Monday, December 29, 2008

Burnout Paradise

Burnout Paradise

Burnout Paradise is a fascinating game. It takes the open-world, online play style pioneered in Test Drive Unlimited and couples it with the Burnout series' action-packed, thrash-and-burn gameplay. The result is one of the best racers on the road, where online and offline opponents cruise the same streets at the same time, and you can basically do anything you want as long as it involves driving fast, crashing, or both. The game takes place in the eponymous Paradise City, a locale that serves triple duty as setting, victim, and front end. It's a setting because it's where you drive; a victim because it's what you'll wreck; and a front end because you'll never have to jump out to a menu to change modes or go online--everything you could ever want to run over or crash into is right here in Paradise City...and it's also downloadable at a discount price as well on the PlayStation Network.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Mighty PC Facts!!

It's not as great as Easter Eggs but "Mighty PC Facts!! "

* If you want to scan or defrag your disk, try this in safe mode. You will see that this will be fast without the process being restarted quite often.

* It is very tempting to push the DVD- ROM tray to close when it is an open state. If you want the life of your DVD - ROM be longer stop doing this, as this increases the wear and tear of the gears in your DVD- ROM. Use the button instead.

* Use narrow type fonts while printing large documents. For example Bedrock or Arial narrow fonts save about 67% of the paper.

* If you are running an old Pentium machine and want to check if there is an Intel Pentium; Bug in it or not, check this calculation out in the calculator provided in Programs> Accessories> Calculator or type calc in run. [4195835/3145727]*3145727. If you get 4195835 which is the correct answer your machine is free of any bug. But the result with the bug is 4195579.

* Try typing .LOG at the start of a notepad file and save it. Open it later and see the magic.

* You all must have noticed that in the drop down menu, there are some entries preceded by some dots like Save As … What does this mean? Whenever you click on the list with these dots you will get another window to specify your choice.

* If you want to have nameless shortcuts on your desktop, try this. Activate rename, then press Alt + 0160, you will get nothing written. If you want to create one more, then press Alt + 0160 + Spacebar. The more you want to name increase the number of times you press the spacebar ie for another Alt + 0160 + Spacebar + Spacebar.

* If you are not an expert at playing minesweeper and you fall short of time, then here is a trick. Start a game, right click and left click the mouse together and hit Esc at the same time. You will see that the timer will stop so you can play as slowly as you like.

George Bush Hit in Face 50m Times

Alex Tew, creator of the Million Dollar homepage , has a new web hit on his hands, after creating online game "Sock and Awe" in homage to the Iraqi journalist who threw a pair of shoes at US President George Bush.

The objective of the game is to hit George Bush in the face with a carefully aimed shoe as he ducks and dives around the screen. So far, 47,171,895 shoes have successfully hit Bush in the face.

Iraqi reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi hurled two shoes at the US president during a press conference on December 14.

Sock And Awe Bush shoe game

24-year-old London web designer Tew created the site and swiftly sold it on eBay for £5,215. The buyer was a company called Fubra, which put adverts on the site, and claims it quickly made its money back.

"We built SockandAwe.com just for fun (and partly as a promo for our start-up, PopJam) but had no idea it would become quite so popular. So, now we are selling it because a) we don't really know what to do with it, b) we can recover some of the hosting costs (plus pizza and beer costs!), and c) the money will be useful for our little four-man start-up," Tew wrote on the eBay auction page.

"It went explosively viral around the world and we didn't really expect it to do that," he said.

"We've spent the last three days trying to keep the servers alive and we're meant to be working on our other main startup PopJam. So we whacked it on eBay," he added.

Tew supposedly made a million dollars with his Million Dollar homepage.

