Ayesha Takia to hit tamil screens

Vijay’s Azhagiya Tamil Magan is almost reaching its final stages and is slated for a Diwali release. And Ilayathalapathy is gearing up for his next venture Kuruvi, to be directed by Dharani and produced by Udhayanidhi. Meanwhile, the actor has given the go ahead signal to producer London Karunas and the movie will be directed by Prabhu Deva.

With the arrest of Salman Khan, uncertainties loom large over the Hindi Pokkiri, which also happens to be Prabhu Deva’s directorial venture. Incidentally, Ayesha Takia starring in the Hindi Pokkiri has been signed up for this London Karunas-Prabhu Deva’s project too. Being a double heroine subject, the other leading actress is yet to be finalized. Since both Prabhu Deva and Vijay are busy with their ongoing projects, this new venture will start rolling once they are free from their earlier commitments.

In the meantime, London Karunas has two projects on hands – one a Jeyam Ravi-starrer directed by E-fame Jananathan and the other with Ajith in the lead directed by Raju Sundaram.

Far cry 2 - update

Far Cry 2 Exclusive Impressions - Dynamic Environments and Savannah Battles.

-Ubisoft's sequel to the excellent shooter Far Cry will offer a huge, seamless experience powered by some serious technology. We take an exclusive look.

The original Far Cry was a first-person shooter that started off on a vast tropical island, and it offered a remarkable open-ended experience as you fought squadrons of soldiers in sprawling outdoor environments. Then, you discovered a claustrophobic military complex and spent the rest of the game fighting mutant monsters in tight corridors--though that part of the game isn't remembered as fondly. The sequel will embrace the strengths of the first game by pushing even harder on the open-ended nature of the original game. In fact, the game will be built entirely around the concept of open exploration, offering a world that's about 50 square kilometers in virtual size. We had a chance to take a look at the powerful and impressive tech that will power the sequel, as well as to see several of the gun battles in motion.

It's hard to say which aspect of Far Cry 2 is most impressive--the game's powerful tech and excellent audiovisual effects help create a beautiful-looking, constantly changing world full of clever enemies, as well as weapons and vehicles with realistic damage models. However, its fast-paced gameplay looks extremely challenging and should offer plenty of opportunities to use very different strategies in how you want to approach your missions--whether using brute force, sniping enemies from a distance, or even using hit-and-run tactics by keeping a fast vehicle nearby. One thing's for sure: Far Cry 2 is one of the most impressive games we've seen in a long time. The game is scheduled for release later this year on the PC and was recently confirmed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as well. We're told that the console versions are being developed with the PC version and will feature all the content of the PC versions. The console versions will ship some time after the PC version hits store shelves.

There Will Be Blood (2007) - Info

There Will Be Blood (2007)

User Rating: 8.9/10 (17,782 votes)

Overview
Director:
Paul Thomas Anderson

Writers (WGA):
Paul Thomas Anderson (screenplay)
Upton Sinclair (novel)

Release Date:
11 January 2008 (USA)

Genre:
Drama

Tagline:
There Will Be Greed. There Will Be Vengeance.

Plot Outline:
A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.

Plot Keywords:
Greed / Oil / 1910s / Father Son Relationship / Silver Mine

Awards:
Nominated for 8 Oscars. Another 31 wins & 33 nominations

Cast: (Cast overview, first billed only)
Daniel Day-Lewis ... Daniel Plainview
Martin Stringer ... Silver Assay Worker #1
Kevin J. O'Connor ... Henry Brands
Jacob Stringer ... Silver Assay Worker #3
Matthew Braden Stringer ... Silver Assay Worker #2
Ciarán Hinds ... Fletcher Hamilton
Dillon Freasier ... H.W. Plainview
Joseph Mussey ... Silver Assay Worker #4
Barry Del Sherman ... H.B. Ailman
Russell Harvard ... H.W. Plainview - Older
Harrison Taylor ... Baby HW
Stockton Taylor ... Baby HW
Paul F. Tompkins ... Prescott
Kevin Breznahan ... Signal Hill Man
Jim Meskimen ... Signal Hill Married Man

Virtual Lunar Trip

What do you get when a legendary aerospace giant joins hands with a leader in the Internet space? Satellites beaming images to the internet? Images of dying stars, fly-by views of planet rings, panoramic views of planetary surfaces? Perhaps webcasts beamed live from the International Space Station (ISS).

The two companies, NASA and Google, have been discussing an R&D alliance since 2005. They have finally outlined their joint projects. With Google's help, NASA plans to make its rich content available over the Internet. According to NASA, soon there will be Google Earth Flyovers available for the surfaces of Mars and the moon. We can also expect real-time weather forecasting and visualization, as well as tracking of the ISS and space shuttle activity.

Joint projects in the future will go beyond melding NASA data into Google application. Other planned projects deal with human-computer interaction, education-related collaborations and possibly even joint missions.

New Age - Speak for Yourself - Imogen Heap

Album Name : Speak for Yourself
Artist Name : Imogen Heap
Original Release Date: September 27, 2005
Genre : New Age / Electronica / Alternative / Indie Rock

Editorial Reviews: (Amazon.com)
If the voice sounds familiar, that may be because a couple of tracks have been featured on The O.C., while Frou Frou's "Let Go" appeared in Garden State. (Frou Frou is a collaboration between Heap and producer Guy Sigsworth.) Her sophomore release, after a UK-only debut, is a fine showcase for the singer/songwriter's swooping vocals. Her style, which incorporates layers of multi-tracking, lies somewhere between Sinead O'Connor's banshee howl and Jem's more delicate musings. There's more of a groove to her ouvre, however. At times, she almost sounds like Norway's Annie--by way of Kate Bush. The overall effect is plush and luxurious, if occasionally generic (a more stripped-down approach would really allow that instrument to shine). The one song that doesn't quite fit the electro-pop pattern is the vocoder-saturated "Hide and Seek," in which Heap enters Laurie Anderson territory (specifically 1982's "O Superman"). It's a risk that pays off, although its placement midway through the recording threatens to throw the balance off. (It would have made more sense at the end.) Aside from writing and singing, the multi-talented musician also recorded and produced Speak for Yourself. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

For further details click here

New Age - Aman Iman: Water is Life - Tinariwen

Album Name : Aman Iman: Water is Life
Artist Name : Tinariwen
Original Release Date : March 13, 2007



Editorial Review (Amazon.com) :
When you hear this music clan -- group just doesn't seem to be the right designation for a band of nomad desert musicians/soldiers –- a listener can hear the calm of the desert night air and the serenity of the musicians who live there. The Taureg people truly seem to be of the land and never more so than here on the band's third album, Aman Iman. The loping percussion and the circular guitar lines conjure wide-open desert images evoked in the repetitive grooves. Some may grumble that the members are playing much as they did on the first and second albums, blending Arabic song structures, desert wails, and primordial blues guitar riffs, but for it to be any different would be akin to asking the people in Tinariwen to change who they are. Never have words been truer than those of the title, but this album also appends that sentiment, proving that music is life for the desert Taureg too. --Tad Hendrickson

For further details, click here.

