Sponsored Feature: Do-it-yourself Game Task Scheduling

In this sponsored technical article, part of Intel’s Visual Computing section, Jerome Muffat-Meridol takes a look at Nulstein, his creation for in-game code task scheduling on multi-core processors.

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Sponsored Feature: Do-it-yourself Game Task Scheduling

Sponsored Feature: Do-it-yourself Game Task Scheduling

In this sponsored technical article, part of Intel’s Visual Computing section, Jerome Muffat-Meridol takes a look at Nulstein, his creation for in-game code task scheduling on multi-core processors.

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Sponsored Feature: Do-it-yourself Game Task Scheduling

Just Cause 2 Won’t Support Windows XP [PC]

It had to happen eventually. Having wowed people ceaselessly since E3 with a a succession of explosive trailers, Just Cause 2 has finally put a foot wrong. And as far as the PC crowd is concerned, it’s a big foot. It’s been revealed that the game won’t run on Windows XP. Why? Because it’s DirectX10 only . So only those running Vista or Windows 7 will be able to play the game, making it the first high profile release to completely lock out the nine year-old operating system. Sure, that makes it old , but as Rock, Paper, Shotgun point out, it also makes it established, the latest Steam hardware survey revealing 42.15% of users were running XP. That’s one hell of a market share to freeze out of a game. The rest of the game’s PC specs are below. Minimum: – Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7 (Windows XP is unsupported) – Processor: Dual-core CPU with SSE3 (Athlon 64 X2 4200 / Pentium D 3GHz) – Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce 8800 Series / ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro with 256MB memory or equivalent DX10 card with 256MB memory – Memory: 2GB RAM – DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 10 – Hard Drive: 10GB of free drive space – Optical Drive: DVD-ROM drive – Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible sound card – Internet Connection: Internet connection required for product activation – Input: Keyboard and mouse (Microsoft Xbox 360 controller optional) Recommended: – Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7 (Windows XP is unsupported) – Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz or AMD Phenom X3 2.4GHz – Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 Series with 512MB / ATI Radeon HD 5750 Series with 512MB or equivalent DX10 card with 512MB memory – Memory: 3GB – DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 10.1 with Vista SP1 – Hard Drive: 10GB of free drive space – Optical Drive: DVD-ROM drive – Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible Dolby Digital 5.1 sound card – Internet Connection: Internet connection required for product activation – Input: Keyboard and mouse (Xbox 360 controller optional) UnJust Cause: No XP Support [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

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Just Cause 2 Won’t Support Windows XP [PC]

Assassin’s Creed II PC Priced, Dated, And Spec’d [Release Date]

Blood flows free in the streets of Renaissance Italy anew come March 16th, when the PC version of Assassin’s Creed II hit store shelves, balancing a $60 price tag with free downloadable content. The PC version of Ubisoft’s Game of the Year contender is priced a bit steeper than PC gamers are used to, but the extra $10 does represent additional value, in the form of the Battle of Forli and Bonfire of the Vanities downloadable content, which console owners have to pay for. Considering those two sequences were held back from the original game due to time constraints, it’s as if you’re only paying $60 for the full game…which I suppose still isn’t going to go over well with the PC crowd. If it helps, there’s also a digital-exclusive Black Edition, which contains additional content for $5 more. No, I suppose that doesn’t help. Certainly there’s good news here somewhere. Perhaps we’ll find something in the system requirements? Minimum Configuration: SUPPORTED OS: Windows® XP (32-64 bits) /Windows Vista®(32-64 bits)/Windows 7® (32-64 bits) Processor: Intel Core® 2 Duo 1.8 GHZ or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4GHZ RAM: 1.5 GB Windows® XP / 2 GB Windows Vista® – Windows 7® Video Card: 256 MB DirectX® 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list) Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 –compliant sound card DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive Hard Drive Space: 8 GB Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller * This product does not support Windows® 98/ME/2000/NT Recommended Configuration: Processor: Intel Core® 2 Duo E6700 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ or better Video Card: GeForce 8800 GT or ATI Radeon HD 4700 or better Sound: 5.1 sound card Peripherals: Keyboard, mouse, joystick optional (Xbox 360® Controller for Windows recommended) Supported Video Cards at Time of Release: ATI® RADEON® X1950, HD 2000/3000/4000/5000 series NVIDIA GeForce® 7/8/9/100/200 series See? That’s not too hefty, now is it? And you’ll be able to pass the savings of not having to upgrade your computer much to help absorb that extra $10. Everybody wins!

