ThruIT

Digital Illusions CE (DI), the Swedish developers behind the critically acclaimed Battlefield franchise since 2002, have revolutionized the multiplayer FPS gaming industry with their innovative open worlds and action packed game modes. They continue as the years move forward with each new addition and adaptation to the franchise.

Officer: “Is that a Macbook”

Woman: “Yes…uh… err, wait no!”

Officer: “Sorry Ma’am we are a PC only country, We are going to have to put her down.”

::Officer takes out gun, and proceeds to put three bullets into it::

Officer: “You are free to enter the country now.”

November 10th marked the release of one of this years most anticipated games yet. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. And the question on the majority of gamer’s minds is, “Will Modern Warfare 2 live up to the hype, or drown in its shortcomings?”
A few weeks prior to its release IW, the development studio behind the COD franchise, raised concerns about IW’s lack of perceived commitment to the PC platform. Posted on a fans podcast was information regarding changes to the MP aspect for PC gamers, but I’ll get into the details about the changes later. For now, lets just say it was enough to start a forum where 200,000+ PC gamers stated their intention to boycott the game. Needless to say, as an avid PC Gamer, I probably wouldn’t have thrown down 60 bucks for a game that disregards certain platforms if I hadn’t already pre-purchased it, but maybe I’m jumping to conclusions.

I don’t think I’ve ever had such an enjoyable process configuring a newly built PC then the experience I just had with my new DIY project/sweet awesome toy.

I decided recently that the time was right to take the plunge into Windows 7, a decision brought upon me by the release of the P55 chipset (with new i5/i7’s from Intel) and the release of ATI’s new 5800 series graphics cards (more about that in my earlier post). The mainstream has never looked so good, with the Intel i5 selling for $199 complete with four cores and low power usage. Benchmarks have the i5 besting the quad Core 2 Duo’s and even the Core 2 Extreme in some benchmarks.

For the most part, there are two main choices a consumer has when purchasing a new Personal Computer (or PC): buy a pre-built computer or design and build your own. Surprisingly the topic of Build vs Buy is more important than you might thing. In fact, this little conundrum finds itself in other areas of information technology as well (for example building software in house or outsourcing).

For those of you thinking, “I don’t need a new computer yet”… take this into account: – the average lifespan of a computer is only 3-5 years, according to this article. However, in terms of compatibility with software and new hardware it’s more like 2 – 3 years, depending on what it’s being used for. That’s not to say you can’t continue to use a 10 year old PC; however, it probably will not support newer programs and hardware.