New Age - An Ancient Muse by Loreena McKennitt

Album Name : An Ancient Muse
Artist Name : Loreena Mckennitt
Original Release Date : November 21, 2006
Genre : New Age / Celtic New Age

Editorial Review (Amazon) :

It's been nearly a decade since Loreena McKennitt's last studio album, The Book of Secrets, but An Ancient Muse picks up the caravan exactly where she left off on her mystical journey through the cultures of the Middle East and northern Sahara. The Canadian singer opens this album the same way as she did her last two recordings: with an incantation, calling out in a wordless voice across an echoing space, cleansing the air and the mind. What follows is a lot like those albums as well, a pan-global excursion centered on Middle Eastern themes and instruments cast into a dramatic exotica. Oud, dumbek, kanoun, hurdy-gurdy, duduk, nyckleharpe (a Swedish-keyed fiddle), and other ancient sounds from the region and beyond ornament her music, though "ornament" might no longer be accurate. With the exception of Hugh Marsh's gypsy violin solos and a handful of other players, it's the Western instruments that serve as ornaments on An Ancient Muse. McKennitt long ago evolved the Celtic sound that launched her career. She's virtually abandoned the harp, which hasn't appeared on her CDs since 1991's The Visit. The lone uillean pipe on "Beneath a Phrygian Sky" sounds like an echo calling from the McKennitt's past. Nevertheless, the Celtic ballad form remains central to her music, and she still draws inspiration from ye olde writers of the British Isles. Lyrics from Sir Walter Scott adorn "The English Ladye and the Knight," recalling "The Lady of Shalott." But despite McKennitt's soaring alto, the tale drags under the dirge-like meter and ponderous arrangement. The epic track of this album is the aforementioned "Beneath a Phrygian Sky," with distorted electric guitar accents and an acoustic guitar melody carrying McKennitt on another journey into her romanticized version of the ancient world. --John Diliberto

Apple rumor site Think Secret shuts down due to legal pressure

After years of protracted legal battles, a website dedicated to news and rumors about upcoming Apple products has been shut down. In a settlement with Think Secret owner Nicholas Ciarelli, the website will cease operations, but will not disclose the names of its sources. Further details of the settlement will remain confidential. A four-line statement on the website is the only information available about the deal, calling it “a positive solution for both sides”.

Apple is well known for refusing to comment on unreleased products, regularly sending cease-and-desist notices to anyone who publishes information that is claimed to be leaked from inside sources. Think Secret has been a thorn in its side for many years, and has often published accurate news of unreleased products. Apple has spent many years trying to use legal pressure to discover Think Secret’s sources.

The settlement now raises questions as to how long independent bloggers can survive it corporations such as Apple uses all the legal and financial resources at their disposal in sustained campaigns against them.

Sony & Microsoft announces support for DIVX video in their consoles

In a surprising move, both Sony and Microsoft announced that their gaming consoles PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively, would support the playback of compressed DivX video.DivX has long been a format favored by enthusiasts and movie pirates because of its high quality, small file sizes and lack of digital copy protection hassles.

Both Sony and Microsoft now seem to have realized that consumers demand seamless, trouble free media experiences. Both want to make inroads into customers’ living rooms, which will be difficult to achieve if they force users to convert their video files into esoteric formats and deal with copy-protection error messages.

Intel shows off miniscule flash drive

Intel announced its new Z-P140 PATA solid-state drive for mobile devices in mid December. The device, to be available in 2GB and 4 GB capacities, is smaller than a fingernail. Measuring just 1.8mm in thickness and 0.6 grams in weight, it is far smaller and lighter than current 1.8-inch solid-state drives.
The Z-P140’s controller can address up to 16 GB of flash memory, enabling mobile devices in the near future to be equipped with full operating systems and applications, with enough room for storing photos, music and videos.
Intel already makes the Z-U130, a USB-based solid-state drive that is suited for ultra mobile, embedded and low-cost PCs. A serial ATA (SATA) version could be announced in the near future as well.

Conflict : Denied Ops

Conflict : Denied Ops

In Conflict: Denied Ops, you take control of Graves and Lang, two CIA Special Activities Division (S.A.D.) agents. These are the guys they send in when things really hit the fan and the government needs to maintain a layer of plausible deniability with the mission if and when it goes pear-shaped. Unlike some other team-based military-themed shooters, Denied Ops gives you the ability to control one character, give orders to your teammate, or even switch characters on the fly by pressing a button. The command system covers the basics, such as movement, regrouping on your position, and suppressive fire, and extends all the way to character-specific objectives such as protecting an escort NPC or planting C4 to blow up enemy artillery. This flexibility means that while you will realistically want to swap characters to take advantage of their weapon loadouts--Graves has a sniper rifle and Lang wields a light machine gun--you can feasibly spend as much or as little time as you wish with one character.

As good as the team AI is (provided you tell it what to do), we can't help but recommend you don't leave it to its own devices, as we found in our playtime that it tended to lag behind the player you have control of unless you continue to issue movement and attack orders as you move. We're not sure if it's a casualty of our test build, but while you could command your second player to jump into a vehicle and man a turret, swapping seat positions and asking him to drive didn't pan out the way we had hoped. We sat there waiting for him to do something, and even after we issued orders to drive, he would jerk forward a couple of feet before coming to a complete stop and refusing to budge. On the plus side, the game doesn't have to be played alone. It features split screen, system link, and online co-op play in the campaign mode. The game can hold its own in the single-player mode, but we can see this game being the most fun for two players to take on together. It also gives you the option to alternate between characters on a mission-by-mission basis rather than always assuming the tough-guy or sneaky-guy role.

Once killed, you'll have to switch characters and heal the fallen soldier, because leaving a character for more than three minutes of dirt nap will see you fail a mission. Resurrecting is as easy as activating the "heal" function, which sees you stabbing your bud in the arm or neck with some kind of magical anti-bullet serum. There's no limit on the number of times you can jab your wingman, so provided you can get to him safely, you'll be able to continue as long as one character is standing. Unfortunately, the hit zones on both healing and environmental interaction (like ladder climbing) are quite small and use the same button to perform a melee attack--A on the Xbox controller, and the space bar in the PC version--meaning that often when you're trying to resuscitate your fallen partner, climb a ladder, or climb onto a small ledge, you'll swing the butt of your gun, doing your friend a disservice with a sharp blow to the face or swinging ineffectively at brick walls.

Like with your pseudo-necromancy skills, there's no limit to the amount of ammunition you can carry for your weapons, making every target a potential lead holder. Unfortunately, smoke, flash, and frag grenades are a different story, since you'll be able to carry only a couple of each. Luckily for you, scattered around the levels are ammo supply boxes, letting you refill your ammo, so you'll never be left wanting for one more flash before breaching a room full of enemies.


The ammo concept gives the game a more arcadey feel than many other first-person shooters, and the automatic weapon upgrades you'll receive along the way take a lot of the fun out of specialist roles such as heavy weapons or sniping, since you arent required to spend in-game currency or complete challenges other than finish missions.

