There are some interesting tidbits when it comes to the attempt; including that Christian used an AMD K8-3870K for the record, a Gigbayte GA-A75-UDH motherboard and that there appears to be a validation error within CPU-Z and certain AMD chips. There’s a bit more information about it here.

Footy season is well under way which always means it’s time for EA and Konami to roll out their annual soccer franchises within a hairsbreadth of one another. Theirs are just two of the great line up of demo’s we’ve picked up this month, six more are waiting for you within the roundup.

Follow these links for our other ‘issue 259′ web packs:
The gamers guide to online communications!
Take a peek at Windows 8 today!
Release the full potential of your broadband and Wi-Fi!
Issue 258 game demo roundup!

Battle Academy
Battle Academy may not be the most stunning, or indeed technically accomplished squad turn-based game ever launched, in fact it’s approach is quite entry level. Yet there is something quite appealing about it’s casual approach, so getting stuck in is instant without regard of understanding dozens of complex controls, interface buttons and game specifics. Employing sound tactics is still wanted during engagements, utilising your units and environmental cover will make or break your chances in each mission. After about 30 minutes in I realised something felt familiar and reminds me of the classic X-COM combat system. Hardcore war gamers may find Battle Academy missing depth and complexities, but Frozen Synapse fans who fancy some WWII action will certainly find this title worth some attention. (demo version)
Download from here

Hard Reset
The problem with robots is we quite like their labour saving benefits, but what happens in the distant future they decided to turn on their squishy human masters, well it will be “game over man”. Hard Reset gives us an insight into this possible reality. Who would have thought a descendant of Big Trak  would be handing our asses back to us. Please forgive me Big Trak, I had no idea carrying the cat would burn your fragile battery powered engine. I was just a kid! (demo version)
Download from here

Owlboy
I’m of the grand age of that the retro games of today were the cutting edge of my youth. I have fond memories of my Spectrum and Commodore 64, though I’m seriously not going to break out my pristine boxed Speccy and wait 35 minutes to load Kevin Toms Football Manager from tape, no matter how much I loved it then. I’ve moved on, and so should games in my opinion.
Yet I do appreciate there are among us many who actually prefer the simplistic games of yesteryear and in all fairness (going completely against my aversion to faux retro) Owlboy is quite fun with impressive production values, offering a large and varied fantasy world and story. (demo version)
Download from here

PES 2012
Silly Konami, it’s still 2011 and you’ve released next year’s game early! And if this edition is an accurate predictor of the future, then apparently in the year 2012, soccer will only be played by bikini clad super models. With mud wresting at half-time. Though I may have dreamed all this! (demo version)
Download from here

Strategic Command: WW1 1914-1918 The Great War
War games hand up the opportunity to change the outcome or reach the same conclusions using different strategies, and welcomed in this latest instalment of the Strategic Command franchise. The generalised modern take on World War I doesn’t go much beyond the Blackadder Goes Forth interpretation of No Man’s Land, stalemate, trenches, going over the top and being cut to pieces by machine guns. Of course trench warfare is a major feature of this game, but you’ll also have access to all other technologies of the era such as the first tanks and early planes to recreate the battles. (demo version)
Download from here

FIFA 12
It’s unlikely many punters will stretch their budgets to accommodate both PES and FIFA so it’s rather fortuitous to be presented with demo’s of these titles to try on for size. Reviews so far push the advantage this year towards Fifa’s goal line, but both titles have built upon last years editions with some great tweaks and features, so we urge you to play test both out. (demo version)
Download from here

Sengoku
Set in the time of feudal Japan and the rule of the Shogun. The year is 1467 and civil war has broken out. With no overall ruler, the provinces are fighting each for power. You’re the head of a noble Samurai family with ambitions to unite the land and take rule. This grand strategy game requires both force and diplomcy in equal measures, a game where the same goals can be met with peaceful negotiations or battle depending on your play style. (demo version)
Download from here

Wasteland Angel
Some games demand gamepad controllers and Wastland Angel is right up that list unless you enjoy hand pain. Though some of this could be the lack of a key binding option to cope with my left-handed-ness affliction. The trailer video is plenty enough to give a sense of what’s on offer. A handful of survivors are left clinging onto existence in the classic post World War III wastelands we are led to believe. Your role is to protect some of these survivors from slavers intent on capturing these poor folk. The that end, Mad Max vehicular combat ensues. You’ll be doing a Rambo through wave upon wave of enemy, upgrading your weapons and on the whole making yourself very unpopular with the bad guys. (demo version)
Download from here

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If you have a special MMO or team-based multiplayer shooter in your life then things aren’t quite complete until you’ve joined a guild or clan. Making new chums and pooling dedicated prowess and sharing skills. You may never meet these people in real life but the common interest creates real bonds, superficial as they may be. Beyond making these new pals,  it’s still about the game and being the superior group of players against all others, and that takes communication.

