In the fast moving world of technology, it can become impossible to keep up with the ever changing landscape. This is why I have introduced this new series of posts to give you guys an idea of what is upcoming in the world of computers and whether it is worth the wait or better to just buy what is currently on offer. New technology also leads to price drops in the older (but not outdated) technology. For example, when Sandy Bridge processors from Intel came out, they offered a large jump in processing power as well as efficiency but laptops with the older generation of i5 and i7 could be found for $500-700, a far cry from the $1700 they were available for 6 months before. If you're willing to buy slightly older technology, the newer components can lead to massive savings for you especially as manufacturers and shops try to clear out their stocks. So what's new in the world of CPUs?

Intel

Intel is on the verge of releasing its new Ivy Bridge processors built on the 22nm architecture. They should by unveiled early next year and released soon after. It promises processors with more cores, more power and more efficiency than the previous generation as well as bringing 6 core processes to a more mainstream level (although still at the higher end). Obviously the high end will be well above $1000 but it should bring prices of existing Sandy Bridge processors down significantly. Sandy Bridge should be fine for the majority of people and is perfectly adequate for gaming as well. The potential cost savings are huge for those who want to build a cheap desktop or buy a new laptop. The advantages of upgrading to Ivy Bridge would be significant mainly for laptop users. The 22nm manufacturing process means less heat generated with more power. It should also be good news for overclockers especially due to the already high clock speeds and availability of multiplier unlocked processors.

AMD

AMD has already released their Bulldozer processors which includes the highest clock speed processor currently available however benchmarks have been disappointing. An interesting direction AMD seems to be taking is in launching Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) which aim to combine the roles of CPUs and graphics cards into one. This has the advantage of utilising the power of often unused graphics cards for everyday tasks. This also provides the benefit of lower power usage and less components in the system. This new concept will be of particular importance to laptops due to these key aspects. AMD is expected to replace its Bulldozer processors with the new Piledriver architecture in mid-late 2012. One key point about AMD processors is they are also significantly cheaper than Intel ones but offer similar performance. These soon to be released processors are capable of competing directly with both Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors from Intel and can be an excellent choice for those with a tight budget not looking to skimp on performance.

This is a brief summary of things to come in 2012. If you are considering building or buying a new computer, you might want to wait a few months for these new technologies to be released, either to have the latest and greatest or save a few bucks on the previous generation products. Please note that this information is based on leaked roadmaps and may not be 100% accurate, it is just meant to be used as a rough guide. The next post will cover motherboards.

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Pros

• Lots to do
• Heaps of cars
• Premium models look amazing
• Online is fun
• Tracks are realistic with time of day, weather etc.
• Challenges

Cons

• Early races are too easy
• Disparity of realism between cars and tracks
• Progressive damage
• Can't do endurance events in a combination of a-spec and b-spec

Introduction

The long awaited Gran Turismo 5 is finally here. It has gone through a couple of delays but the finished product is ready and waiting for purchase. I must say that the game doesn't disappoint. It is addictive, fun and awesome but there are a few problems with it which seem easy enough to fix in updates.

Review

The game starts off with a 8GB installation which although the timer says will take 20 minutes, it will probably take about an hour to complete. You start off the game by choosing a used car under 20,000 credits and start racing. Some notable differences between GT4 and GT5 is that the a-spec and b-spec modes are separate now so you have to complete the same event in b-spec and a-spec and there are separate levels for each. A-spec is where you do the races while b-spec is when you are the "race manager" and you tell your driver how to race. One of the problems comes in the fact that unlike Gran Turismo 4 where if completing a 24 hour race, you could swap between a-spec and b-spec, in this case you cannot swap so you have to complete the event in both a-spec and b-spec. There has also been a lot of talk about the premium vs standard cars where standard cars are just upscaled from GT4 and look like crap. I found that this is not the case. The standard cars still look good but it is unfortunate that there is no cockpit views and there is a very notable difference between the premium and standard cars. The premium cars are simply amazing. The attention to detail is staggering and everything looks so perfect. The cockpit view was extremely fun to race in and it felt realistic but I couldn't get the head tracking to work so I was a bit disappointed about that.