Goerge Bush shoe face hit game

The top 10 Bush-whacking countries are:

1. United States
2. France
3. Australia
4. United Arab Emirates
5. Saudi Arabia
6. Turkey
7. Egypt
8. United Kingdom
9. Germany
10. Pakistan

Friday, December 26, 2008

Prince of Persia (2008) Review

Prince of Persia (2008) Review

In many modern games, you rain death upon your enemies; how refreshing, then, that your main task in Prince of Persia is to breathe life into a darkening world. That doesn't mean that the forces of evil aren't on your tail in this open-world platformer, but the most indelible moments of this enchanting journey are uplifting, rather than destructive. Similarly, the latest iteration in this long-running franchise is a rejuvenation for the series, and it's an ambitious one, offering up a new titular prince and casting certain game traditions aside in favor of player immersion. And for the most part it succeeds, eliminating illusion-breaking mechanics like game-over screens and long loading times in the process. This re-imagining comes with a few caveats, however, and if you're a longtime series fan, you'll quickly discover--and possibly resent--that Prince of Persia is, far and away, the easiest game in the series. But if you can clear your mind and let the game's magic wash over you, its easygoing joy and visual beauty will charm you into forgiving a sprinkling of flaws.
In some ways, Prince of Persia represents a return to Sands of Time's storybook vibe, which had been somewhat lost in that game's two sequels. Yet our new hero isn't exactly Prince Charming, but rather a wisecracking nomad interested only in his donkey (named Farah, in one of several nods to previous games) and the riches she apparently carries. His royal status is referenced but never fully explored, though his companion Elika is clearly a princess, and as the game progresses, you'll become much more invested in her past than the prince's. Together, they seek to imprison the evil god Ahriman, who has been inexplicably set free by Elika's own father. To do so, they must restore a series of fertile grounds to their former fecund glory, thereby banishing the inky black corruption that has enveloped the land. Storytelling isn't the game's strong suit, and the dismissive, often unlikeable prince is hardly beguiling, a poor fit for the captivating journey ahead. Thankfully, Elika exudes enough charm for the both of them, and the relationship they slowly forge lends plenty of emotional impact to the game's final moments.
This relationship enriches the very core of the experience, given that Elika is not your standard game sidekick. She isn't just a helpless companion, but an important part of a number of gameplay mechanics. As the prince, you will pull off moves familiar to franchise fans: jumping, climbing, scaling, and wallrunning among them. There are also a few new acrobatics to play with, such as the aptly named roofrun, where the prince scuttles along the roof in a vaguely simian manner. But if the moves are familiar, Elika's presence enriches and enhances them. She will jump on your back as you scale across vines, reach for your helping hand as you climb, and perform an elegant pas de deux with you when you need to pass her on a narrow beam. In some ways, this relationship recalls that of Ico and Yorda in 2001's ICO.
While in ICO Yorda was totally dependent on her companion, here Elika is far more helpful to the prince than he is to her. She is, in fact, your constant savior, because she will not, and cannot, allow you to die. Should you fall, Elika will grab you by the wrist and whisk you to safety--meaning the last checkpoint. There is a checkpoint at almost every platform, so aside from possibly having to repeat a few seconds of gameplay, there is absolutely no penalty for plummeting to your doom. You will never see the words "game over," and you won't need to save and reload before difficult sequences. Nor will you need to ever puzzle over how to make it from point A to point B: Elika can fire off a magical homing orb that will show you the precise way of getting to your destination. Combined with simple platforming controls that require a minimum of key or button presses, these facets make Prince of Persia one of the easiest games you'll play all year.
This ease of use makes each individual action seem relatively meaningless as you string moves together. For many, this will translate to a diminished feeling of reward; aside from a few exceptions, there is no sequence that feels remotely challenging, certainly not for players familiar with the old-school difficulties wrought by the early games in the series. Yet while the unique satisfaction of overcoming hurdles is missing, it is tempered by other kinds of rewards. The platforming is fluid, and seamlessly chaining a number of moves together is simple but visually appealing, making for some silky-smooth motion that you'll get a kick out of. To get the most out of it, however, you will want to use a controller. While the keyboard controls work surprisingly well for platforming, the numerous quicktime events aren't well suited to a keyboard, and the key prompts are more confusing when you aren't using a gamepad.