Coming up in issue 259 (on sale 24th October) we’re going to run you through a variety of voice communication options specifically with the gamer in mind. Taking a further opportunity, we’ve expanded this web pack to encompass the best instant messaging clients doing the rounds.

Follow these links for our other ‘issue 259′ web packs:
The gamers guide to online communications!
Take a peek at Windows 8 today!
Release the full potential of your broadband and Wi-Fi! (coming soon)
Issue 259 game demo roundup! (coming soon)

Mumble
Mumble is a free open source voice chat application designed for gaming, serving up the low latency, high quality sound required. It’s works alongside the Murmur server client that’s needed to make it all work. (free version)
Download from here

TeamSpeak
TeamSpeak almost invented VOIP for gamers. That may or may not be true; it’s certainly been around for a very long time and the software is the most advanced on offer, with a multitude of custom settings, game skins, and peer-to-peer file transfers. TeamSpeak requires a client/server setup, which is completely free on your own PC and bandwidth, but they also offer links to third-party server renting which can cost as little as £2.50 per month. (free version)
Download from here

Ventrilo
This is the other big hitter in the realms of gaming VOIP. Along the same lines as TeamSpeak, Ventrilo provides free client and server software for private users, with the addition of business licenses and help on locating server hosting services around the world. (free version)
Download from here

Raidcall
If the other voice chat gaming options relying on servers seem like a whole lot of effort, then Raidcall maybe worth investigating. The software makes the same promises of clear low-latency voice communication suited for FPS and MMO gaming without a server. (free version)
Download from here

Palringo
The Palringo instant messaging client is available for all flavours of operating system and mobile phone platforms. Though that alone is unlikely to be enough to tear you away from the likes of  MSN, AOL, ICQ or Google Talk and several other established networks.  So instead of competing with them, Palringo simply supports  these and several others in it’s software. Palringo isn’t alone in the multi-protocol support messaging clients arena, but it’s vast OS and mobile phone support might just be what you’re looking for! (free version)
Download from here

Paltalk
We’re covering a number different multi-network IM clients in our round up, and Paltalk continues the trend with it’s ability to connect with AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Facebook, GTalk and ICQ users. It’s compatibility coverage is somewhat limited to the others, but sets itself apart by introducing video chat rooms. Paltalk users have thousands to explore, and it’s as simple as selecting a subject and jumping in. (free version)
Download from here

Pidgin
Pigeon combats the problem of friends, family and work colleagues using different messaging client protocols by combining support within a single program, while allowing simultaneous open channels across networks. Pigeon is compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks. (free version)
Download from here

Digsby
Another popular chat program that covers AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Facebook Chat, and Jabber within a single stand-alone client. In additional you can track Facebook friend updates and receive new email notifications. (free version)
Download from here

Skype
This one needs little introduction or description, a word that’s become synonymous with peer-to-peer VoIP. It’s free for all computer-to-computer calls with added paid for services connecting to mobile phones and landlines. Skype has webcam support, conference calling and file transfer capabilities making it universally successful for both consumer and business users. (free version)
Download from here

mIRC
mIRC (Internet Rely Chat) isn’t likely to be your first choice for one-on-one instant messaging, it’s main purpose is for accessing text-based chat rooms, quite ideal for finding other gamers or anybody else for that matter on any subject you care to imagine. Creating a private channel allows friends to gather without being interrupted and peer-to-peer file transfers adds an additional useful feature. (free version)
Download from here

Trillian
Trillian taps into the multi-protocol IM market with it’s basic and premier subscription variants. Free Trillian hooks into every major network, with the addition of Facebook and Twitter. Of course as with other all-in-one solutions, some less important features are omitted as a consequence. Pay the monthly subscription and Tillian unlocks the video chat function and removes the ads. (free version)
Download from here

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Darius Mason bears a striking resemblance to Vin Diesel in Chronicles of Riddick, it’s the first thing I notice about Red Faction: Armaggedon‘s protagonist and it’s a feeling that’s compounded by the goggles on his forehead.

Volition’s Drew Holmes, Lead Writer may not agree but it fits with the game’s story: “It’s very much a summer action blockbuster flick, in the vein of the old Flash Gordon or Indiana Jones. It’s an action adventure epic,” he tells me.

