PC Format reviews

Intel’s new Lynnfield CPU looks like a winner. Its performance is near-as-dammit on a par with the more exotic Bloomfield Core i7 processors. At the same time, it promises to be a whole lot cheaper both as a chip and as an overall platform. OK, the branding is a bit fubar, what with the confusing use of both the new Core i5 and existing Core i7 monikers. But the idea of quad-core Nehalem with added Turbo-tastic goodness and all at a lower price than ever before is a bit of a no-brainer. We want one and we’re pretty sure you’ll want one, too.  read more »

The PC Format crew love classic sci-fi cinema. We lap up films like 2001, Alien, Blade Runner and Aliens. David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones, has made a film called Moon, and it should be a celluloid haven for PC Format's staff. But was it? I went to see it on Friday, and it seems particularly apt to be posting my review today, as it's the 40th anniversary as the Apollo moon landings. Just as Neil Armstrong conquered a strange new world, I'm entering the uncharted territory of film reviews.

Moon's premise is delightfully strange: alone on our natural satellite, mining Helium-3, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) comes across his own double. Who is this mysterious stranger? Why do they both have the same memories? And does their robot compatriot, Gerty (Kevin Spacey), have a hidden agenda?  read more »

Price £30 Publisher HenriSoft Developer Winchmedia
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Even overclockers need a hero...

It's almost as if Tom Clancy will put his name to anything and it doesn't look like he's going to stop at ninety percent of Ubisoft's latest output either. Tom Clancy's BorX tells the story of a lone overclocker looking to get the most out of his rig in the face of an escalating terrorist threat in a near-future, yet somehow incredibly tedious, setting.  read more »

Price £20 Publisher Ubisoft Developer Ubisoft Romania
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More Hot Shots than Top Gun

With a missile on my tail in the skies above Rio de Janeiro, I execute a perfect manoeuvre. Ramming on my airbrakes, I loop in the air, come face-to-face with my adversary and fire a missile right up his jet nozzle. As glittering shards of plane fall about me, my phone rings. It’s someone called Iceman and he says I can be his wingman anytime. Weird.  read more »

Price £30 Publisher Ubisoft Developer Ubisoft Shanghai
Community Discuss

Which end of Tom Clancy are we talking about?

Do you have a microphone connected to your PC? It’s not exactly up there with mouse and keyboard ubiquity, but the humble voice-siphon is increasingly becoming an essential peripheral for PC users. Most mics are used for voice comms in online games, or for talking over Skype, but they can also be used for commanding tiny soldiers. Yes, the unique fragment of cleverness that gives EndWar a reason to exist is that its real-time strategies are powered by your voice. Command your troops by telling them what to do. Just like a real near-future colonel…  read more »

Price £25 Publisher EA Developer EA
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Become the head of one of the most dysfunctional families around...

The way to make the Grand Theft Auto template your own, it seems, is to add in middle-management. That was certainly the twist in the formula for the original Godfather game, Scarface: The World is Yours, and The Godfather II follow suit, placing you in a world where criminal success is as dependant on human resources as it is on placing a shotgun in someone’s mouth.  read more »

Vital Stats

Price £370
Manufacturer Palit
GPU RV770
GPU Clock 790MHz
Memory Clock 950MHz
Memory 2GB GDDR5
Size Triple slot
Power 1x6pin, 1x8pin PCI-E

Breaking the ice with Palit's take on the 4870X2

We all know about the 4870x2, it was the big and beastly twin-GPU offering from AMD that stole the show at the high-end. It was this card, even more so than the 4850, that really cemented AMD’s return to form on the graphics front – proof positive that its decision to go modular rather than monolithic with its chip architecture was the right one. So why the hell should we care about another overclocked version, especially in light of the fact that the faster GTX295 is now clogging up the high-end graphics market?  read more »

Price £161
Manufacturer Asus
Web uk.asus.com
Input 6.35mm mic line
Output 6.35mm headphone,
RCA speaker, spdif digital
SNR 124dB
DAC 24-bit
Interface 1x PCI Express X1

Reject buzzing! Shun lag! Oust muddy frequencies to whence they came!

This isn’t just a fancy sound card, you know. Oh no. Let us quote from the included Audio Precision Test Report, a fancy document bound with gold string to compound its obvious legitimacy: “The development of the new Xonar Essence line has triggered us to engage a new quest in search for true high-end audio and the essence of sound.” Asus toiled long and hard, and as best we can understand, said essence is a combination of man’s desire to search for the perfect sound and good electronic components. So here we are: high-quality capacitors, a PCI-e socket, and a Chinese lion engraved on the heat sink. Lovely.  read more »

Price £15 Publisher Ubisoft Developer Massive Entertainment
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Say dos vedanya to your foes once again

We’re not entirely sure it classes as madness, but it still can’t be healthy to stare lovingly at a nuclear explosion and coo with delight.

Yet even a year on from its original release, World in Conflict remains our prime purveyor of fiery death clouds, because it makes breathtaking beauty out of genocide. Fortunately, it’s also one of the best real-time strategy games in recent years, but one that didn’t attract the audience it deserved. With that in mind, Soviet Assault isn’t so much an expansion pack as it is an attempt to relaunch the game.  read more »

Vital Stats

Price - £1,350
Manufacturer - AdvanceTec
CPU - 2.66GHz Intel Core i7 920
Graphics - Zotac GTX295
Memory - 3GB Corsair DDR3 1600MHz
Chassis - Antec Skeleton
PSU - Thermaltake 750W
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P
OS - Vista Home Premium 64-bit

Components so capable you'll want to caress them

We can’t even begin to look at this machine without first diffusing the enormous elephant in the room; it’s got one o’ them Geiger-esque Antec Skeleton cases, hasn’t it. Glorious. Redolent. Perfect for tinkerers, but are your precious components just waiting for that errant can of Diet Slurm to make an arcing circuit between you and them? No – in reality, it’s no more dangerous than any of the half-assembled PCs we surround ourselves with every day, but still, it leaves you ill at ease.  read more »