As you progress through the game and explore some of the more intricate environments, you'll find some truly impressive level design. Each area flows organically into the next, and while the overall design appears a bit more synthetic than it did in Assassin's Creed, platform placement and other architectural features don't seem overtly artificial. This becomes even more apparent when you begin to unlock Elika's various powers--though calling them powers is a bit of a stretch. As you unlock new explorable areas by collecting glowing orbs called light seeds, you will be able to utilize the various colored plates that dot walls and ceilings. There are four types of plates, and each kind initiates a high-flying feat. Red and blue plates are functionally the same (though visually unique), propelling you automatically toward the next plate or platform. Green plates turn you into a sort of Persian Spider-Man, causing you to quickly scale up walls and ceilings while avoiding obstacles. Finally, yellow plates initiate on-rails flight sequences that give you limited room to maneuver around obstructions, sort of like a 3D version of Nights Into Dreams, the Saturn platformer. Many of the sequences combining plate jumps and standard platforming are exhilarating, and the manner in which some of them utilize all three dimensions make the level design all the more impressive. And amazingly, the camera is rarely a liability, which is quite an achievement. Unfortunately, the flying initiated by leaping from yellow plates is a clear weakness. The constant camera movement and overwhelming visual effect used here make for a few annoying sections, and it is never clear whether you need to go left or right, up or down to avoid certain objects. Given that most of the plate-initiated bits are terrific fun, it's a shame these particular flights of fancy were so poorly crafted.
There is some combat, and while it's hardly Prince of Persia's focus, it looks mightily spectacular. You fight only a single enemy at a time, including the four main bosses, which you'll take on multiple times. Battles are on the simple side: you have four main attacks--sword, gauntlet, Elika's magic, and acrobatic vault--that you can string into various combos. Enemies can change states, making certain attacks ineffective, and there are some other occasional twists. Yet like the platforming, it is on the easy side; even if Elika is bound by corrupted tentacles or rendered unconscious, she's always there to pluck you from death's cold embrace should you miss an important quicktime event (of which there are many). But battles are still uniquely satisfying and look fantastic. The prince throws Elika into the air with ease, stringing throws, slices, and magic attacks together as the camera zooms in and out to showcase the slashes and backflips. The stringent enemy-focused camera and odd scuttling motions of the prince feel confining but work just fine in most of these battles, though they're a bit less successful during certain boss fights that require some environmental manipulation.
Combat's not the only thing that looks spectacular. Prince of Persia is beautiful to look at, thanks to vibrant cel-shading and some sumptuous environments. Tendrils of corruption reach toward you as you navigate the cold, colorless caverns of infertile regions. The contrast between these areas and the beautifully lit vistas and thriving vegetation of healed locales is palpable, and the transformation of a fertile ground from darkness to light may remind you of similarly impressive moments in Okami. There are a few rough spots here and there, in the way of glitched animations and tiny frame rate stutters, but they barely detract from the lovely visual design. While there are some minor differences, all three versions look great and well represent the capabilities of their respective platforms. And all three feature the same lovely ambient music, which sounds more Persian than the very American-sounding prince.
Most will be able to finish Prince of Persia in around a dozen hours, though if you want to collect every scattered light seed and avoid quick travel (you can teleport from one healed ground to another instantly), you could add a few more hours to the total. But while a few unlockable skins may not seem like enough reason to return, this game is so enjoyable and delightful that you may want to return to it as you would return to a favorite fantasy novel or film. While its lack of challenge may lull fans, its ease of use will delight newcomers and draw in anyone who appreciates a touch of magic.

Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip Review

Shaun White Snowboarding on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 offered an unfocused and often boring rendition of the popular winter sport. Featuring sprawling mountains that looked pretty but provided little in the way of content, the game spent more time forcing you to hunt for coins hidden across the expansive environments than letting you take part in actual snowboarding competitions. Thankfully, the Wii version is a completely different experience. The wide-open mountains have been replaced with well-constructed paths down chilly slopes, the inane quests for secret coins have been scrapped, and the emphasis has been placed on pulling off wicked jumps and crazy tricks. More importantly, the controls have been revamped and now take full advantage of not only the motion controls of the Wii Remote, but the Wii Balance Board as well. Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip is a satisfying re-creation of snowboarding, and though the lack of diversity limits the replay value, it's still fun to hit the slopes for a while.
The controls are the most impressive aspect of Shaun White Snowboarding. There are two different control options available: the Wii Remote all by its lonesome or the remote combined with the balance board. With just the remote, you'll tilt to turn your rider, flick up to jump, and twist the remote around to pull off some fancy moves once you're airborne. The motions are logical, and your movements are responsive, reacting to even a slight twist of your hand. Carving a path down an icy slope is satisfying, and pulling off gravity-defying tricks can be thrilling. You can hit buttons to control how fast you tear down the slopes or to adjust your move set while in the air, but everything else is motion controlled, which does a great job of sucking you into the experience. The balance board is a little trickier to get the hang of, but once you figure out how to lean into corners and adjust your weight to do flip tricks in the air, it becomes second nature. You'll only need the remote to adjust your move set for tricks; everything else is controlled by your feet. The controls in Shaun White are extremely rewarding, replicating the outdoor experience for people reluctant to put up with the unrelenting cold and ugly bruises the real sport entails.
The titular Road Trip has you flying all over the world in search of Shaun White, who seems to think it's funny to leave for a new country just after he asks you to join him. You'll control members of his eager posse, each with unique attributes. The difference between the riders is noticeable. If you select Jasmine, you can get ridiculous air off of jumps, but you're pretty slow and will have to line up your board nearly perfectly to land gracefully. Gordon is all about speed, and you'll notice his ineptitude in other areas when you're trying to pull off tricks. There are enough unlockable characters to cater to everyone's needs, but the lack of customization is disappointing. You can't upgrade your favorite rider with more attribute points, and you don't even have the ability to alter your riders' clothing. The lack of customizability hurts the personality of the game, making you play as a stereotypical snowboarder rather than your own creation.
You'll travel across five different countries in search of the elusive Shaun White. Each mountain resort has a few different slopes to tear down, along with some very creative halfpipe tracks. There are only three objective types, and the lack of variety is tiresome after a while, but at least you'll be focusing on crazy snowboarding antics the whole time. Scoring a lot of points is the most common goal. You'll sometimes have to deal with a time limit, but you'll usually be able to take your time, using the whole mountain to milk the points. A ticking combo meter urges you to continually pull off moves, which means you'll be grinding and doing little bunny hops between the big ramps. There are also racing events, which pit you against either the clock or other eager snowboarders. When going against other riders, you'll usually earn a new playable character for your group, with new attributes to take advantage of. The final objective in the game is to collect things. This is actually fun in the Wii version thanks to the more confined, accessible level design that stands in stark contrast to the sprawling mountains featured on other consoles. The collectibles are almost always located at the beginning of a ramp or along a grindable rail, so you'll be pulling off cool moves while you grab the prizes.
There are a number of multiplayer modes, both competitive and cooperative. In co-op, you'll take part in a campaign separate from your single-player progress. Here you'll ride down a mountain with a buddy, and your cumulative score determines if you take home a gold medal or retry with your tail between your legs. In multiplayer, you'll compete either in single events or in a cup to determine who the best virtual boarder is. You'll be able to play with up to three of your friends in both competitive and cooperative multiplayer. Though having the screen quartered limits your viewing area, the camera is able to give you a good look at your surroundings, so you'll be prepared for big jumps and be able to swerve away from trees well in advance. There isn't much diversity in the multiplayer events, though, so like the single-player experience, it will get old before long. Still, the controls are so intuitive and fun that it's easy to pick the game up for a few races.
The cartoony aesthetics are vivid and eye-catching. Though the tracks are rather confined, they are populated with a wide assortment of trees, ramps, and rails to make every slope look unique. The draw distance will give you a good view of your upcoming obstacles, so you'll have plenty of time to prepare what sorts of moves you want to pull off. The most satisfying aspect of the visuals is how the crashes are represented. These are some painful-looking wrecks. Riders will slam forcibly into the ground, tumble awkwardly, and then rise from their failure covered in snow. Shaun White is not the most technically impressive game, but smart artistic decisions have made it pleasing to the eye.
Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip nails the controls, taking full advantage of the unique opportunities offered by the Wii. While the objectives can't match the creative control scheme, movement is so enjoyable that you'll gladly replay the same goals over again just to tilt and twist your way back down the slopes. With a clean aesthetic and engaging multiplayer modes, this should satisfy those looking to hit the slopes from the safety of their own home.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

The Best Christmas SMS messages of 2008

The Best Christmas SMS messages of 2008

Wishing you all Happy Holidays and Marry Christmas 2008. Also make your new year eve as cool as possible.Cool collection of Marry Christmas X-mas sms messages here. Yes, say happy Christmas to your friends by sending great collection of Merry Christmas sms messages and shayari. The traditional greeting phrase on these sms messages is "Merry Christmas". sms messages are also produced with messages such as "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays"