I miss the epic intro movie though, as the Sharkoon Xtatic cans I’m handed, deafen my ears so much that by the time I’ve dialled everything down, I’m not sure why all the miners on Mars are angry or why I’m running away. But that’s okay with me because I’m having way too much fun with the new magnet gun to care.

I shoot a marker into a huge mass of industrial-sized machinery in the middle distance. Far away I can hear lots of angry miners trying to find me. I’m not bothered. I’m bothered more by the insectoid-looking alien in front of me that’s about to eat my face, goggles and all, but that’s also fine because I’ve just sunk my second marker into what might be his happy sacks.

Then physics happens. The magnetic pull of the second marker sees tons of industrial metal buckle, wretch away from the wall and whip it’s way towards alien crotch. Eventually the squelching subsides and I chuckle to myself and hit repair. Like a magic Undo button, the world is restored. Everywhere my particle-spraying hand hits is rewound – machinery flows back into place and walls and ramps are repaired.

The magnet gun and repair combo in a world that’s so impressively destructible has the potential to be as supremely satisfying as the grappling hook in Just Cause 2 – and we liked that a lot.I had the option to try other less usual weapons: a nano-rifle that shots out an ‘anti-repair’ shot that vapourises anything it hits and even a singularity cannon that creates exploding black holes, but the magnet gun kept calling me back.

You’ll get to perfect your destructive talents with all the game’s weapons in the Ruin mode. Clock enough damage to a map and you’ll get more time. It’s a mode that taps into your competitive side as top scores will get uploaded, but felt more a diversion while you waited for a mate to turn up for the new co-op infestation mode.

Co-op – Aliens are stealing our hills
Infestation replaces multiplayer in Red Faction Armageddon. This is a Martian take on King of the Hill with Red Faction’s signature destruction play. Up to four players defend an objective, while hordes of aliens try to destroy it. Volition has tried to weave this together with the single player.

Upgrades bought during playing the main story carry over, but it doesn’t stop there Drew Holmes told me: “We’re using the maps to tell a peripheral story to what’s happening in the single player. Some of the characters only available in the Infestation mode will show up in the single player campaign and Darius will interact with them. While Darius is off doing something else, these guys will be acting out the defence of one area and so as you play through the single player things will weave back and forth.” You can either view this as a plausible excuse for re-using single player maps or as a chance to see an event that happens off-screen during the single-player. Regardless, that is your lot for multiplayer.

I also took the new exo-skeleton suits for a spin, which are much more nimble than in Guerrilla. Smashing through buildings was something I enjoyed in the last game, but this time you’re given an exo that can dance away from alien lazery attacks with ease. That ease of movement comes with a suitably mech-like sense of destruction as you lock on with rockets, strafe alien flesh with a machine gun and charge exo-first through walls.

GeoMod engine makeover
The game uses an updated version of GeoMod engine 2.0, which made the game’s Martian-red caverns and watery pools, that were on show in preview, pleasant enough on the eye.

The Geomod 2.0 engine has undergone some changes since Red Faction Guerrilla to improve the way the combat interacts more fully with the destructive environments. In fact, without the repair function in single player it would be far too easy to destroy yourself into a dead end.

A whole new lighting system has been added too: “Guerrilla had one light for the whole world and so everything was flat and washed out … in Red Faction Armageddon we’ve got thousands of lights, we’ve re-done the whole rendering system … All the lights are dynamic as well, so if you destroy something the lights go out, repair and they come back on again, it’s given us a much greater visual fidelity than we had in Guerrilla.”

Volition has been loud and proud about Red Faction Armageddon looking “absolutely beautiful” on PC. Unfortunately, these press shots don’t particularly reflect how the game actually looks in motion. What I saw though was more Abi Titmuss in the beauty stakes than say supermodel Heidi Klum.

The decision to plump for co-op instead of a multiplayer with full-on destructive combat is disappointing to me. We’ll just have to wait for Battlefield 3 and DICE’s Frostbite 2.0 engine for that.

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New expansions equate to a whole new spread of equipment to get your head around. Cataclysm is no different. If anything, it’s even more challenging than previous expansions because stats that we knew and loved have either disappeared or changed in value significantly. Picking kit using criteria that was valid in WotLK could well see you gimping your stats or throwing away gear that you may not think you need now, but could well regret later on.

Even the introduction of Mastery, the new catch-all for improving your main role in a group, hasn’t meant that things are easier. Some specifications may actively stack the Mastery stat (such as warrior tanks), while others relegate it to something that is only useful as a source for reforging (nearly every other plate wearer). In other words don’t assume that Mastery is going to make your life easier – until you reach certain requirements, you’re often better off stacking base stats first.