The game opens with very little in the way of backstory--which is befitting given the covert-ops nature of the team you're controlling--and drops you in Venezuela charged with infiltrating a communications post housed in the ruins of the Santa Cecilia Monastery. Once inside, you'll need to locate and acquire information relating to General Ramirez and his potential unfriendly nuclear capabilities. This first mission is set in a worn castle complete with large sandstone brick buildings. Inside you'll find plenty of henchmen trying to stop your advance towards the basement, which houses a slightly out-of-place-looking server cluster that you'll need to destroy using Graves' C4 packs. Doing so unleashes waves of foes to take care of while you scramble back through the ruins towards your next objective. Back in natural light, you're targeted by an attack helicopter, but since you don't yet have a rocket launcher, you'll need to take out the gunner, sending the chopper crashing to the ground.

Following the twisting cobblestone paths in the bowels of the monastery leads to an open area where--depending on your method--you'll need to clear multiple hostiles. We found that Graves and his rifle were most useful here, with a crouched stance giving the best mix of agility and rifle accuracy at range. Explosive barrels litter the place, making their collateral damage from being shot the most visually dramatic and effective way to take out hiding groups of foes.

Once clear, you'll get your first chance with a vehicle, and using a double right mouse click or pulling the left controller trigger while hovering your weapon sights over the tank will order your mate to get aboard. After a roll through the countryside and blowing up some RPG-wielding soldiers, you'll confront an enemy tank. The Halo-style driving makes it easy to lurch forward and fire off a cheeky round before ducking back behind cover. Environmental building destruction is scripted, so there's no risk of losing your cover. Rinse and repeat before friendly air support drops by to blow up a barricade blocking your progress, and you can stroll over the finishing line to complete the first mission.

After completing the first mission, you'll open one of three mission choices in different locations, and you can do them in whichever order you wish. Here you can choose between Sveta Archipelago and investigating the Sveta-Ostrov whaling station based on intel from the stolen data at the monastery. Then there's Metuwe Township in Rwanda where you'll be in search of a phantom radio transmission. Lastly there's Kolyma Castle in Siberia, which sees you tracking down known underworld warlord Alexsei Morchenko and his nuclear suitcase bombs. Regardless of which mission you choose, you'll complete tasks like rescuing and protecting informants, escorting prisoners to safety, holding a position until reinforcements arrive, or destroying SAM (surface-to-air missile) sites. Completing these levels unlocks additional weapon upgrades, including a rifle silencer, a shotgun attachment, a 200-round box magazine for Lang's machine gun, and a 40mm grenade for those close-quarter firefights.

Regardless of what objective you pick, the second mission begins with weapon upgrades, giving Lang access to a HEAT rocket launcher, which is useful for those helicopters and tanks that will try to stop you along the way to your task. Graves gets a gun camera for his rifle, allowing you to take shots from behind cover by engaging the camera with the left and right D pad buttons and with the Q and E buttons for PC players. It's not as dramatic as being able to shoot down threats at range, but since you can swap characters at will, you can always find a safe spot, switch, destroy your target, and go back to sniping in just a few button presses. With the exception of hallway clearing--and even this becomes easier once you have the shotgun upgrade in conjunction with unlimited ammo--we found we spent a lot of our time playing as Graves. Often you'll sneak up on lone soldiers facing the opposite away--who are prime candidates for single-shot skull ventilation. Headshots are by far the easiest way to eliminate enemies, with torso rounds even from the 7.62mm rifle taking an average of two to three shots to get targets down.

Conflict: Denied Ops seems to be shaping up quite well. Its combination of fun, solid single-player and online co-op play looks like it may give the title some legs. Check back for a full review when the game is released in February 2008.

Apple slim laptop

Apple launched the world's slimmest laptop. Its thickness is comparable to that of a sheet of paper. When you view it from the side you'll be able to see only to sheets of paper held together. But when opened up, it had all the capabilities of an ultra power notebook to cater the need of a businessman. This ultra slim model will definitely be a competition to the other notebook manufacturers but alleged reports suggest that there will be many more slim models coming out from the others as well in the nearer future. So are you ready to get slimmer??

Kumble bags 600th wicket

It will in the history book as a golden page, Kumble became the first Indian bowler to cross 600 test wickets. On the second day of the Perth test Kumble achieved this feat by scalping the in-form Andrew Symonds. He is the third bowler in the world to cross the 600 wicket mark. Only Shane Warne and Muthaih Muralidharan are ahead of Jumbo. Australians were reeling at 179 for 6 in their first innings. Earlier Indians were bowled out for 330 runs. Dhoni managed to score only 19 runs, Pathan scored 27, Kumble out for 1 and RP singh for a duck. The Indian Pace battery ran through the Australian top order. Hussey out for duck, Rogers managing only 4 runs, Phil out for just 8 and Ponting getting himself out at 20. But Australia recovered from 67 for 5 to reach 148 for 5 at tea. Thanks to the sublime batting display from Andrews and Gilly. But then Kumble came in and took the wicket of Symmo in an important juncture. Indians are having the upper hand in this test match. But there is still a lot of time left for the Aussies to recover and turn the tables.

Transfer market

Fred disappoints Tottenham fans as he plans to stay in the Lyon for years to come. He said that he was happy with the current club and will not leave to any other club. Lassa Diarra is confident of striking a 5.5 million deal for a move from Arsenal to Portsmouth. Lucas Podolski expressed his desire to play for Manchester City. So Sven Goran Ericsson is set to sign his first player for this year in the January transfer window. Seria A leaders Inter Milan have signed Maniche on loan for the rest of the season. Meanwhile Juventus are planning to sign Diego, the Brazilian play maker who is valued at 30 million pounds.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 - Sneak Peek

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Courtesy : Gamespot.com

The first Rainbow Six: Vegas was a smash hit for Ubisoft in late 2006, winning over the critics and topping the chart with relative ease. While it paired a fantastic single-player mode with rewarding multiplayer action, it was the spectacular location that really caught the imagination. With so many fans still playing the game over a year later, a sequel was a sure thing; thus, Ubisoft Montreal is readying it for release on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in March 2008. While that doesn't seem far off, the publisher has remained completely tight-lipped about the game--until now. With that in mind, we were at the front of the queue when Ubisoft offered journalists a first chance to see the developers and get a first look at the game in action.
 
Rainbow Six Vegas left players with a cliffhanger finale, and we have been eagerly waiting to find out how the story will progress. Although Vegas 2 will follow directly on from the events of the first game, it will also fill in some of the gaps in the original storyline, covering events both before and during it. From a story point of view, it's almost as if it's a sequel, a prequel, and a director's cut all rolled into one. And despite the success of the original's cliffhanger ending, the developers promise Vegas 2 will offer an "explosive finale" that will end this story for good.

Aside from bringing the story arc of Rainbow Six: Vegas to completion, there are a number of other things that Ubisoft Montreal wants to do with the sequel. The big idea is that you'll always be improving your character, whether you're playing through the single-player campaign or some of the brand new multiplayer modes. It's all determined by the Advanced Combat and Specialisation (ACES) system, which dynamically assesses how you're performing based on assault, marksmanship, and close combat ratings.

These rewards will be linked to your style of play, so if you prefer to blow through doors and use grenades, you're going to be given more explosives with which to play around. If you hang around and take people out from afar, you're likely to be given a shiny new sniper rifle instead. However you play, the more you engage in the world, the more you'll be able to add to your arsenal. Of the 11 new weapons, Ubisoft dropped in mentions of the M468 rifle and the SR-25 sniper rifle--the latter being a reward for good marksmanship.

