Category Archives: tech

Now Playing: Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 2

With GPUs increasing in power with every generation, PC games are becoming more and more lifelike with each successive iteration. While the recession was not supposed to affect the gaming industry by much, PC game sales this year have been low, not because of the recession, but because there havent been many good games released this year. The only halfway decent ones this year were batman Arkham Asylum and Prototype.

Well, Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 2 is the latest game to join the pack, and will probably be the best selling game of the year (the just released Assassins Creed 2 is the only worthwhile challenger). Sequels generally rake in the big bucks in the games industry. The latest title in the CoD franchise was developed by the original game studio ‘infinity Ward’.
The story of the game (yes, it actually has one) is in fact halfway decent with some great direction. It shows how newer games are becoming more and more like movies, with proper titles, storylines etc, quite unlike older games which were just run and gun with some country’s uniforms and accents added for local color. The graphics as I mentioned for the latest generation CoD game are quite good so long as you have a graphics card which is relatively recent. My generation old 4850 was able to take the load pretty well. I guess th fact that I still play at 1440X900 helps 🙂
The storyline is workable, allowing you to play 2-3 different characters with some stunning visuals. The only fault I can find with the game is that the story is too short, actually feeling like a movie….. I would have loved to have gotten a longer game.
While the multi-player mode and a set of special times missions etc are there to give more value, I kind of prefer single player story oriented games (+ the fact that most ports here are blocked, so no online multiplayer), and the shorter storyline is my only complaint.
All in all, its an excellent game, and am actually thinking about playing it through once again just because of the nice visual effects and gameplay.
Gamespot has a great video and text review of the game up here.
PS: Next: Back to STALKER- Shadow of Chernobyl, an RPG (role playing game) + FPS (first person shooter) that I have been playing on and off for some time now. I will end up finishing it one day!
PS2: For those wondering how I manage to find time for games, you guessed it right, I get less sleep!

Sony PRS-505 ebook reader reviewed

Its been a while since I have posted. Term 2 is almost done. Only 1 more week of studies left. Markstrat was a whole lot of fun. DMOP was even more fun 😀 One subject where you have no idea whats happening or going to happen!
On another note, I finally managed to get the time to finish my long long pending review of the Sony PRS-505 ebook reader. Find the review here.

Till next time…..

Larger Kindle finally out, @ $480!

Well, as was being rumored, the new Kindle is out, and as expected, its hideously expensive @ 480$ + taxes n stuff. Amazon is trying to target this larger kindle at the newspaper/college student (textbooks) market. However, who wants a 500$ device and a 10$ monthly paper subscription on top?
Same hold true for students as well. Textbooks, are expensive, granted. But there are always older books one can source. + these are black and white only, and I dont know how well complex mathematics books etc will appear. And again, the students will be expected to keep them for like 2-3 years to break even, of course assuming the thing is still working fine after all that time.

A proper break up of costs etc: 4 year ROI for kindle DX
The guys hit the nail on the head. Future savings, (n thats a far away future) may not be enough to push this device. Amazon needs to come up with another plan, maybe a subsidy or something, else this will remain a high end toy for the tech market.

Larger kindle coming soon?

As per reports with some news outlets including the NYTimes, Amazon will launch a larger version of the kindle tomorrow (6th), beating Plasticlogic to the punch.
However, for selling an e-book reader outside the US, the hitch I see is pricing. Already, the kindle costs 360$. Granted, this includes lifetime charges for the ‘whispernet’ service that enabled you to download content wirelessly. However, with Amazon NOT offering a version without this service, the whispernet thingy is useless to someone like me outside the US. This, and the price, were pretty much the reasons why I went for the Sony PRS505 instead of a kindle. Especially since the 505 has the same screen and is 100$ cheaper, not to mention the smaller size and metal body.
The point is that a device with a larger screen will probably cost more as well (>400$ probably?). Theres been a couple in the market in the 700$ range, but they havent really sold that well.
Unless and until amazon provides a subsidy and a subscription model with a small per month charge to read newspapers and the like on it, I dont see it taking up too much of the market. It might still sell units in the US, but global success doesnt seem possible, with the current model at least.
Till someone comes out with a better idea, the PRS505 it is for me 🙂

Windows 7 RC out for consumers today, Vista SP2 coming

Well, the long awaited RC release of Windows 7 finally goes out today (here) for the general public. The RC will be active till June 2010 (2 hourly restarts starting 1st March though.
Windows 7 has gotten decent enough reviews that lots of people (me included) are looking forward to trying it out. Even though Vista improved a lot post SP1, with the Vista perception being what it is, MS needs a new OS to start the cycle all over again, even if its just a tweaked version of the Vista codebase. To their credit, it is supposedly lighter than Vista and has a couple of new features which should make the whole experience even easier.

What to watch out for:

  • The RC cannot be installed over a beta Windows 7 release. You need a new install OR an upgrade over a Vista install.
  • Once the RTM version goes out, you cannot upgrade the RC to RTM directly, but will need a new install or a vista install again.

I am hoping MS gives Vista users a cheap upgrade option to move to 7. I need that. 😉

In other news, Vista SP2 has RTMed (Released To Manufacturing – implies its done from the coding/testing point of view) as well and should be available soon.