If one night a big fat man jumps in at your window grabs you and puts you in a sack don't worry I told Santa I wanted you for CHRISTMAS Christmas sms messages 

May the joy and peace of Christmas be with you all through the Year. Wishing you a season of blessings from heaven above. Happy Christmas

May the good times and treasures of the present become the golden memories of tomorrow.Wish you lots of love, joy and happiness. MARRY CHRISTMAS 

May your world be filled with warmth and good chear this Holy season, and throughout the year.Wish your christmas be filled with peace and love. Merry X-mas

I am dreaming of white Christmas , with every christmas card i write, May your days be merry and bright, and May all your christmases be white.Happy Christmas. 

I hope you have a wonderful christmas . have a great new year ! Hopefully santa will be extra good to you . enjoy your holidays

if one night you wake up and a big fat male is trying to put you in a sack please don't be afraid because i told santa all i want for christmas is you. 

your as big boned as father christmas claus, your as stupid as a donkey, your as shit in bed as a camal, but your still the right person for me!

Lets welcome the year which is fresh and new,Lets cherish each moment it beholds, Lets celebrate this blissful New year. Merry X-mas 

New is the year, new are the hopes and the aspirations, new is the resolution, new are the spirits and forever my warm wishes are for u.Have a promising and fulfilling new year. Christmas sms messages

Two things upon this changing earth can neither change nor end; the splendor of Christ's humble birth, the love of friend for friend. 

Ur friendship is a glowing ember through the yr n each december frm its warm n livin spark v kindle flame against da dark n with its shining radiance light our tree of faith on Christmas night

May all the sweet magic
Of Christmas conspire
To gladden your hearts
And fill every desire.

()"""() ,*
( 'o' ) ,***
=(,,)=("')<-***
(""),,,("") "**
Roses 4 u...
MERRY CHRISTMAS to
U...

Lets welcome the year which is fresh
Lets welcome the year which is fresh and new,Lets cherish each moment it beholds, Lets celebrate this blissful New year. Merry X-mas

Can I have your picture, so Santa Claus knows exactly what to give me. Happy Christmas 