With all this customisation going on, it would be a shame to have to give your new toys to a run-of-the-mill main character. The Persistent Elite Creation system allows you to change every aspect of your avatar's appearance and gives you the opportunity to create a black, Hispanic, or female character for the first time. The only restriction is that your main character is called Bishop, and you're the leader of the Rainbow Six squad. You won't be spending too much time looking at your main character in the game, though, because Ubisoft's aim is to make the game as interactive and seamless as possible.
The city of sin is back for a starring role in Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.
While all these new features will definitely be a draw for fans, one of the main attractions will be visiting the Vegas strip one more time. Sin City will be replicated using an upgraded version of Unreal Engine 3.0, but more interesting than the technology is Ubisoft's stated intention to recreate "Vegas and beyond." This means new locales, such as streets and back alleys, industrial areas and oil refineries, and even the city's famous monorail stations and strip clubs. Playing as elite government soldiers, you won't be knocking on front doors wearing a cheeky smile though--you'll still be rappelling down the side of buildings, smashing through huge windows, and using whatever slot machine, dustbin, or stripper you can find for cover.

The combat in the original Vegas had a superb cover-and-fire mechanic, and technological improvements should twist this gameplay dynamic on its head for the sequel. You can no longer stand behind fragile objects safe in the knowledge that you're hidden because wood and barrels will break apart under gunfire. This has a substantial effect on your artificial intelligence teammates, whose routines have also been rewritten to react more realistically to the situations in which they find themselves. The development team demonstrated this by showing how previous AI would run on straight lines to get to whatever target you sent them, but in the sequel, they head to a point in a fire-and-move pattern, alternately stopping to cover teammates and running themselves.

In addition to offering new Vegas locales to explore, Vegas 2 clearly aims to reclaim the series' position as the thinking-person's shooter. It will still include such elements as rappelling and the snake cam. You'll also have to order your men to take corners and break through certain doors. Additionally, there'll be picture-in-picture overlays on the tactical map so that you can easily see things from your teammates' points of view, as well as your own. Your squad is also much chattier than before, feeding you intel and status reports over the radio as you move around. The idea is that you'll be able to make more informed decisions and react accordingly; perhaps ordering your team to suppress a zone that it has told you houses a number of enemies.

The single-player campaign is shaping up to offer another 10 to 12 hours of gameplay, but it's the multiplayer that really promises the long-term challenge. Housed on the disc will be 13 maps that mix brand new designs with Rainbow Six classics. The team says that it has tried to improve the layout of the maps for this outing with better choke points to encourage bouts of intense action. The improved graphics engine will offer the same benefit online as offline, so you can expect the same level of detail when you play locally or look further afield for a challenge. The standard multiplayer modes on offer will be assassination and conquest, although that's at the expense of the capture-the-flag-style mode. Ubisoft is also promising two new multiplayer modes, although at this stage, they're strictly under wraps. We expect more information before release, but for now, we're being kept in the dark.

On the other hand, Ubisoft was only too eager to reveal that the entire career mode will be playable cooperatively, with the second player joining in as a character called Knight (chess references abound). While Bishop will play lead and order the AI teammates around, the second player can jump in and out seamlessly, allowing him or her to play for short bouts or the entire game if he or she wishes. The much-loved terrorist hunt mode is also making a return, and you'll be shooting down a line of respawning bad guys in either single or multiplayer. Up to four players can engage in a group hunt online or one player can go it alone with two AI teammates.

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 looks set to capitalise on the popularity of the first game with a sequel that offers a proper end to the story and new gameplay elements. While it does appear very similar to its predecessor at first glance, the new locales and the character upgrade system look like they'll be a good enough reason visit the gambling capital once again. We're pleased to hear that the main campaign will playable cooperatively and the many multiplayer modes on offer should provide a good deal of longevity post-release. With a March release for all three platforms already tantalisingly close, expect more information on the game shortly.

I Am Legend - Info

I Am Legend (2007)

User Rating: 7.3/10 (59,219 votes)

Overview

Director:

Francis Lawrence

Writers (WGA):
Mark Protosevich (screenplay) and
Akiva Goldsman (screenplay) ...


Release Date:
14 December 2007 (USA) view trailer

Genre:
Drama / Horror / Sci-Fi / Thriller

Tagline:
The last man on earth is not alone

Plot Outline:
Years after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure.

Plot Keywords:
Post Apocalyptic / Self Mutilation / New York City / Lion / Helicopter


Cast (Cast overview, first billed only)
Will Smith ... Robert Neville
Alice Braga ... Anna
Charlie Tahan ... Ethan
Salli Richardson ... Zoe
Willow Smith ... Marley
Darrell Foster ... Mike - Military Escort
April Grace ... TV Personality
Dash Mihok ... Alpha Male
Joanna Numata ... Alpha Female
Samuel Glen ... Military Driver - Jay
James Michael McCauley ... Male Evacuee (as James McCauley)
Marin Ireland ... Woman Evacuee
Pedro Mojica ... Sergeant
Anthony C. Mazza ... Evacuation Cop (as Anthony Mazza)
Steve Cirbus ... Military Police

Alvin and the Chipmunks - Info

Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)

User Rating: 5.7/10 (4,361 votes)

Overview

Director:
Tim Hill
Writers (WGA):
Jon Vitti (screenplay) and
Will McRobb (screenplay) ...
 
Release Date:
14 December 2007 (USA)view trailer
Genre:
Comedy / Family / Fantasy / Music
Tagline:
Here comes trouble.
Plot Outline:
A struggling songwriter named Dave Seville finds success when he comes across a trio of singing chipmunks: mischievous leader Alvin, brainy Simon, and chubby, impressionable Theodore.

Plot Keywords:
Part Computer Animation / Pineapple / Based On Cartoon / Note / Ladder

Cast (Cast overview, first billed only)
Jason Lee ... Dave
David Cross ... Ian
Cameron Richardson ... Claire
Justin Long ... Alvin (voice)
Jane Lynch ... Gail
Matthew Gray Gubler ... Simon (voice)
Jesse McCartney ... Theodore (voice)
Allison Karman ... Female Intern #1
Tiara Parker ... Female Intern #2
Kira Verrastro ... Female Intern #3
Veronica Alicino ... Amy
Beth Riesgraf ... Mother in Store
Kevin Symons ... Ted
Greg 'G-Spot' Siebel ... Photographer
Oliver Muirhead ... Butler

National Treasure: Book of Secrets - Info

National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

User Rating: 6.8/10 (14,083 votes)

Overview

Director:
Jon Turteltaub

Writers:
Cormac Wibberley (screenplay) &
Marianne Wibberley (screenplay) ...
 
Release Date:
11 January 2008 (India) view trailer

Genre:
Action / Adventure / Mystery / Thriller

Plot Outline:
Treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage) looks to discover the truth behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, by uncovering the mystery within the 18 pages missing from assassin John Wilkes Booth's diary.