The new leveling system is another addition which makes the game a little bit more difficult. Certain cars can only be bought at certain levels which means having the money isn't enough to buy any car you want, as well as this, certain event can only be done when you reach a certain level, kind of like the licenses in GT4. Licenses are still there in GT5 but they play a much smaller role. They are mostly there to help you improve your driving and I think it is an excellent change. Getting licenses was sometimes a pain and me being a perfectionist, I always want to get all gold. This way i can play through the game and do licences at my leisure. Another interesting inclusion is the special events where there are different challenges and where you try out different race types like NASCAR, karting and rally and I found these a lot of fun but there were too few challenges to do. They were also rewarding because you unlock things like new photo-mode locations and I found this an interesting thing to do when you get a new car. The photos come out looking realistic and with the SLR capabilities you can experiment a lot. Unfortunately, the race events were not the same. They were essentially the same as Gran Turismo 4 and because the special events made it so easy to level up, i found the beginner and amateur events way too easy and hence they were boring. Maybe some horsepower and weight restrictions would make the events a lot more fun and more of a challenge than something you do just to get the trophy and experience. I still can't believe that my Subaru Impreza WRX STI was able to enter the compact car cup. The one-make events were more interesting because they were a lot closer but overall, i think that there should be more events with more challenge.

Damage is something which has been lacking from the Gran Turismo series from the beginning but now it is here it is controversial. In theory, the progressive damage system sounded good. This is where as you level up, the damage becomes more realistic. To unlock full damage you need to make it to level 40. When I started playing the game though, I realised two things. Firstly, level 40 is incredibly hard and time consuming to get to and secondly, I found myself as i was playing to want to turn damage on so i could see the full effects of my massive crash. If only there was an option to turn the damage on and off at will, it would be a lot better. After seeing a few youtube videos though, once you do reach level 40, the damage is amazingly real and something worth waiting for.

One of the things which i was really looking forward to was the online mode but unfortunately, I was only able to play one free run game due to congestion. I think that the idea behind multiplayer is good but it could be improved on. Just today, with the 1.03 update mechanical damage options were added to online play. Right now there is no way of earning credits or experience through online play so there is no real incentive to playing online besides maybe racing with your friends.

One of the best things about the game is the constant updates. The creator, Yamauchi, has promised updates "every week, every month". This is something which is really good and adds heaps of potential to the game. After seeing games like Burnout Paradise which added quite a few new things just through updates, the potential Gran Turismo has is amazing. However, one of the big problems with the game is the disparity between cars and tracks. For example, premium and standard cars are different in their realism and also some tracks have weather and night racing while others do not. This doesn't happen in many games and I hope that over time all of the cars and tracks are brought to the same standard with similar options. One of the hardest things to believe is that the Bugatti Veyron is a standard car! Don't worry though, the premium Fiat 500 more than makes up for it.

Conclusion

Gran Turismo 5 is a really good game but there are a few disappointing aspects which hopefully will be fixed in the future. I wouldn't recommend it to people who are looking for an arcade game or something which is incredibly fast and crazy like Burnout or Need for Speed but if you are into racing sims then this is the game for you. Overall, the game is almost everything i hoped it would be and there are a few extra little touches which make the game just that little bit better.

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Introduction

Recently Sony released their Playstation Move, a motion controller built to compete with the Nintendo Wii. At first glance it looks like a total Wii rip off but when you get into it yoiu will see that it is so much more.

