Intel's Core i7: I'll be a diode, cathode, electrode, overload, generator, oscillator, make a circuit with me

The surge seen in the 80's and 90's with computers was almost sickening. Company giants like Commodore, Lotus, Gateway, and Sun were beasts in their day and most were making millions before the first reusable alkaline battery was available in 1992.

I remembered those decades having people spending entire paychecks on the absolute latest available hardware on the market. Software started coming out so fast that you would start losing blood from all the papercuts trying to thumb through Videogames and Computer Entertainment. Of course this was the 80's where people had a lot of that disposable income to just throw around. It was so bad that I began to believe R+D departments for most computer companies seemed like a viable and profitable place to have a job. Being too young to have a legal job I still was around enough older people to be able to enjoy, hate, and learn about all things computers.

It was a long ride that eventually got popped economically and today the champs that trained hard and sometimes with their evil jabs have sustained the computer market. Even if every change wasn't the most legitimate one, we still have come a long way from the LOAD "*", 8, 1 commands. The one giant that every person that places their fingertips near a keyboard or even watches television commericals will come across is Intel. Being the first company to develop a microprocessor, they've always been ahead of the rest and over the last 6 months have done it again. Their latest creation, i7, is another step into the direction microprocessors have taken.

Without boring or confusing people, the i7 is based on the latest microarchitecture Intel has created called Nehalem. Many people know the large previous version of this known as Core Duo/Quad Core (not actually 4 so don't let it fool you) and both were the first steps in adding "cores" while interlacing and sharing input/output sites and caches. In layman's terms, instead of making a faster and faster single core, they took 2 central processing units and simultaneously allowed for both to process information thus allowing for much better multitasking and the illusion of double the previous speeds of single cores. Ok, maybe quoting Arnold will make sense of it; "My CPU is a neural net processor; a learning computer".

What's different about the i7? It is that Intel has made a true 4 core processor.  Not touching the Quad Core debate, this time they have made a four core processor and clouded that by adding in the magic number three for shared L3 Cache or having 7 more SSE4 instructions.  Either way it's a different design and outward looks can't tell you much more than the fact that it's different.  Another change is the turbo mode operation which is much like the turbo mode on most cars kicking into a higher power output when needed.  You can only use DDR3 RAM with i7 as well as other chippy intensive stuff that I'd rather not delve too much into and after reading up on the topic in depth, few would want to know about it all either.  The real test and reward is in the use and abuse.

I was fortunate enough to be able to play around with a new system containing the i7 chip as well as an Intel motherboard, 2 ati graphics cards, 3 GB of DDR3 and various other bells and whistles.  Not being a paid reviewer of technology with hardware laying around to swap in and out for true testing, I can only compare what I noticed to other recent Dual and Quad Core systems I've touched.  Each have a multitude of differing peripherals but all under the guise of a single OS: Vista.  

I benchmarked multitasking of the i7 by pulling up a youtube video, playing a quicktime video, playing a non-intensive game in window mode, running a spyware removing piece of software, and doing a regular hard drive search all at the same time. Now most other systems I've ever tried, especially using Vista do not take multitasking lightly.  Once you get to about three major tasks, Vista will put the kabosh to most of your efforts at least with initial loading of them.  If you get them all started it starts to yield a bit to show multitasking and with the i7, pending a non-crashing Vista, can handle quite a bit.  It seemed to be able to pull out 2 more tasks than a Dual but about the same as a Quad.  Now I'm guessing with a Linux or Win 2000 operating system you'd see a real pull away with the i7 but that's even harder to compare to with my little stash of goodies.   

But who gives a crap of multitasking when there's games to be played?  Much like feeding the child before the parent, you've got to feed your inner child and feed mine I did.  I tried Empire: Total War, Crysis, and Farcry 2 and found all three to be very impressive showoffs from the i7.  Total War on an old Dual core with a good graphics card was pulling about 20 FPS where the i7 nailed 45+ easily (highest settings).  Crysis and Farcry 2 were both played at highest settings and only Crysis had the tiniest bit of lag but never dropped under 20 FPS.  It was truly a beautiful sight to be able to play these three games at their highest settings and not to worry about clipping, jipping or too many unit lagging.  Total War, a game that has a loading screen saying "best played on an i7,"  doesn't lie about how it handled with lots of units all interacting and reacting at the same time.  Battles played out as if they were straight out of the History Channel in HD minus all the Hilter propaganda.  I enjoyed the system so much I spent extra days testing it to it's limits and found only Vista to be a cause of problems.