Plot Keywords:
Birthday Party / Buckingham Palace / FBI / Mount Rushmore / U.S. President

Cast (Cast overview, first billed only)
Nicolas Cage ... Ben Gates
Justin Bartha ... Riley Poole
Diane Kruger ... Abigail Chase
Jon Voight ... Patrick Gates
Helen Mirren ... Emily Appleton
Ed Harris ... Mitch Wilkinson
Harvey Keitel ... Sadusky
Bruce Greenwood ... The President
Ty Burrell ... Connor
Michael Maize ... Daniel
Timothy V. Murphy ... Seth
Alicia Coppola ... FBI Agent Spellman
Albert Hall ... Dr. Nichols
Joel Gretsch ... Thomas Gates
Christian Camargo ... John Wilkes Booth

Juno - Info

Juno (2007)

User Rating: 8.4/10 (23,158 votes)

Overview

Director:
Jason Reitman

Writer (WGA):
Diablo Cody (written by)

Release Date:
25 December 2007 (USA)view trailer

Genre:
Comedy / Drama

Tagline:
A comedy about growing up... and the bumps along the way.

Plot Outline:

Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child.

Plot Keywords:

Teacher / High School / Childbirth / Ultrasound / Abortion more

Awards:
Nominated for 3 Golden Globes. Another 20 wins & 13 nominations more

Cast (Cast overview, first billed only)
Ellen Page ... Juno MacGuff
Michael Cera ... Paulie Bleeker
Jennifer Garner ... Vanessa Loring
Jason Bateman ... Mark Loring
Allison Janney ... Bren MacGuff
J.K. Simmons ... Mac MacGuff
Olivia Thirlby ... Leah
Eileen Pedde ... Gerta Rauss
Rainn Wilson ... Rollo
Daniel Clark ... Steve Rendazo
Darla Vandenbossche ... Bleeker's Mom
Aman Johal ... Vijay
Valerie Tian ... Su-Chin
Emily Perkins ... Punk Receptionist
Kaaren de Zilva ... Ultrasound Technician

The Bucket List - Info

The Bucket List (2007)

User Rating: 7.9/10 (4,809 votes)
 
Overview

Director:
Rob Reiner

Writer (WGA):
Justin Zackham (written by)

Release Date:
11 January 2008 (USA)view trailer

Genre:
Adventure / Comedy / Drama.

Plot Outline:
Two terminally ill men escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.

Cast (Cast overview, first billed only)
Jack Nicholson ... Edward Cole
Morgan Freeman ... Carter Chambers
Sean Hayes ... Thomas
Beverly Todd ... Virginia Chambers
Rob Morrow ... Dr. Hollins
Alfonso Freeman ... Roger Carter
Rowena King ... Angelica
Annton Berry Jr. ... Kai
Verda Bridges ... Shandra
Destiny Brownridge ... Maya
Brian Copeland ... Lee
Ian Anthony Dale ... Instructor
Jennifer Defrancisco ... Emily
Angela Gardner ... Female Administrator
Noel Gugliemi ... Mechanic

Indian Laptop market grows by 85 percent in 3Q 2007

Over 5 Lakh laptops were shipped in the third quarter of the year 2007, representing an 84.8 percent increase over the figure for the same period last year, according to a study released by IDC India in December. Out of these, 43 percent were shipped to the SOHO segment, with the enterprise and education segments following.

The northern states, comprising of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh together accounted for 31.8 percent of laptop shipments, representing a 104 percent year-on-year growth.

Desktop PC shipments in the same period grew by 10.1 percent. In terms of brands shipped, HP maintained its lead in both desktops and laptops, with market shares of 15.2 percent and 37.8 percent respectively.

Email lottery scammer arrested

A man who allegedly conned people around the world out of more than $10 million has been arrested after a two-year Interpol investigation. Ali Mohamed Kdoud, 39, was arrested at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus as he was trying to flee.
Kdoud is charged with having defrauded internet users through common scamming techniques. One such method is to send out emails telling people they have won a lottery. The victims are persuaded into disclosing personal information and bank account details for the “prize money” to be deposited, often paying token amounts as lottery fees. The details are then used to empty their bank accounts.

F-Secure releases its year-end online security roundup

The amount of malware detected in the year 2007 equals the amount detected in the last 20 years combined, according to F-Secure. There were close to a quarter of a million detections in total at the beginning of 2007, whereas the figure stands at close to half a million now. Malware authors have been producing variants in bulk. Genuine innovation appeared to be on the decline, being replaced instead with volume and mass-produced kit malware. But while new techniques weren’t developed, existing techniques were defined and adapted for much greater effectiveness. Some of the major security threats that hit the internet 1007 were:

a) The storm Botnet
b) Trojans stealing passwords through online games
c) Fake video codecs and DNS changers

Ask.com offers anonymous web searching

Most casual internet users wouldn’t think twice before typing something into the search box, but little do they realize that their searching habits are being tracked and analyzed. In response to piracy concerns, Ask.com has introduced a feature called AskEraser that promises to put an end to search behavior tracking.
It is unclear whether user’s privacy is completely guaranteed. Additional tracking cookies used by advertisers cannot be checked using AskEraser. However, it’s a great first step.

ATI RADEON 3400 HD series

Courtesy : http://www.tomshardware.com/us/

TH has managed to obtain some additional information concerning the soon to be announced AMD Radeon 3400 HD product line. The Radeon 3470 HD and Radeon 3450 HD are expected to be outfitted respectively with the following GPUs (graphics processing units): an 800 MHz RV620 Pro and a 600 MHz RV620 LE. The GPUs use a TSMC 55 nm process, have 181 million transistors, and 40 SPUs (Stream Processing Units). They use a programming model that applies a relatively small instruction set to a very large data set.
Both models have 256 MB of memory on a 64-bit bus, the Radeon 3470 HD will have 950 MHz GDDR3 memory, the Radeon 3450 HD will have DDR2 500 MHz memory manufactured by Hynix. This is not the only difference between these two cards: both the HD Radeon 3450 and 3470 are compatible with CrossFireX technology. However, only the 3470 has a CrossFire connector.
The Radeon 3470 HD will have the profile of a classic graphics card, while the Radeon 3450 HD will have a "low-profile". The Radeon 3450 HD and 3470 should be formally launched this year on January 23.

Finally a system for CRYSIS !

Courtesy :http://www.tomshardware.com/us/


Nvidia Unveils 3-Way SLI With Crysis

According to Nvidia, two graphics cards are better than one, especially when you're trying to play a PC game like Crysis at high settings. So how about three cards?

Nvidia took the opportunity to show of its new three-way SLI technology at CES 2008 this week. While packing three GPUs into a single desktop PC may seem excessive, think again. Nvidia was running Crysis on a custom Q6600 quad core system with three 8800 GTXs running at a full resolution of 1920 x 1080. And if that wasn't enough, the game's settings were all cranked to very high.

So how did the game perform on Nvidia's customer three-way SLI gaming rig? Not bad, actually. Nvidia representatives at the show said the game was getting about 30 to 40 frames per second, though the game was still extremely taxing for the system. Watching a demo of the first level of Crysis on the three-way SLI system, there were some points in the game where the frame rates had obviously dropped into the teens or even lower. Still, the game looked fabulous with all of the setting at maximum, and frame rates were mostly steady throughout the action sequences.