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Grand Theft Auto IV Review

Stepping off a boat in the shoes of illegal immigrant Niko Bellic as he arrives in Liberty City at the start of Grand Theft Auto IV, you can tell immediately that Rockstar North's latest offering is something quite special. Yes, this is another GTA game in which you'll likely spend the bulk of your time stealing cars and gunning down cops and criminals, but it's also much more than that. GTAIV is a game with a compelling and nonlinear storyline, a great protagonist who you can't help but like, and a plethora of online multiplayer features in addition to its lengthy story mode. The PC version adds a customizable radio station and a video editor to the package, and also ups the multiplayer count from 16 to 32 players. It's not all good news, though; the game suffers from some noticeable performance issues even on rigs that far exceed the unreasonably high recommended system specifications, and you need to be signed in to Windows Live to save your progress in the single-player game. This should have been the best GTA game yet, but it's inferior to its console counterparts.
One of the many things that set GTAIV apart from its predecessors is Liberty City, which is more convincing as a living, breathing urban environment than anything you've seen in a game before, and which bears little resemblance to its namesake in 2001's GTAIII. Liberty's diverse population believably attempts to go about its daily business, seemingly unaware that several criminal factions are at war in the city. Niko has no such luck. He's compelled to start working for one of the factions shortly after arriving, when he learns that his cousin Roman has some potentially fatal gambling debts. Niko's military experience makes him a useful freelancer for employers in the business of killing, and though his reluctance to carry out their orders is often apparent, he does whatever is asked of him in the hope that completing missions for other people will ultimately give him the means to complete his own.
But Niko doesn't have to do everything that's asked of him. On several occasions as you play through his story, you'll be presented with decisions that afford you the option of doing what you think is right rather than blindly following instructions. You don't necessarily have to kill a target if he or she promises to disappear, but you have to weigh the risk of your employer finding out against the possibility that the person whose life you spare might prove useful later in the game, or even have work for you in the form of bonus missions. To say anything more specific on this subject would be to risk spoiling one of GTAIV's most interesting new features, but suffice it to say that every decision you make has consequences, and you'll likely want to play through the game at least twice to see how the alternatives unfold.
Grand Theft Auto IV's story mode can be beaten in less than 30 hours, and there are so many optional activities and side missions to take part in along the way that you can comfortably double that number if you're in no hurry. The majority of the story missions task you with making deliveries and/or killing people, and play out in much the same way as those in previous games. With that said, most of the missions are a lot easier this time around, partly because Niko is a more agile and efficient killer than any of his predecessors, and partly because the LCPD seemingly has better things to do than hunt down an illegal immigrant who's gunning down undesirables all over the city. Some of the more imaginative missions sprinkled throughout the story include a kidnapping, a bank heist, and a job interview. The cinematic cutscenes associated with story missions are superbly presented and are the sequences in which the game's characters really shine. Without exception, the characters you encounter benefit from great animation, great voice work, and superbly expressive faces. They're not always so impressive when they join you on a mission and refuse to do what they're supposed to (for example, not following you on an escort mission, or failing to negotiate a doorway). Nevertheless, these problems are few and far between, and they're made less painful by the new "replay mission" option that you're presented with whenever you fail.
New abilities in Niko's arsenal include scaling fences and walls anywhere he can get a foothold, shimmying along ledges, and, most importantly, taking cover behind objects. The ability to stick close to walls, parked cars, and the like at the touch of a button makes GTAIV's gunplay a huge improvement over that in previous games, and, in tandem with the new targeting system, it also makes it a lot easier. Enemies are rarely smart enough to get to you while you're in cover, and given that you can lock your targeting reticle on to them even when they're hidden, all you have to do is wait for them to poke their heads out and then pick them off with a minimum of effort. Locking on to enemies targets their torso by default, but you can use the right analog stick to fine-tune your aim and kill them more quickly with a headshot or two. Playing without using the lock-on feature is viable if you're using a mouse and keyboard, but makes things more difficult on the Xbox 360 controller. You'll need to master the technique at some point, though, so that you can shoot blindly at enemies from positions of cover when you dare not poke your own head out to line up the shot.
Given the amount of trouble that you get into as you play through the story mode, it's inevitable that the police are going to get involved from time to time, even when their presence isn't a scripted feature of your mission. Liberty City's boys in blue are quick to respond when you get flagged with a wanted level of between one and six stars, but they're not nearly as tough to deal with as their counterparts in previous GTA games. They don't drive as quickly when pursuing you, they rarely bother to set up roadblocks, and you'll need to blow up practically an entire city block before the FIB (that's not a typo) show up. Furthermore, you're given an unfair advantage in the form of your GPS system; when you're not using it to plot a valid route to any waypoint of your choosing, it doubles as a kind of police scanner. Any time you have a brush with the law, the GPS shows you the exact locations of patrol cars and cops on foot in your area, and highlights the circular area (centered on your last-known whereabouts) where they're concentrating their search. To escape, all you need to do is move outside the circle and then avoid being seen for 10 seconds or so, which is often best achieved by finding a safe spot and just sitting there. It's not a bad system in theory, but in practice it makes dodging the law a little too easy, especially when your wanted level is low and the search area is small.

Video card From GeForce and ATI Radeon

If you bought a new video card two or three years ago, you've probably noticed that newer games aren't running as well right out of the box. Those GeForce 7900 and Radeon X1900 cards were fantastic when they were new, but game developers have caught up with more power-hungry graphics effects. Frame rates have started to dip, and you might have had to reduce the game-resolution and image-quality settings to get system performance up to acceptable levels. Lowering the image quality isn't a desirable long-term solution, so it's probably time to upgrade that video card.
We've gathered together a collection of video cards currently available online in the $150 to $250 price range. We originally planned to make $200 the hard price ceiling, but we found the ATI Radeon HD 4870 and the GeForce GTX 260 Core 192 sitting just above the cap and we had to get them into the comparison because both cards offer a considerable amount of graphics performance. Note that you'll find a lot of these cards priced far above our estimated street pricing, but we used the lowest prices we could find at major online retailers for our estimates. These basic video card packages generally ship without a pack-in game, so if you see a card at a much higher price, check to see if it comes with a game bundle such as Far Cry 2.
These cards aren't the top-of-the-line performance champions, but they'll have enough power to get you through a couple more years of PC gaming, and you can put the money you save on the video card toward buying more games and paying for that massively multiplayer online habit.