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Assassin’s Creed II PC Priced, Dated, And Spec’d [Release Date]

Alienware Area-51 m15x Laptop Review: It Ain’t Heavy, It’s My Laptop [Review]

Alienware has long been one of my favorite computer and laptop makers. It’s purchase by Dell didn’t change that. The computer maker’s latest line of gaming laptops promise to deliver on-the-go gaming in a slick looking new laptop. But can the Area-51 m15x deliver the goods at an affordable price and in a package you’d want to take with you? Loved Blistering speed: There’s no arguing that the m15x is a laptop built from the ground up for gaming. My loaner shipped with an Intel Core i7 920XM processor that delivered 3.2GHz in Turbo Mode and came with an 8MB cache. That’s enough power to get pretty close to topping out the official Windows Experience Index for gaming and certainly enough muscle power to run anything on the market today. High Def Screen: The m15x comes with an astounding 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M GPU delivering 1920×1080 (1080p) resolution on its 15.6-inch screen. Winning Aesthetic Design: True to its core, the Alienware laptop is a flashy bit of kit with back-lit speakers, a glossy Alien head with glowing eyes set in the center of the laptop’s lid and a pleasantly tactile surface beneath the keyboard. The curved and vented shape of the front edge of the laptop and lid give the computer a delightfully unique look. Backlit Keyboard: The m15X, like the XPS laptop line, has a backlit keyboard that can be personalized with the Alienware Command Center. Controls let you light up the keyboard with any color you want. The keyboard is actually broken down into four sections, so you can choose colors for each section and they don’t need to match. Light Show: The keyboard isn’t the only thing you can light up and control. The Command Center also gives you control over the color of the speakers, that fancy lid Alien head, the power button, the touchpad, the above-keyboard media strip and even the company’s logo. The center lets you set up different colors depending on whether your running the laptop on battery or a power cord and even light up to show different events, like when new emails arrive. You also have access to an impressive selection of color swapping options that will strobe, morph and cycle through colors on any part of your laptop Hated The Power Cord: The XPS laptop’s power brick was so big it initially struck me as a gag. The m15x isn’t quite that bad, not quite. It’s still about 20 percent larger than a DSi, which strikes me as too big to power something meant to be portable. Laptop? Not If You Want To Walk Again: This is one of my biggest complaints about the m15x laptop. It’s not a laptop, not really. It’s nearly 15-inches wide, 12 inches deep and almost 2 inches thick. It also weighs nearly 10 pounds. Most importantly, though, is that the laptop’s visually pleasing design, makes it incredibly unwieldy to rest on your lap. The laptop’s battery in particular, which juts out by about half an inch for use as a stand, makes lap use of this laptop unlikely. Pricey: All of those bells and whistles, the high-def GPU, blazing fast CPU, 4GB of dual channel DDR3 memory, a 500GB SATA II hard drive, the brand and the design, it all comes with a pretty hefty price tag. While you can land an entry level m15x laptop for $1,200, this bad boy will set you back nearly $3,000. While Alienware’s m15x is a much lighter, sleeker gaming laptop than was parent company Dell’s XPS M1730, it’s still a heavy, awkward beast. I get that packing all of that processing muscle power and a sizeable screen into a laptop is tricky, that it means an inevitably large and heavy form factor. But I wouldn’t be willing, at $3,000, to put up with that. I spent a month or so carting this laptop around the world. I took it with me to Australia, flying both locally and internationally, to see just how portable this portable was. It’s not very. But once landed, it did a great job of performing as my desktop abroad. If you’re looking for a laptop that you plan to use for gaming at a desk, not on a lap, than the m15x could be a good choice. Me? I’m more interested in the m11x sub-12-inch, sub $1000 gaming laptop. The Area-51 m15x is developed and sold by Alienware. Retail starts at $1,200 USD. The review laptop rang in at about $3,000. A loaner m15x was sent to Kotaku for reviewing purposes and then returned. Used the laptop for more than a month, including traveling with it Australia. Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ .

