UIFaster “x”
Where x equals:
0 – This turns off all UI acceleration
1 – For Internal Use Only – DO NOT USE!
2 – Enables partial UI acceleration only.
3 – Enables all UI acceleration.
Example:
Set UIFaster “2”
Note: For users experiencing graphical corruption of the User Interface,
it is recommended to try option 2 in order to correct the problem. If
this does not solve the issue, then use option 0 to disable all UI
Acceleration.
This patch focuses mainly on the UI (User Interface) of the game.
Version 2.0.4, which was released days before version 2.0.5, addresses different issues.
Change log for version 2.0.4.
– Fixed a bug where flags in Arathi Basin could be captured at extremely long
distances.
– Fixed a bug where players who had set dungeons to Heroic difficulty level
previous to patch 2.0.3 could no longer enter instances.
– Fixed a bug that was causing multiple LUA errors in the German and French
battlegrounds.
– Fixed a bug that was causing the promotion of raid members to yield
incorrect results.
– Fixed a bug where NPC faction changes were not properly affecting quest-
giver exclamation marks.
– Fixed a bug where changing party options would briefly cause erroneous
information to be displayed in the party options menu.
You can download the version 2.0.5 incremental patch (from version 2.0.3) from the following web sites.
The Crusade has begun.
Yes, the much anticipated expansion to the world’s most populated massive multi-player online role playing game, the World of Warcraft Burning Crusade has officially released throughout the entire world. You can activate Burning Crusade on your account by visiting the World of Warcraft community site.
And let’s get on to Level 61. Hooray!
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