GeForce GTX 260 Core 192

The original GeForce GTX 260 that Nvidia launched in June 2008 came with 192 processing cores and a $399 price tag. Nvidia had to lower the GTX 260's price to $299 after AMD released the highly affordable ATI Radeon HD 4870. Later in the year, Nvidia started shipping an improved GeForce GTX 260 with 216 processing cores.
Cards based on this new GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 GPU are selling for $299. The problem is that the video card makers still have a lot of the original 192-core GeForce GTX 260 chips to unload. The GeForce GTX 260 is the most expensive card in our roundup, coming it at $229, but it has a lot of firepower and is considerably more affordable than it was just a few months ago.
Est. Retail Price: $229

ATI Radeon HD 4870

The ATI Radeon HD 4870 is the second $299 card that's starting to approach the magical $200 price point. Its closest competitor is the GeForce GTX 260, which has a slight edge in frame rates and in games with PhysX support, but the Radeon has a few features that make it attractive for PC owners looking for a balance between gaming and utility. That's not saying that the card isn't good for gaming.
The Radeon HD 4870 can run all the latest games at high resolution thanks to its 800 stream processing units and GDDR5 memory, but the card is also great for PC game enthusiasts looking for home-theater support. The card supports full HDMI output with 7.1 surround sound.
Est. Retail Price: $219

ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2

The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is a dual-GPU card from the previous graphics generation. We included the card in our comparison because you will still find it online at close to $200, but you'd be wise to avoid buying one of these cards new because the Radeon HD 4870 has made them obsolete. The Radeon HD 3870 X2 comes with 640 stream processors, 320 from each onboard GPU, but that's well below the 4870's stream processor count, and the 3870 X2 card also uses slower GDDR3 memory.
Est. Retail Price: $219

GeForce 9600 GT SLI

The dual-card value proposition Nvidia and AMD have tried to sell us with SLI and CrossFire is that you can buy a card now and add a second one later if you need more power. The only problem with that argument is that if you wait more than a year to buy that second card, chances are you'd be able to buy a completely new card that's more powerful than two of the old cards put together. The cost of the new card would of course be more expensive than the older card, which would likely have dropped in price, but the performance gap between a new card and an older SLI setup makes the decision to complete the matching set a bittersweet choice. The main benefit is that if you've already sunk your money into a single GeForce 9600 GT card, spending another $100 on a second card will get your system's graphics performance close to what you'd get with a single $200 card.
Est. Retail Price: $200 ($100x2)

GeForce 9800 GTX+

The GeForce 9800 GTX+ leads the trio of cards under $200 for players who can't justify reaching for the GeForce GTX 260 or ATI Radeon HD 4870. Nvidia introduced the GeForce 9800 GTX+ this summer around the time AMD launched its Radeon HD 4800-series GPUs. The GeForce 9800 GTX+ has the same number of processors as the regular GeForce 9800 GTX, but has higher clocks speeds thanks to a smaller manufacturing process. Moving down from 65nm to 55nm allowed Nvidia to increase core clock speeds from 675MHz to 738MHz and shader speeds from 1690MHz to 1836MHz. The GTX+ originally sold for $229, but the price has drifted down as the prices of more powerful cards have also moved down.
Est. Retail Price: $189

GeForce 9800 GTX

A $20 price difference might not seem like a big deal at the high end where cards can cost $400 or more, but the price difference becomes more important when card prices get below $200 and a $20 difference can mean more than 10 percent of the cost of the card.
The GeForce 9800 GTX may be slower than the GTX+, but some people might be willing to give up 9 percent in performance for a more affordable card. Adventurous card owners can also try overclocking to recoup the lost performance.
Est. Retail Price: $169

ATI Radeon HD 4850

It seems unfair to stick the ATI Radeon HD 4850 into the same comparison as the Radeon HD 4870, but we found several 4850 cards floating in the $159 to $185 price range. The Radeon HD 4850 has 800 stream processors, just like the Radeon HD 4870, but it has a slower core clock, 625MHz compared to 750MHz on the 4870, and comes with only GDDR3 memory. All of the multimedia features, including high-definition video playback and HDMI output support, are the same, but the differences in core clock speeds and memory bandwidth make the 4870 a better choice for games.
Est. Retail Price: $169

Monday, December 22, 2008

Transcend Announces 300x 16GB CF Memory Card

Transcend Information recently announced the availability of its new Extreme Speed 300X CompactFlash Card in India.