High-End DDR3 Memory on the Hook

Courtesy :  http://www.tomshardware.com/us/

Premium Prices And Petit Performance Prospects

DDR3 memory was introduced only half a year ago, to replace maxed out DDR2 technology. While the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) has specified speeds of DDR3-800 to DDR3-1600, memory vendors have already exceeded the intended top speed by 20% - and this is not the end. While DDR3 at 1066 and 1333 speeds still is many months away from entering the mainstream due to costs still higher than those of DDR2-800, enthusiast vendors are all offering DDR3-1600 parts now, and some have already announced DDR3-2000 products. Having looked at ten DDR3-1333 kits recently, it's time to x-ray the high-end offerings now.

Enthusiast memory has had an amazing career, ever since overclocking became some sort of popular sport. Once AMD and Intel restricted processor multipliers to prevent users from running a processor faster than specified, motherboard manufacturers introduced options to bypass this preset. Increasing the bus speed equals an increase of the other variable necessary to determine the processor clock speed, hence Front Side Bus overclocking effectively bypasses the overclocking block while introducing higher bus bandwidth as a side effect. Furthermore, main memory is accelerated proportionally, depending on its operating speed, which again directly depends on the system bus (or the processor speed, if we're talking about AMD processors). While memory followed the overclocking trend - at first rather slowly - today's offerings are specifically designed to excel in clock speed. They not only allow maximum system overclocking, but also increase memory bandwidth itself, which contributes to overall performance.

Thanks to power-saving mechanisms such as AMD's Cool'n'Quiet technology and Intel's Enhanced Speedstep, all modern processors can be operated not only at their default multiplier, but also at all lower ones; the power saving features require them to reduce the processor speed. This allows increasing the Front Side Bus while reducing the processor multiplier to limit the resulting core clock speed to realistic levels. Hence, it is possible to select a combination of a fast system bus, memory speed and processor core clock speed.

The enthusiast memory market is slowly but surely hitting some limits, as the advantage of super fast memory over ordinary products has been decreasing (see this article from Tom's Hardware in German - no translation available yet). That means that a highly overclocked processor will only show a few percent performance difference whether it runs with basic DDR3-1333 memory or at a much faster DDR3-1800 speed (check benchmark results of this article for details as well). The main reason is the highly efficient cache architecture of today's processors: the better the cache hierarchy, the less important the memory speed.

At the same time, high end memory faces cost issues that all premium products have to deal with: high memory clock speeds can usually only be achieved at a drastically increased operating voltage, and this requires careful product selection of the memory ICs provided by manufacturers Elpida, Hynix, Micron, Qimonda and Samsung. The resulting memory modules can be several times more expensive than mainstream DIMMs. Some memory vendors purchase entire memory wafers to cut, select and package the individual dies themselves. Others purchase the preselected memory or even the full memory modules.

For more details, refer
http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/11/high_end_ddr3_memory_on_the_hook/

Google sets its sight on Wikipedia with “Knol”

Google’s search engine is arguably the first place most people think of when they need to find information online. Now, Google has announced its plans to compete with Wikipedia in the online Encyclopedia game. Knol, a take on the word knowledge, is set to differentiate itself from Wikipedia (or any Wiki) mainly by emphasizing the credentials of each page’s authors.

Google will even allow authors to decide whether or not their knols will include advertisements, though they will apparently receive a “substantial revenue share” if they do. Google has also promised to make knol pages available to all search engines, but it is unclear how they will rank alongside regular search results on Google pages. Knol is currently limited only a handful of invitees.

Army of Two

Army of Two is a third person shooter that will focus on co-op gameplay, and will require the assistance of another player or a computer controlled Partner Artificial Intelligence. The game will be made to be practically unplayable without the assistance of another player, therefore the developers have thoughtfully included a voice control system for the AI. The multiplayer maneuvers will include everything from wall boosts to jump over walls, to back-to-back mode in which both the players cover each other’s backs. The game will also feature vehicles which will also require co-operation among players, where one player will drive while other will shoot. The game will be available on Xbox 360 and PS3 game consoles and will feature matchmaking modes for the networks of both consoles.

Resident Evil 5

Considered the natural progression of the popular survival horror series, Resident Evil 5 will further improve the story of Chris Redfield, one of the playable characters from the original resident Evil. The story of the game is set in the period ten years after the first game. This time Chris is a member of a groups known as BSAA, and is sent to a desert to investigate an incident. There is also news of a strong female character, which will have a big part to play in the story of Resident Evil 5.
The game will feature a range of environmental effects on the playable character with effects of heat, cold, and light affecting the character’s handling and vision. Moving from dark to bright scenes will emulate burn-out effects through HDR, also Chris, the game’s lead character will require a consistent supply of water to survive the harsh deserts of Africa. Facial animation will be enhanced with individual controls to muscles groups in the character’s face. Additionally physics simulation will be controlled by the middleware solution provided by the Unreal engine.

Spore

Believed to be the mother of all Sims, Spore is going to allow players to play god and make their own planet, with their own creatures, and make them do whatever they want. The game is considered the most ambitious project of Will Wright, the designer of the hugely popular Sims series.
Spore will have a world made by the player, who has to also make the creatures that live in it. The game itself will have five different phases, similar to the evolution of life on earth. The game will start with a 2D adventure with microbes floating in a pool of organic ooze that will develop into a land-walking creature. The player has to decide their path of evolution from a single cell to organisms, tribes, and civilizations and then lead them to travel through space, to other worlds and spread their species throughout the universe. Spore will be a single player game but will utilize the player’s Internet connection to further populate the universe with worlds made by other players around the world. Thus calling itself a Massively Single Player game.

Burnout Paradise

Burnout Paradise is the 5th game in the series and this time it features an open-ended world. The new game format allows the developers to do away with the usual game lobby system for both single and multiplayer. However day and night cycles have been removed to provide better performance.
Other updates in the game include a renamed crash mode now termed Showtime, where a player can activate a slow-mo-mode control mechanism during crashes and even during the race in the events such as Road Rage. The damage system has been modified and this time cars can get hit and till retain their wheels for continuing a race. However, if a car loses its wheel or ends up outside the race map, the player has to wait for the car to be reset.
The game will be available on PS3 and Xbox 360 and will use webcams available on both systems to capture ‘Mugshots’ of the attacker and the victim when a player is taken down. These can also be exchanged between players and saved on respective hard drives. So, there be ready to burnout!

Ninja Gaiden 2

The first from the series on the Xbox 360 platform, Ninja Gaiden 2 is a 3rd person hack and slash game from Team Ninja of Microsoft Game Studios. The game follows the story of Ryu Hayabusa who has to avenge for his clan and prevent the destruction of the human race. Locations covered in the game range from New York, Tokyo, and even the Netherworld. There is going to be a auto-regeneration syste, - something like Halo. Microsoft has relieved fans of the fear that it is going to censor the game of it’s much bloody history by releasing trailers and screenshots featuring some of the most bloody and intense fighting mechanics ever seen on video games. The game is expected to have much more gore than the previous installments and features everything from decapitations to dismemberments to handicap or immobilize enemies. Theweaponry and varied with everything from wrist mounted blades, to katanas, to a huge scythe that will enable players to stylish devour opponents.

