Greg on Games

Today I went to E3 to check out some of the new titles coming out soon. As I was walking around, I saw the Alienware booth, and walked inside to take a look. They had the 42.8″ curved rear-projection DLP monitor, their flagship desktop, the ALX X58, some of their old laptops, and their brand new M17x.

I have been thinking about getting the M17x ever since the information was leaked on Friday, but I was already planning on getting the Asus W90Vp-X2. Plus, Alienwares have always been way too expensive. At first the W90vp seemed like a no-brainer, but it was getting mixed reviews, like having a terrible trackpad, bad keyboard, bad speakers, and not enough performance considering it’s two Ati Mobility 4870s (probably due to premature drivers).

The moment I saw it in person, I was speechless. All the lights pouring out of this thing was too much to handle. Plus, Alienware programmed the leds like a rainbow on the backlit keyboard, so it looked amazing. The touchpad felt nice, and looked cool, especially with the lit up border. The left and right click were a little too hard to press, but at least they didn’t feel cheap. Also, the keyboard felt extremely solid and like a desktop keyboard. But be careful because this thing might break your back since it weighs a backbreaking 11.68 pounds.

The model I tried out had a 1gb 280m gtx, 4gb 1066 mhz ram, 1920×1200 lcd screen, and the rest I have no idea on.

The played a beta to Left 4 Dead (no idea why a beta over the actual game or a demo), and a beta to ghostbusters. I cranked up the settings on it to the max. The lowest the fps were from what I could tell were about 70-80 fps, and the highest was about 160-180 fps. This was played on the first level of No Mercy. Keep in mind that this was the beta so it was not fully optimized, and that the latest drivers for the video card might not have been installed. The results should double if you get the game with the latest patches, the latest drivers, and add a second 280m gtx.

On Ghostbusters, it was kinda choppy probably due to the fact that it was a beta. I didn’t play the game long enough to see what the settings were on but they must have been high since as I said it was choppy.

The base model costs $1799 and comes with

17-inch WXGA+ display (1440×900); WUXGA (1920×1200) available
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz) processor (Core 2 Extreme QX9300 overclockable quad-core available)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M graphics card with 1GB of memory (dual GTX 280M 1GB available)
4GB DDR3-1066 RAM (8GB available)
160GB hard drive
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Slot-load DVD burner (Blu-ray available)
9-cell Li-ion battery

Crysis is an awesome game. It has the best graphics of any game, and it has probably the best AI of any game. Reviewers say that it takes a very expensive computer to run it, but that is not true. Almost any new computer can run it, but it does take a very good computer to run it well. Even if your computer can only support the game on the lowest settings, that is ok because the game is still tons of fun, and even though it is on the lowest settings it looks good. Click on HERE to see if your computer can run it, and how well. Just click Crysis.

Finally the wait is over. The new Grand Theft Auto has come out, and it’s better than ever. First off, there are tons of vehicles. There are motorcycles, helicopters, boats, and cars. Also there’s a lot of weapons, like the pistol, some machine guns, grenades, molotov cocktails, sniper rifle, and much more. Plus my favorite, the RPG. The game is huge, it has all of New York. It’s not like in San Andreas, how the cities are summarized, and aren’t as big as the actually cities. The graphics have gotten a lot better since San Andreas, it finally doesn’t look like a cartoon anymore. Also the story has gotten a lot better, no more driving across the whole city just to deliver dry cleaning and get paid $30.

This game is a must-have and you should definitely buy it if you are one of the few people who hasn’t.

Finally I got Burnout Paradise a few days ago. I must say that it is an extremely fun game. I have been a fan of the Burnout series since the third Burnout game. And even though the third Burnout game was my favorite one, now that I have the most recent one, this one is better than all of them together. I can’t think of one thing wrong with this game. The graphics are great, the sound effects are realistic, the online play is awesome, and I love how the developers combined tracks and areas from previous Burnout games, to make Paradise City. Also the game is extremely long, but not in a boring way. This game is a must buy.

Considering that the PSN got a little mixed up, (none of these show up on newest) I thought I would post the update. You can find everything by looking in the “View All” section.

Game Demos
Condemned 2: Bloodshot Single Player Demo

SEGA Superstars Tennis Demo

Add-on Game Content

Rock Band
“Blinded by Fear” - At the Gates ($1.99)

“D.O.A.” - The Haunted ($1.99)

“Thrasher” - Evile ($1.99)

Earache Thrashpack 01 ($5.49)

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 08
Doral Golf Resort - Blue Monster Course ($4.99)

Expand your game with the legendary Doral course! Play online and offline, post and play your EA Sports GamerNet clips, and experience one of the most challenging courses on the PGA Tour.
Maxed out Player ($2.49)

Max out your original Game Face golfer’s skills.
Turnberry Golf Resort (free)

Expand your game with one of Europe’s finest courses.

Game Videos
MotorStorm 2 Teaser Video

Eye of Judgment “Set 2″ Trailer

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Japan Intro Movie

Ape Quest PS3 spec trailer

Turning Point Trailer

Soul Calibur Character Reveal Trailer

Condemned 2: Bloodshot Launch Trailer

Movie and Blu-ray Disc Trailers
Gattaca Special Edition Blu-Ray Disc Trailer

Sleuth Blu-Ray Disc Trailer

PLAYSTATION Store for PC

Downloadable Games
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee ($10.99)

Game Demos
Flat Out: Head On Demo

Game Videos
Patapon GAP QA trailer

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Japan Intro Movie

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee behind the scenes #1

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee behind the scenes #2

Ape Quest trailer

PSP Wallpaper
Ape Quest wallpaper (x3)

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee wallpaper

PSP Themes
Ape Quest theme

**Update** Everything is normal now so disregard what I said the beginning of the post.**

Today the 2.17 firmware for the PS3 was released. It is a useless update that you do need to download and don’t want to download if you want homebrew and an iso loader on your PS3. Because the update patches all of the exploits that Team ICE found in games such as Motorstorm and Resistance: Fall of Man. So I recommend not updating, unless you really need to go online right this second.

This is probably the coolest and weirdest betrayal in Halo 3 ever.

The Need for Speed series on PSP has always had good graphics (for a portable game), good gameplay, and a long campaign. I know this because I’ve played all of the Need for Speed games for PSP except Need for Speed Underground. Need for Speed Pro Street for the PSP is no exception. Even though I think the other NFS games for PSP are great, but Need for Speed Pro Street is even better. It has better graphics, such as the track and the car reflections, better gameplay, a simple damage system, and a longer campaign. For those people that have trouble turning around a sharp corner, the developers of this game thought of you when making it. If you press circle when racing, then the game shows you when to turn so your car doesn’t crash into the wall or slow your car down that much.

There is also local and worldwide multiplayer that has ranking and is tons of fun.

I highly recommend you to buy Need for Speed Pro Street for the PSP ASAP.

Here’s the most recent trailer for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and a gameplay video.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII has already come out in Japan, but it comes out in North America on March 25, 2008 for $40. If you have any questions about the game message me on the PSN or Xbox Live at spinalfap, because I own the game and I am almost halfway done with it.