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Alienware Area-51 m15x Laptop Review: It Ain’t Heavy, It’s My Laptop [Review]

PC System Specsapalooza: AvP, BioShock 2 [PC]

For PC users feeling uneasy about their current setups, we’ve got two sets of system specs for you today, one for BioShock 2 , the other for Aliens vs Predator . First up, Aliens vs Predator: Minimum Requirements: Windows 7/ XP/Vista 1 GB System RAM (XP)/ 2 GB System RAM (Vista) 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4/Athlon 64 3000+ or equivalent processor DirectX 9.0c compliant video card with 128 MB RAM (NVIDIA 6600 or better, ATI X1600 or better) Recommended Requirements: Windows 7/ XP/Vista Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 or equivalent processor 2 GB System RAM DirectX 9.0c compliant video card with 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA 8800 series, ATI HD2900 PRO or better) And now, BioShock 2 Minimum: # OS: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 # Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+ 2.4Ghz or better, Intel Pentium 4 530 3.0Ghz Processor or better # Memory: 2GB # Graphics: NVIDIA 7800GT 256MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon X1900 256MB graphics card or better # DirectX: DirectX 9.0c # Hard Drive: 11GB # Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0C compliant sound card or onboard sound Recommended: # Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Dual Core 2.60Ghz, Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Dual Core 2.13Ghz # Memory: 3GB # Graphics: NVIDIA 8800GT 512MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon HD4830 512MB graphics card or better Other Requirements & DRM: # Initial installation requires one-time internet connection; Ability to save game, earn achievements, receive title updates and online play requires log-in to Games for Windows LIVE; software installations required including Microsoft Visual C++2008 Runtime Libraries, Games for Windows LIVE client, Games for Windows LIVE Client Patch, Sony DADC SecuROM, Microsoft DirectX. Apparently the presence of SecuROM isn’t quite the scandal it was with the original game ; 2K say it’ll be used “only as a disc check method for the retail copy of BioShock 2″, though sceptics should be aware that there’ll still be a five-system install limit on the game .

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PC System Specsapalooza: AvP, BioShock 2 [PC]

Sponsored Feature: Updated Tools Spice Up New Ghostbusters Game

In this Intel-sponsored feature, part of the Visual Computing subsite, Ghostbusters game creators Terminal Reality discuss using Intel Graphics Performance Analyzers to optimize the rendering and effects for the PC version of the game

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Sponsored Feature: Updated Tools Spice Up New Ghostbusters Game

Kotaku Off Topic: Mac Ready [How Is This News?]

Back from CES and time to get back to the daily grind. And back to Kotaku Off Topic , where things non-gaming are discussed. Like recent and future purchases, maybe? Now, I’m in the market for a new iMac, preferably something with a quad-core Intel chip and 27-inches of screen, something to replace my laptop as my primary workstation. But I also don’t want to deal with what Mark Wilson over at Gizmodo and many other new iMac owners have been dealing with—poor quality control on iMac LCD screens. If I felt like I had another option besides waiting for Apple to get its shit together, I’d pursue it. For now, I wait. And I get caught up on the day’s non-gaming related internet curiosities and stories of interest. Anything you’d like to share with the group? The Things – John Carpenter’s The Thing, from the perspective of The Thing. Spider-Man 4 Scrapped; Sam Raimi & Tobey Maguire & Cast Out; Franchise Reboot For 2012 – “SPIDER-M4N” was sounding disastrous, but this could be worse. Mark McGwire admits using steroids – Oops, forgot to warn you that you may be in the for the tiniest shock of your life. Audiences experience ‘Avatar’ blues – Moviegoers “depressed and suicidal” over the fictional Pandora. Next gen furries in the making. Death Metal Rooster – Hahahahahaha. (Hey, I was at CES last week!) Oz firm seeks talented IT developer with ‘SQL server experience, DD cup breasts’ – Kotaku is also looking for a San Francisco based correspondent.

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Kotaku Off Topic: Mac Ready [How Is This News?]

The Average PC Gamer’s Rig, As Of December 2009 [PC]

Earlier this week, Valve released the latest set of data from their regular hardware survey, revealing just what kind of hardware the average PC gamer is packing these days. Here are the major findings: you prefer Intel systems to AMD, you prefer NVIDIA graphics cards to ATI, and the majority of you now have at least a dual-core system. While it’s always fun/heart-breaking comparing your own rig to that of the masses, I found one thing amusing; 97.98% of polled users had a DVD drive, something I do not. I’d always felt comfortable with this, games and other media being so easily available digitally these days, but now, I feel a little…alone. Steam Hardware Survey: December 2009 [Valve]

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The Average PC Gamer’s Rig, As Of December 2009 [PC]

Hands-On Intel’s Room-Sized Multi-Touch Screen [Clips]

Man, imagine playing an iPhone game on this bad boy.

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Hands-On Intel’s Room-Sized Multi-Touch Screen [Clips]

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