Hold on to your breadboards, we’re going to try and make a fully working USB device. We’re a little scared… While we regularly like to disembowel, disassemble, disfigure and generally ‘dis’ USB devices in all of their forms, it’s always either standing on the shoulders of the geniuses that made the device in the first place, or at least leaning on the fact that the USB interface offers a handy 5v supply.  read more »

A bit of Blighty is on its way to Operation Arrowhead

Cameron may think we're a bit junior and get our military history wrong, and upset the PCF forumites but Bohemia Interactive think we're worth a special DLC for Operation Arrowhead - ARMA2: British Armed Forces (or BAF for short).

The DLC for the uber military sim will include a singleplayer campaign where you'll command a mobile observation team and take on the Takistani guerilla forces amassing in the mountains.  read more »

But really it's a matter of control...

Microsoft discovered through research what any PC gamer could have told them - consoleheads would get creamed if they went toe-to-toe with PC gamers and their keyboard and mouse combo.

Rahul Sood, the CTO of HP's gaming business has said that Microsoft canned it's cross-platform gaming plans because: "The console players got destroyed every time. So much so that it would be embarrassing to the Xbox team in general had Microsoft launched this initiative,"

Sood doesn't say whether this included game genres that favour game controllers, such as football games and racing titles, where you'd think there wouldn't be much of difference. But in the TechRadar article he's certainly not happy that the MS cross-platform project was canned.  read more »

Nexon has released a vid of the combat to expect in its latest MMO - Vindictus. It's action-tastical stuff and you'll note the combat is real-time.

This particular video is showing 'Lann' and his two swords. Vindictus uses Source-engine to present it's dark and brutal Celtic-themed world and sports destructible environments.  read more »

Who needs teasers, watch the actual presentation...

Darkspore has been announced, a Diablo-style or an "action role-playing game", if you don't want to mention Diablo. It has a sci-fi setting and is by Maxis, who made Spore. The video (Nice work by AddictedtoGamez) after the break tells you pretty much what everyone knows about it right now. No point regurgitating what they said in the presentation in my different words then.  read more »

Frantic fragging demands fast frame rates. That’s one of the central tenets of PC gaming, right? Attempting to rail gun the opposition between the peepers as you artfully jump-strafe through the air doesn’t really fly if your PC is dropping frames like a pathological litterbug, that’s for sure.
However, peak frame-rate performance is only part of the problem. The order and manner in which the individual image frames appear on your screen also matters. Enter, therefore, the concept of frame buffering.

Download this article in PDF format (first published in PC Format 230)

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I feel sorry for CEO of Activision Bobby Kotick. Every time he opens his grinning chops to say something about the future of Call of Duty he gets accused of not loving the gamers and making small children and unicorns cry.

Take, for instance, his recent Financial Times interview. That got him into trouble, because he was of the opinion that Activision ought to get a slice of the Xbox Live pie as, apparently, 60% of players were principally using Live to play Call of Duty.

Actually he used the phrase "We don't really participate financially in that income stream". I imagine this to involve a Crystal Maze-style dome where Kotick gets to keep all the gold shiny paper he can shove down his trousers in two minutes (Steve Ballmer would be there too, dressed as Richard 0'Brien and playing the harmonica soulfully).  read more »

Valve has launched Alien Swarm on Steam, a Sci-Fi based alien bug hunting shooter in the Alien Breed mold. And it's completely free for everyone to enjoy! Not only that, it comes complete with the full SDK for gamers to create their own unique content like maps, and potentially more elaborate complete mods.

We've had a quick bash on the early sections of the game, and although it's nothing ground breaking in game design, feeling very much like a decent indie title. But being free makes it an essential download. Alien Swarm includes an offline practice level, but ultimately is made for Left 4 Dead style online co-op gaming. There are 4 character classes and over 40 unlockable weapons (accessed through earned XP), along with Steam cloud support and a gamut of achievements.

The 28th Golden Joystick Awards is coming this summer. This prestigious event celebrates the past year’s finest gaming titles across all platforms, where the gaming public is the judge and jury on which games and publishers take home the coveted awards.  Last year an impressive 1.2 million votes were cast.  read more »

There’s nothing quite like getting together with a few friends and slaughtering each other...

That’s a feeling that many of us have every time we boot up and log in to our chosen game.  For me the game is Team Fortress 2, and has been for quite a while.  read more »