Starcraft

Probable the most awaited real time strategy game of all time, Starcraft 2 will still feature the same amount of races as its previous games but will further build on the gameplay element. A number of new units have been talked about, including the Thor of the Terran’s, the Mothership, and the Dark Templar of the Protoss. The different units of each race are going to be balanced out well with powers of one unit of a race getting replicated in units of other races in a different form. The story will continue from where the previous game and expansion pack left off and will tell the story of a time when The Zers were the dominant race. The game will still be broken up into Episodes that further break up into levels and missions that can be played with any race.

Multiplayer has got a lot of importance in this version of the game and a lot of improvements will be made here. The Battle.Net service has become ever bigger and the new ranking system will come in place to enhance the competitive matchmaking.






 

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of Patriots

The last MGS to come from the hands of the original director Hideo Kojima, Metal gear Solid 4: Guns of Patriots is a PS3 exclusive and is the first game to confirm support for PS3’s DualShock 3 controller. Most of the original developers of the game that also features most of the original voice cast. Set in the world five years after the events of Metal gear Solid 2, the game’s protagonist Solid Snake is making his last appearance in the series. For players with the default PS3 DualShock 2 controller, the game will feature a white Threat Ring which will denote the presence of sound instead of vibrations. Stealth will still play a big part in the game requiring the use of a lot of new arsenal; one amongst these is the new Solid Eye monocular device which will replace all other binoculars and night vision devices from previous games. The octocamo camouflage system will make the player invisible for a few sonds, and the Metal Gear robotic drone will be used for communication, or reconnaissance.

Alan Wake

This is a psycho thriller from the makers of Max Payne. The game is expected to follow the trademark style of Remedy Entertainment, and tell the story of a celebrated American novelist Alan Wake. The name of game being the double entendre that is typical of remedy. The world of Alan Wake has a city called Bright Falls, a reference to the extensive photo-realism, pixel shading and dynamic shadows planned to feature in the game. The game is said to have dark forces manifesting themselves as enemies, and light proving to be the best defense and attack against them. The game was to be released on PC, and PS3 until Microsoft bought the publishing rights for it and made it a PC exclusive. However the team plans to release the game on Xbox 360 later.
The game is going to be heavy on system resources as it uses a lot complex computing processes. However, the development team is promising identical graphic details and performance on both PC and Console versions of this game.

Devil May Cry 4

Following the saga of demon slayer ‘Dante’, the Devil May Cry series has made its mark with its over-the top style, outlandish fight sequences merging close quarters swordplay with gun slinging. The new story focuses more on the new protagonist ‘Nero’ who looks like Dante and his twin brother but it’s not related to them in any way. The new character has the ‘Devil Bringer’ arm that enables him to use ranged attacks at enemies, including pulling and grabbing them and spinning them over Nero’s head.
Originally planned as a PS3 exclusive, the fourth installation of Devil May Cry will not be released on both Xbox 360 and PS3 game console systems, and later also on the PC.
The control mechanics in all Devil May Cry games have always been overtly complex, to the extent that most people have blasted the game for this. This time the developers are planning elaborate control schemes around the PS3’s DualShock 2 controller, which features motion sensing along with the standard dual joysticks.

Grand Theft Auto 4

Probably the mother of all popular games of the free roam genre, Grand Theft Auto has been one of the most controversial, but iconic and genre-defining games of gaming history. There have been games and then there have been outstanding games, but Rockstar has always given special treatment to GTA.
The latest version promises a lot of changes with the first trailer just saying “Things will be different”. The story follows the life of one, Niko, in Liberty City Rockstar’s version of New York. But this time around the story is not one ‘Rags to Riches’ but ‘from Rags to slightly better rags’.
Grand Theft Auto 4’s engine has received a whole lot of updates. The graphics have been upped by a huge factor and the unique gameplay elements have furthered the non-linear free roam mode of the title in a much bigger way.GTA4 is one title we’ll be keeping a tight eye on.

Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever is the fourth game in the story of the eponymous Duke Nukem who emulates the biggest icons of American machismo, has grown to develop a huge following. The game is speculated to be based in Los Angeles, Area-51 and a few other undisclosed locations. The game has had a history of utilizing the female form in every provocative way. The new game is expected to involve a great number of babes, a lot of aliens who will be killed by insanely powerful guns, and possibly Duke’s arch nemesis Dr.Proton.

This one has been on the upcoming lists for a long while now. It was originally announced in 1997 and has long gone past the eagerly awaited stage for hyped up games. There is enough speculation about the game to equal conspiracy theories involving the United States of America, and the original game design and storyline has gone through complete retakes through these years. The game has been announced three times and has gone through an equal number of FPS game engines during its technology remakes.

Gamin' 2008

We all love playing games, but we also like following our most awaited titles. We have a list of the games we have been craving for since the turn of this year. A lot of games covered here have the scheduled release date written as To Be Announced which in gaming industry lingo basically means “when it’s done”. However we sincerely hope that they will see the light of the day by the end of the year. Last year the gaming industry saw games flooding in with some serious graphics. So let’s take a look at the titles whose mere mention makes us gasp for air.

• Duke Nukem Forever
  
• Grand theft Auto 4
  
• Devil May Cry 4
  
• Alan wake
  
• Burnout Paradise
  
• Spore
  
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of Patriots
  
• Ninja Gaiden 2
  
• Resident Evil 5
  
• Starcraft
  
• Army of Two
  

Jodha Akbar Audio Release Delayed

The most awaited Gowarikar-Rahman's Jodha Akbar audio launch had been postponed to 14th of Jan.
The actual scheduled date was on 27th of dec'07. After it was shifted to 9th jan and now finally 14th. Hope the audio clicks well for Rahman.

You can view the official site through this link :http://www.jodhaaakbar.com/

Far Cry 2 - First Look - screenshots !

Source : http://farcry.us.ubi.com/index.php



Far Cry® 2, the next-generation first-person shooter from Ubisoft, will take you deep into the most beautiful but also most hostile environments in the world: Africa! More than just a visual and technological achievement, Far Cry® 2, the true sequel to the award-winning PC game, will provide you with an unprecedented gaming experience.

Caught between two rival factions in war-torn Africa, you are sent to take out "The Jackal", a mysterious character who has rekindled the conflict between the warlords, jeopardizing thousands of lives. In order to fulfil your mission you will have to play the factions against each other, identify and exploit their weaknesses, and neutralise their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and, of course, brute force.

OPEN WORLD


The extensive artistic research combined with the next-gen engine will allow you to explore over 50Km2 of seamlessly rendered African landscape. No game has ever provided such freedom of movement!

DUNIA ENGINE

The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry® 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montréal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more…

REAL-TIME IMMERSION

Real-time story telling, systemic auto-healing, minimal in-game interface are just few of the features that will make you feel the tension of being alone against barbarous warlords that threaten thousands of innocent lives.

WEAPONS OF CHOICE

Choose from a wide range of weapons to make your way to your primary target. Meet the fight head-on with your machine-gun, go berserk with your machete or make stealth kills as a Sniper. If you feel that the atmosphere is not warm enough, light up your flamethrower and let your enemies and everything around them feel the heat.

VEHICLES


Fly, Drive, Run, slide and hover over the huge open world with your glider, trucks, cars, boats and much more.