Transcend's Extreme Speed 300X CompactFlash cards operate in dual-channel Ultra DMA mode 5, the fastest speed available for CF cards. This interface allows Transcend's 300X CF cards to achieve fast read/write speeds of up to 45MB per second on average, making consecutive shooting and non-stop video recording with today's high-performance digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLR) easier.

To ensure reliable, glitch-free data communication and prevent data corruption or missing files, Transcend's 300X CF cards are built with an advanced ECC (Error Correction Code) that automatically detects and corrects errors during data transfer. During the manufacturing process, Transcend claims to use only brand name, top-tier SLC NAND Flash chips and premium quality components to ensure robust, long-life durability and guaranteed performance. All CF cards are comprehensively tested for compatibility, speed and reliability and carry Transcend's international Lifetime Warranty. Transcend's
Extreme Speed 300X CF cards are now available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities.

The 4GB version is priced at Rs. 4,000, 8GB at Rs. 6,000 and the 16GB model costs Rs. 11,000. These figures are MRP and market prices tend to be lower.

New MP5 Player Launch

India Digital Life Style Distributors (IDLDPL) launched its first ever MP5 player in India—YMP-91.

The features include 2GB storage, 3-inch high definition LCD display, supports a wide range of digital formats including MP3/ WMA/ AAC/ FLAC/ APE/ RM/ RMVB/ JPEG/ BMP and a built-in Li-polymer battery.

You can transfer data with a built-in USB 2.0 to and from the PC. It weighs light with dimensions 90(L) X 50(W) X 12(D) mm making it fit into your pocket and comes with FM Radio feature. The accessories that come in the pack include Manual, Earphones, USB cables and installation CD.

The MP5 is priced at Rs. 6990.

Nokia Introduces Nokia 6210 Navigator

Nokia today introduced Nokia 6210 Navigator the company’s first GPS-enabled mobile device with an integrated in-map compass for pedestrian guidance.

The Nokia 6210 Navigator comes with Nokia Maps 2.0 and offers real-time voice and visual turn by turn guidance using in-built GPS support, optimized one-box map search, 2D/3D and night mode map views, opportunity to tag and share your locations, save and share routes. The 6210 Navigator comes pre-loaded with maps of 8 cities in India and a 6 months navigation bundle.

Launch of Nokia 6210 Navigator further strengthens Nokia’s GPS-enabled phone portfolio. Nokia now has ten devices in the market that combine personal navigation capabilities with smartphone connectivity. These include Nokia 6110 Navigator, Nokia 6220 Classic, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N82, Nokia N78, Nokia E71, Nokia E66 and Nokia E90.

Nokia 6210 Navigator comes with the pre-installed maps of eight cities including Delhi & NCR, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore & Hyderabad. Maps of additional Indian cities will be added on an on-going basis.

Combined with an ‘accelerometer’ which measures changes in direction and orientation, the in-built map compass in Nokia 6210 Navigator makes it easy to follow the map when on foot. The integrated Nokia Maps 2.0 application plots the quickest route to the desired destination and illustrates it on the map.

The Nokia 6210 Navigator supports assisted GPS (A-GPS). The device is ready for use out of the box, even without a SIM-card. While maps of 8 Indian cities are pre-loaded on the device’s 1 GB memory card, Updates and maps of other countries can be downloaded at no cost over the air or over the internet from www.maps.nokia.com

The device also features a 3.2 megapixel camera, MP3 player and stereo FM radio. The Nokia 6210 Navigator is based on S60 software, allowing users to download and use thousands of new applications in addition to the ones already found on the device. Nokia 6210 Navigator standalone is priced at Rs. 18, 219 and Nokia 6210 Navigator combo at Rs. 20,039