Civilization IV Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving
It’s testament to the longevity of Civilization IV that, four years on from release, not only am I still playing it, but that 2K can repackage the game safe in the knowledge it will sell.
The publisher has announced today the impending release of Civilization IV: Complete Edition, which will be out next week and which will combine the main game along with its two expansions (Warlords & Beyond the Sword) and recent spin-off title, Colonization.
The pack will sell for $40 and, if this kind of thing makes your day, will ship entirely without DRM.
Here, Your New Dawn Of War II Maps
As part of the big Dawn of War II update announced last week, Relic will be releasing two new maps for the game. This is what they look like.
Both maps are built for the game’s new 2v2 multiplayer mode, and while there’s nothing terribly new about them (they’re both built using Calderis assets, so no new terrain or buildings), Relic do promise that they’ve been custom built to take advantage of the new 2v2 gameplay.
The first map, Medean Cliff Mines, is built around a central hub, while the second, Ruins of Argus, is basically an “urban” map offering lots of buildings and cover.
TweetMyPC: Remote Control Your PC With Twitter
Twitter is officially useful with this easy way to remote control your PC: Install TweetMyPC, setup a Twitter account and tell your computer what to do from anywhere. [TweetMyPC via Ghacks via Lifehacker]
Happy 40th Birthday AMD: 4 Ways You Beat Intel in the Glory Days
AMD, the other chip company, is 40 years old today. It’s the scrappy underdog to the Intel juggernaut. Today, it’s not in great shape, but at one point, it was actually beating Intel on innovation.
• AMD tried to kill the megahertz myth before Intel. During the Pentium 4 days Intel kept pushing clock speeds higher and higher, before it hit a wall and abandoned the Prescott architecture. The message was clearly, “more megahertz is more better.” AMD’s competing Athlon XP chips, while clocked slower, often beat their Pentium 4 rivals. Ironically, AMD was the first to 1GHz, as some commenters have pointed out (don’t know how I forgot that). Obviously though, AMD’s performance lead didn’t last forever.
• AMD beat Intel to 64-bit in mainstream computers. And we’re not just talking about its Opteron and Athlon 64 processors. AMD actually designed the X86-64 specification, which Intel wound up adopting and licensing—so AMD’s spec is used Intel’s 64-bit processors to this day.
• AMD was first to consider energy efficiency in processor designs. Okay, this is kind of an extension of point number one, but during Intel’s Pentium 4 ‘roid rage period AMD’s processors consistently used less power than Intel’s. Intel’s performance per watt revelation didn’t really start until the Pentium M (which was actually a throwback to the P6 architecture), which set the tone for Intel’s new direction in its successor, the Core line of chips.
• AMD beat Intel to having an integrated memory controller. A tech feature AMD lorded over Intel for years: AMD’s processors started integrating the memory controller with its processors years ago, reducing memory latency. Intel’s first chip to use an integrated memory controller is the Core i7—before, the memory controller was separate from the processor. (Here’s why Intel says they held off.)
Athlon XP and Athlon 64—those were the good old days, AMD’s cutthroat competitive days. The days they were ahead of Intel. I miss them—at one point, every hand-built computer in my house ran AMD processors. I felt like a rebel—a rebel with faster, cheaper computers.
Unfortunately, I don’t run AMD chips anymore. Intel came back, and came back hard. But here’s hoping for another resurgence, and another 40 years, guys. Share your favorite AMD memories in the comments.
If Your Computer Doesn’t Meet Windows 7’s Final Minimum System Requirements, I Feel Bad for You
With the Windows 7 release candidate now out in the open—partly, anyway—Microsoft has released the final minimum system requirements. If your computer doesn’t meet them, I feel sorry for you.
• 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
• 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of available disk space (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
They’re a little bit different from the minimum specs put out for the January beta, in that it slightly pumps up the requirements for the 64-bit version of the OS (but you want at least 4GB of RAM to really take advantage of 64-bit anyway). You’ll notice they’re practically the same as the requirements for Vista, but unlike Vista don’t vary from version to version—these are the specs for every version of Windows 7. You can see how each OS fares on the same hardware right here, for something more concrete.
And, while these specs might have seemed steep when Vista arrived, if your computer doesn’t meet them at this point, it’s time to buy a new one (with Windows 7 installed, natch). [ZDNet]
The X-Rays of Completely Healthy Game Consoles
Just how do some of gaming’s famous consoles make their way into an x-ray machine?
We can only assume that while some poor boy with an unconfirmed fractured tibia had to wait i excrutiating pain for a hospital’s only x-ray room to open, Flickr member Reintji had locked the doors from the inside as he tossed forth a pile of vintage gaming equipment to be scanned despite its inherent and shameless lack of medical insurance.
Fast forward a few weeks, and an HMO lacky is approving the expenses of Mr. Play Station the Third. Then just for a moment, the little guy claims a victory over mega corporations…while an even littler guy nurses his still-broken leg. [Flickr via AcidMods via technabob]
PXP-900 Is a PSP That Plays Tons of Emulation Games
If you’re a fan of the PSP look and form factor but eschew the 3D graphics for NES/SNES and Gameboy-level sprites, the PSP-900 is $90 worth spending.