Reforging can complicate matters too, especially when considered alongside gems and enchants when trying to hit those all-important hit and expertise caps needed to make sure that your big numbers land regularly enough. Reforging is certainly useful, but it’s easy to misuse and end up gimping items. Work out what your best stats are and which stats you don’t care about, and you’ve got a plan for reforging.

What this all boils down to is: if an item drops in a dungeon or quest, how do you know if it’s an upgrade or not? Common sense will only get you so far, and being able to turn to a reliable source is preferable.

The good news is there are sites that will rate your current gear and show you which items are potential upgrades, and usefully, how you can get your hands on them. The likes of Gear Wish List, Maxdps and WoW Heroes are all commendable, as is the item comparison tool in Wowhead (www.wowhead.com). As ever, it’s the number crunching powerhouse that is RAWR that really impresses for this.

Last month, we gushed about Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processor. The cover hailed it as “Intel’s fastest, coolest, cheapest CPU”. Well we’ve calmed down a little bit now, although we still think its very nice indeed. Clock for clock, its faster and cheaper than the outgoing chips.

By the end of the year Sandy Bridge chips will be all of Intel’s range bar the top-end performance numbers. It’s not all roses, though. New sockets means new motherboards (again) and locking everything to the baseclock will frustrate overclockers.

Along with performance gains through a tweaked architecture (improved buses, branch prediction, cache and so forth), Sandy Bridge comes with full on-die integrated graphics. Don’t groan, this one is not completely awful. It’s claimed to be twice as fast as previous efforts, although that’s something of a hollow boast given the previous efforts. It not all about pixels onscreen, either – its party tricks include Quick Sync. It’s a GPU you might actually want access to, and it’s on every Sandy Bridge processor.

Wonderful as all this is, there is a tiny-weenie problemette here. Anybody with a liking for any graphically capable game worth playing won’t be running the integrated graphics, because – nice though it is – almost any graphics card bar an antique will play games far better. Which kills the onboard graphics, and those new features are dead in the water. So our valuable on-die space was wasted on a graphics engine that only laptops and business machines will use.

Enter Virtu from Lucid (the people behind the Hydra chip, which enables you to mix and match graphics card on dual- card systems). This surfaced at the CES show and people with pens in their top pockets got interested. Virtu is a natty piece of software that does one trick: you can switch between Sandy Bridge’s on-board effort and your graphics card on-demand. A simple job, but not easy under the skin because it involves all sorts of re-routing of data. The press release put it thus: “Virtu addresses a long standing challenge in the market for dynamic resource allocation”. Don’t they talk funny?

The big idea
You plug your monitor into the on-board output and let your 3D monster idle as you potter around the desktop. When you launch a game or other application that needs the horsepower Virtu seamlessly switches over to your discrete graphics card for the duration. You can configure applications to automatically switch, or let Virtu decide. It works with all the latest graphics cards, so you can run Sandy Bridge’s mighty transcoding engine and still have decent 3D. Perfect!

One aspect that Lucid is very keen to point out is that Virtu can mean a considerable power saving: the green angle. Your graphics card – well, a decent one, anyway – is easily the single most power-hungry thing in your PC, by some margin. Running flat out, it can consume up to 300 watts, although not quite the alarming amounts that Lucid quotes in its lamentable PowerPoint presentation – a 1,000W PC graphics system? Pah. Apparently, there’s also power spike of 30W or so on your graphics card every time you open a window, as some sort of housekeeping. Using Virtu, you can leave your 3D card bumbling along at idle until required, saving power and keeping everything cooler and quieter to boot.

Now you might not be terribly excited about saving a few killowatthours here and there. However if you are paying the electricity bill for a few hundred or more systems, you might well be a bit more receptive. For big businesses, saving a few watts on every box really does add up.

When and where?
Lucid is currently talking to motherboard manufacturers to licence Virtu for distribution with boards, and MSI has already got behind it. It looks as if it’ll become another motherboard extra feature, rather than going down the separate software utility route. Lucid won’t be getting the margin on each unit, but it does mean it’ll get huge exposure across millions of systems. However, there are problems with the current chipsets that put a bit of a damper on things for now. When Virtu comes out of beta, the Z68 chipset should make it much more interesting for us real PC users.

Switching between graphics cards sounds like a feature that an operating system should probably be in charge of. If Virtu proves popular with corporate types and works bug-free, Microsoft may pay a visit. When MS calls, it tends to carry a big stick and a cheque book, and you get one or the other depending on how negotiations go.

Worth the hassle?
Now lets get cynical (just for a change). Are we really that interested yet? Sure, Sandy Bridge can transcode video very quickly, but how often do you honestly do that? It’s frustrating to have whizzy fast features you can’t access, but is it much of a loss here? If it was a separate utility you had to pay for, you might well not bother. But, as a free extra on your new motherboard’s utility disc, you wouldn’t complain.