Zune Wireless Review

Courtesy : http://www.engadget.com/

we've seen the wireless, we know by now what it's capable of: sending tracks to any Zune player in the vicinity, which are then placed in an "inbox," and restricted to 3 plays or 3 days (whichever comes first). We all think it's lame, but apparently it's the best Microsoft could do in terms of sharing. We wish they'd taken a page out of MusicGremlin's book by allowing Zune Pass (unlimited download) members the ability to trade files wirelessly without restriction, but maybe they'll add that in the future. Then again, maybe not -- they're not saying. Whatever, either way we're pretty clear on our feelings about the wireless feature as it stands today; but if we had to make good on our promise to Mom to say something nice or nothing at all, we would definitely mention that sending and receiving music and photos is totally seamless. No configuration was required, no menus traversed. You're prompted to accept a file, and boom, it's done.


For the purposes of this review, we did not scientifically test wireless transfer speeds, but our use was about as expected. Zune transferred an average-sized song in a few seconds; small batches of pictures took about the same amount of time because of the file overhead. Interesting note: when your device is not yet registered with a Zune Tag through setup, the wireless options are totally disabled. (See above for the WiFi-free Zune; note the lack of Community menu item and wireless settings.) We guess they absolutely must keep track of who's transferring what!

Nvidia 8800GT 256-Mbyte Cards to Ship

Courtesy : www.extremetech.com
By ExtremeTech Staff

Cheaper Nvidia GeForce 8800GT cards with just 256 Mbytes of onboard memory are being announced, as Nvidia's answer to AMD's upcoming RV670 processor.

Nvidia confirmed the cards late on Tuesday, and XFX announced its entry, although the company gave its price as 149 euros ($217) rather than in dollars. Nvidia GeForce 8800GT cards with 512 Mbytes of onboard memory, the more common version, typically cost about $280, but are also reportedly in short supply.
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"GeForce 8800 GT 256 MB boards from major add-in card partners are arriving in the next two weeks and should be priced in the $179-$199 range," according to a question-and-answer document released to the press. Partners will include Asus, BFG, EVGA, Leadtek, PNY, XFX and others, Nvidia said.

The cards will contain 112 stream processors running at 600 MHz, with 256-Mbytes of GDDR3 memory that will run anywhere from 700 to 900 MHz, depending upon the add-in-card vendor, according to Nvidia.

Interestingly, Nvidia also notes that the card anticipates DirectX 10.1, but also notes that the upgrade will not be used by most developers. "We pride ourselves on being the first to adopt any important new technology that can improve our games so you would expect us to get with DX10.1 right away but we've looked at it and there's just nothing in it important enough to make it needed, according to Cevat Yerli, the chief executive of Crytek, whose high-performance game "Crysis" ships this week. "So we have no plans to use it at all, not even in the future."

NVIDIA 8800GT Price Drop !

Courtesy : http://www.cdrinfo.com/

The GeForce 8800 GT is defining solid performance per watt and performance value in the video card realm. Here we have a video card that is $100 less than the GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB but it performs faster with less wattage. It is perched performance-wise between the GeForce 8800 GTS and GeForce 8800 GTX. The GeForce 8800 GTX is still faster with its greater number of stream processors and a much higher memory bandwidth.


The GeForce 8800 GT however has some interesting specifications, and you cannot deny the fact it beats the 8800 GTS in these newest games. It would seem that the GT is poised to cannibalize the GTS product line. There is really no point in purchasing a GeForce 8800 GTS since the GeForce 8800 GT is less expensive and supplies a better gaming experience. NVIDIA has stated that you will be able to buy GeForce 8800 GTS based video cards through the holiday season and has called today’s debut a hard-launch so we should be looking for etail GT cards immediately.

The GeForce 8800 GT impressed us greatly; it provides a better gameplay experience than the GeForce 8800 GTS for less money. That is a good deal in our book. Given the huge 90nm die size that NVIDIA has been stuck with for the last year, I am sure it is a welcomed product for it as well. Nothing about the core architecture has changed, but NVIDIA was still able to take the GeForce 8 series and manipulate it in a way that it could execute performance between the GTS and GTX in a lower power envelope, and most importantly less money from your pocket. And don’t fool yourself either; NVIDIA is not just being Mr. Nice Guy. It is preparing for a real threat from AMD’s RV670 GPU that is soon to be launched on an even smaller process.


Right now though, the GeForce 8800 GT offers you the best value on the planet when it comes to 3D gaming cards. You won’t be disappointed in its performance, and you won’t be disappointed in the cost. This was a reference-clocked video card; imagine how much faster factory overclocked video cards might perform? We will surely see double width coolers on faster clocked cards. With prices for the 8800 GT in the sub-$300 range you just simply cannot go wrong with the GeForce 8800 GT. The GT is a solid choice in video card value.

- Positive
Very good performance in most tests
Nvidia has upgraded PureVideo HD engine
PCI-e v2.0 certified
Higher performance when you pair two 8800GT cards, in some games
Price is very good, considering the gain in performance!

- Negative
The cooling system needs upgrading if you are into overclocking
Nvidia's SLI drivers need extra work
Availability is slow at the moment for the special editions

Nvidia GeForce 9800GX2 Price.

Courtesy : http://www.tomshardware.com/us/

The expected price: around $449 US. Expected announcement date: February 14, 2008.

The first pictures of what seems to be the GeForce 9800GX2 have just popped up on the web. We now have a good idea of what the card looks like.







We know that the 9800GX2 has 2 printed circuit boards (PCBs), as did the 7950GX2 in its time, two graphics processing units (GPUs) using 65 nm nodes (most likely G92s with 128 stream processors), 1 GB of memory (512 MB for each GPU) and two DVI outputs.

We don't know yet if the GeForce 9800GX2, which is supposed to be 30% faster than the 8800 Ultra, will support Quad SLI configurations.

Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 Only

Courtesy: http://www.tomshardware.com/us/

Sony's PlayStation 3 had a relatively low profile at CES 2008 - in fact, Sony press conference didn't even mention the product once - but the company did take the opportunity to preview what many believe will be the killer app for the console - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. And once again, Sony is insisting the game will only be on the PlayStation 3.

The game was being demoed on a single PS3 at Sony's booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center, and it drew a steady crowd. Metal Gear Solid 4 had become the center of attention for Sony not only because it's anticipated to be the most popular title yet for the console, but also because of persistent rumors that indicate the game will be ported to the Xbox 360; the Metal Gear Solid series has been a longtime exclusive for Sony. Sony still says the rumors are false and that the game is a PS3 exclusive (a nearby monitor said as much, and also said Metal Gear Solid 4 will support the new DualShock 3 controller).

While some news Internet news reports have claimed the Metal Gear Solid 4 demo at CES suffered from frame rate fluctuations, we didn't notice any such issues during gameplay. The demo used the same urban battlefield level as previous demos shown at E for All. Metal Gear Solid 4 features much of the same kind of stealth action of previous MGS games, but there looks to be a few differences for the fourth installment. The third-person view can be moved to a first-person view; in fact at several points during combat the camera zooms in on Solid Snake and resembles the "over the shoulder" view of Resident Evil 4. There's also a stress meter in the top left corner of the screen that replaces the stamina meter from previous titles.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is scheduled for release sometime this spring.