The thing has a 4.3-inch screen, almost the same amount of face and shoulder buttons as the PSP, but it only supports “NES, Famicom, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Super Famicom, SEGA MegaDrive and some sort of 32-bit ROM.” No actual PSP playing here—but that’s not the point, is it?
Then again, if you already HAVE a PSP, you can always just hack it and play emulation games that way. [Chinagrabber via Technabob via Slashgear]
The Story of the PSX: Hell Hath No Fury Like a Sony Scorned
Edge Magazine has posted a fascinating retrospective on the birth of the PlayStation, which tells the now-legendary tale with a generous helping of insider anecdotes and near-miss product concepts.
Nothing major in the familiar arc of the story has changed: An ill-fated Nintendo partnership inspired a few spurned execs to push for Sony’s entry into the gaming industry—an ambition that wasn’t met with much enthusiasm by Sony’s traditionalist leaders. They relented, Sony mounted their dramatic war against Sega, and you know the rest.
The most interesting part of this story is what didn’t happen, like the wildly different branding concepts, or the equally varying controller concepts. Did you know that the PSX almost shipped with a controller that wouldn’t cause repetitive stress injuries to anyone with adult-sized hands? Me neither! [Edge via Crunchgear]
Game Controllers That Clean Your Filthy Hands
You know those shaped soaps at your mother’s house that no one is allowed to actually use? Here’s our version, courtesy of Etsy seller Digitalsoaps.
Digitalsoaps offers our favorite video game weapons, lovingly recreated in the form of scented soap products. Take the green Xbox 360 controller above. Scented with Mountain Dew, it’s the most extreme gaming soap ever created by the hands of man. The store also produces NES controllers, PlayStation controllers, Wii remotes, and a rather lovely Super Nintendo model, all present in the gallery below.
I love the contrast between the real item and the recreation. Game controllers are probably some of the dirtiest things in any gamer’s household, and soap generally isn’t found. Kidding! I am of course referring to the contrast between ultimate dirty and the embodiment of cleanliness that is soap or something like that.
The only problems I have with soap shaped like game controllers is that I could never bring myself to use them to clean myself, and if I got drunk enough I would totally try to eat them. To address that second concern there’s the Digitalchocolates store.
Digitalsoaps Etsy Page [Etsy.com - Thanks Jwu!]
Klonoa Wii-make Challenge Preview: Yep, It’s Challenging
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile is a classic PlayStation adventure game remade for the Wii that’s entirely true to the original in content, color and even voice actors.
The only new things in the game are bonus stages and challenge levels to extend gameplay for hardcore fans that have likely outgrown the difficulty level of the linear story mode. The good news is the modes really are challenging and will probably extend gameplay by a decent number of hours. The bad news is they really are challenging and you might break a few Wii Remotes in frustration.
What Is It?
The Klonoa challenge modes come in two main flavors: Mirrored Vision and challenge areas. Mirrored Vision involves replaying completed levels by starting from the end of the level instead of the beginning and different challenge areas within levels offer time attack and jumping puzzles the likes of which could make your blood boil.
What We Saw
I spent the better part of an hour in timed challenge areas. The ones I saw were mostly jumping puzzles, and in Klonoa that counts of a lot of what you’ll be doing. The main one I focused on involved Klonoa progressing a third of the way through a level and then dropping down into a white whirlwind portal. The challenge on the other side of that portal involved Klonoa leaping out over a pit of lava, turning to face backward in mid-air, hovering to gain a bit of height and then grabbing a floating enemy. Once you’ve mastered this first part (and it’s way harder than it sounds), you have to nail the exact timing necessary to fling the enemy as you jump, hover, turn to face forward and grab the next enemy and so on until you reach the top of the lava-filled cavern.
How Far Along Is It?
Final. The game is out May 8.
What Should Change?
Lose the Wii Remote: I started the jumping challenges with the default Wii Remote and Nunchuck combo. The game is waggle-free, but the exact button presses took some adjusting to, so I decided to lose the Nunchuck and flip the Wiimote on its side. It simplified the button presses a little, but made it damn painful to mash the correct sequence of buttons and D-pad directions with the right timing. After my twelfth attempt, I came away with a square dent in my left thumb. Thankfully, the game is supposed to be compatible with the classic controller or the GameCube controller; which makes me wonder why bother with the Wii Remote at all?
What Should Stay The Same?
Bragging Rights: Completing a challenge in Klonoa brings a sense of satisfaction you might otherwise get from winning the lottery or surviving a train wreck. Nearly every journalist I watched try the challenge modes began with a puffed up chest and quick thumbs – and almost every single one of them failed a challenge more than ten times. Even after two dozen goes at that challenge mentioned above, I still couldn’t get higher than the first enemy (mostly because I had trouble with the part where you need to turn all the way around in midair using that viciously sharp D-pad). When the PR rep finally stepped up and managed to pull it off in one go for the first time in his many months on the title, he was cheered as a hero.
Final Thoughts
The original Klonoa was one of the best things that ever happened to my big brother because he got to lord his PlayStation over my Nintendo 64 as the superior adventure gaming platform (at least until Ocarina of Time came out). I find it cosmically hilarious that more than a decade later, I’ll get to be playing his PlayStation trump card on my Nintendo Wii as a Wii game instead of a port. It may still be a kid’s game, but the challenge modes sweeten the deal and give me something to say to my brother all those elitists who might sneer at me for never having played the original.