Whether it actually proves useful in the real world remains to be seen. Is it just another clever bit of programming nobody really asked for, or will it be standard in a year or two? The power saving could be what gives it legs – corporate customers often have a lot of PCs that never get turned off and will welcome such a transparent way of saving power without any performance compromise. The buzz about getting at Quick Sync features is a bit of a sideline.

If the processor boys throw on-board graphics onto every chip then this could well become the new way of doing things. If you’ve a low-power graphics sub-system capable of decent video work as standard, then Virtu, or something similar, makes perfect sense, even if its just to get the graphics card fan to power down while you watch a film. However, we’re unconvinced the enthusiasts will fi nd much to enthuse about just yet.

A free trial is now available from Lucid, so you have a play yourself.

Here it is people, AMD’s Radeon HD 6990, it’s latest multi-GPU setup on a single slice of PCB.

We’re not allowed to tell you what’s in there just yet, or AMD wont talk to us ever again, but it is whirring away on our test bench as I type getting the bejesus benched out of it.

Check out what we can tell you after the jump…

What you ought to be able to guess from the fact that it’s already in our labs is that the Radeon HD 6990 is well on its way to release.

Click to enlarge

As well as the dual-GPU goodness inside you can see from the backplate there’s a grand total of five outputs, one DVI and four DisplayPort.

And AMD is still shouting about its EyeFinity technology from the rooftops, so if you want to play Dragon Age II in super-duper-mega widescreen with five monitors you can knock yourself out.

Click to enlarge

Though you may well get whiplash looking across your HUD…

The Crysis 2 multiplayer demo is out. You can grab the 1.6GB download from the official site, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get to play it. As it is a multiplayer demo, you’ll need to log on in order to shoot your friends and enemies in the face (or back, if you’re one to sneakily shuffle around in stealth mode). The problem is, the Crysis 2 demo doesn’t use the standard Electronic Arts login, which you may already have. Nor does it use a GameSpy login, which you also may have. We mention this, because it’s based on GameSpy apparently.

It uses something new and exciting, called gface. The accounts though are being handled by www.mycrysis.com, which has been having… how shall we say… ‘technical problems.’ This means that you your chance of getting into the game is determined by factors beyond your control. Some of the PC Format team have been lucky. Some haven’t.

I have, and the game seems pretty decent to this old rocket-jumper. The whole ‘fixed to DirectX 9 for now’ doesn’t look too impressive at the moment on a decent monitor, and the presence of the ‘Press Start to begin’ on the intro screen is annoying. Let’s just hope the final game is a bit more polished and more PC-centric. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have people to sneak up on…

Two new cards, but the HD 6950 makes the biggest impression

The two new Cayman GPU powered graphics cards from AMD, the Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6950, are here and everything you thought you knew has changed.

Well, if you thought AMD had delayed its latest round of top-end graphics cards to make them the best around it has anyway.

First expected around October time this year, the Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6950 have been held back for a long time. Long enough for NVIDIA to get in first and extend its lead in the high-end graphics market by releasing the GeForce GTX 580 and GeForce GTX 570 before them.

Sadly neither of the new cards can best NVIDIA’s top pairing, though the Radeon HD 6970 does come close to it. Priced to compete directly with the GTX 570, AMD’s top card does keep pace but on the whole loses out to the NVIDIA card.

The green card also launched at a cheaper price point and we’re sure NVIDIA could drop its pricing to scupper the HD 6970 even more.

The Radeon HD 6950 though is a far more impressive li’l card though. At £220 it’s going up against the GTX 470 and thanks to the fact that architecturally it’s hardly changed from the Radeon HD 6970 is a rather speedy card.

As you can see from the benchmarks below:

As it stands we’ve still got the two NVIDIA cards above the HD 6970, but in terms of the mid-range the HD 6950 makes an incredibly good case for itself.

So one duff card and one rather sterling offering.

UPDATE – All these benchmarks were taken at 2560 x 1600, with 4x anti-aliasing. Our basic test bench remains an Intel Core i7-930 at 2.8GHz, Asus P6X58D-E motherboard and 6GB Corsair DDR3 at 1333MHz. Cheers.

You can read Dave Jame’s full review of both the AMD Radeon HD 6950 and AMD Radeon 6970 on TechRadar.

Also on PC Format: First benchmarks of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 570,  First benchmarks of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 580

Reviews of the AMD Radeon HD 6950 and AMD Radeon 6970 elsewhere: Overclock3D, HardOCP