Pros

• Nice feel in the hand
• Accurate
• Fun to play with
• Reasonably priced

Cons

• Not a huge games library yet
• Australian version doesn't include the full game of Sports Champions unlike the US version

Review

Unfortunately, the starter pack only came with a demo disk but it did give me an excellent idea of what the Move could do. Playing a game such as Tumble where the player is required to use the controller to move blocks around and stack them on top of each other gives an excellent idea of the accuracy of the Move controller. The blocks can be moved around with pinpoint accuracy and due to depth perception the block can be moved forward and backward as well. The only thing limiting you is if you have shaky hands as every single vibration you make with your hand will translate into the game. While playing games like Sports Champions  the apotential the move had could really be seen. Imagine Wii sports but with decent graphics and a more accurate controller. Playing sports is a lot more fun on the PS3 as opposed to the Wii because the controller is alot more accurate. This can be seen in table tennis where small movements and twists of your hand allows you to spin the ball just as it would in real life. On the Wii I have noticed that many people play the games simply by shaking their hand randomly. This is a way of tricking the system which is impossible on the PS3.

So far the games library is incredibly small though and the fact that some games require two move controllers to be played can be a dealbreaker as it requires forking out $70 for an extra controller. On top of this the little navigation controller also costs an extra $50 each. It can become quite a significant investment especially if you have more than one player. I would hold out for some better deals in the Christmas season where you might get a free game thrown in but overall it is a pretty awesome addition to any PS3 and it is completely worth it. More games will come out over time since the technology is very new.

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I had a go at the new Playstation Move today and I must say I wasn't really sure what to expect. I have a lot of friends who have a Nintendo Wii and when visiting them, I thought it was really cool but they said it gets incredibly boring after a little while. The main problem being that the games are for little kids. The Playstation move has a pretty good selection of games out right now and I played both Sports Champions and Start the Party. Sports Champions seems like such a rip off of Wii Sports but after playing it, I noticed it was so much better. Firstly, the graphics are very impressive and it really immerses you in the game as opposed too Wii's cartoonish, childish graphics. Secondly, as many of you know, the Move controller is supposed to be more accurate than the Wii's. This accuracy makes a huge difference to the game experience, for example when playing table tennis, your movements exactly match that of playing the real game. Tilting your hand slightly will allow you to put more spin on it etc. A large problem with the Wii controller was the fact that you could easily cheat with it. You can just randomly wiggle your wrist and you will get a good score. The accuracy of the Move means you cannot do this anymore. As well as this, the vibration of the Move controller adds another aspect of depth to the gameplay. When hitting a ball, you can actually feel the ball hitting your racket making the game seem very realistic.

Overall, the Move is an excellent system and offers considerable advantages over the Wii controller, which it is quite obviously trying to compete with. However, I don't think that people will be switching from Wii to Playstation but rather, Playstation owners will have motion controls added to games to add more gameplay features for existing owners. The starter pack is also a great deal, including everything you need. Unfortunately the game included in the starter pack is merely a collection of demos rather than full games so don't get confused by the term starter disc. You still need to buy a game!

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The new, slimmer and lighter PSP

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sony Corp unveiled on Tuesday a smaller, lighter PlayStation handled game device called the PSP Go, in a race to catch rival Nintendo in an intensely competitive mobile games arena.

Hours before, Nintendo said it sold more than 15 million units of its blockbuster "Wii Fit" fitness game, and plans an update -- the Wii Fit Plus -- later this year.

Sales of the Wii have dwarfed those of more technically souped-up and pricier rival consoles from Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp, by broadening its audience beyond hard-core video gamers.

On the second day of E3, the largest U.S. video games conference, Sony and Nintendo vied for the spotlight, a day after rival console-maker Microsoft charmed audiences with its "Natal": groundbreaking technology utilizing full-body motion-capture for gamers.

It was the first full day of the show, which is expected to draw some 40,000 game enthusiasts.

Many cheered and whooped at the press event at mere glimpses of new versions of popular games like "God of War" and "Super Mario Bros.," or at the mention of secretive ones like "Agent," which is being developed for the PS3 by the creators of "Grand Theft Auto."

Sony's PSP Go goes on sale October 1 in North America and Europe for about $249, before hitting stores in Japan November 1. It will be half the size of Sony's current PSP 3000 and 40 percent lighter, executives said.

Source:Reuters

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