  

Total cost of the system used was $1000.  The primary components were about $500 and added peripherals could range from 100 - limitless depending how much you wanted to max everything out and every dollar spent felt like you were rewarded with a dollar in return.

Now this may not be the best time for most people to be shelling out cash on a loaded computer system with the economic developments the way they are.  If you are lucky enough to be able to build something new however, this is the way to go.  The i7 is a thing of beauty in its design and capability.  And even if you don't buy anytime soon, this will probably be the chip to abolish all ideas of a single core design for good bringing us into a new era and eventually to the one we call Skynet.

Polecats - Make a Circuit with Me

Halo Wars Demo: It was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor and I thought of more and I wanted to get back there

Due out Feb. 20th by Ensemble Studios, aka Microsoft, Halo Wars is another RTS, this time only out for the 360 console (and no they refuse for some reason to release it to the PC for now at least). After sitting down to test out what a few others have been looking forward to playing, this demo helped me back to the path of another memory that I had stored by means of the dewey decimal system when I should of had it on speed dial. That time-tested and true memory is the problem with listening to people that are in love with a franchise. Those star crossed lovers tend to magnetize themselves into hearting things and hopefully an ice pack slaps them in the face to show them what their attraction will bring, good or bad, before it's too late. Works for sex appeal, that new car smell in a pontiac aztek, and in this case a video game.

So it's a little harsh to say those things first, but everyone needs a good old fashioned open palm thwack to get their head aligned before jumping around for joy with that newly purchased bag of magic beans. Halo Wars does some stuff well considering that Ensemble has fallen into the same old "console RTS" bear trap. To beat the old drum of RTS knowledge, the best RTS games require close to, if not an entire keyboard for all the quick functions needed to play well. Tom Clancy's Endwar bypassed this idea by adding in voice commands but Halo Wars is all done entirely with the controller. This causes a removal of the nice complexities that an RTS can carry and you are left with a simplified version of what could of been something challenging.

On the flip side the game is very easy to figure out and play. Almost any fan of the HALO games can pick this up and learn it in under 30 minutes. That also includes the stereotype that most HALO fans barely know what the restrictions on their learners permit are. Graphically it is a quality game especially for an RTS on a console. The graphics match the other HALO games as does the music and sound effects. Units are very similar to their predecessor games with new units necessary for the balance found in RTSs. All of these things will make any HALO fan giggle with glee. Gameplay and strategies are easily figured out as units have a basic strong vs/weak vs setup along with the ability to upgrade units. One main difference from most other RTS games is no resource gathering is required and instead a building at your bases can be created that houses a constant stream of incoming supplies at a given rate. Pushing the limits of a console on the graphical limitations, I found that having a large army of units all involved in battle at the same time did not show the typical graphical lag PC RTS games sometimes suffer from.

The biggest thing that one will notice after starting to play this game is hopefully a glimmer of a reminder stored in the long term attic of the brain. Admittedly if you live in Korea, this might actually be a short term memory, but for most of the world it now lands in the dusty old cardboard box sections. To truly understand you also have to look a bit into the future as well and connect the old with the new. There has been an empty space created with the distance between the release of Starcraft 1 and the eventual release of its sequel. This has made most RTS fans turn to other choices such as Total War, the AOE series, Warhammer 40k, Company of Heroes, etc. These other games are all agruably great if not better RTSers with their similarities and differences to the beast of a benchmark called Starcraft.

And herein, after about five minutes of playtime, is where a couple solid flashbacks should and will take place. Halo Wars is, well, pretty direct in its choices for game style. You have the 'humans' (terrans) vs 'covenant' (protoss) and are missing the 'vs the flood' (zerg) as far as anyone knows for now (unless in the single player campaign you band together to take down the flood and I think I've heard that storyline a couple times before). Ideally, if you worked for a game company, you would want to make an attempt at separating yourself from Starcraft even though it is a highly sought after franchise and small aspects and similarities will naturally be stolen. This game, on the other hand, did not feel like any many attempts were made at separation besides utilizing the HALO universe. It almost seems that those over at Emsemble loved playing Starcraft so much they decided to fill this soul searching time without Starcraft 2 by deploying their "HALO modded edition of Starcraft ".

The looks of some of the units and their abilities were too similar for me to think of anything other than the Starcraft series. Flamethrower marines, now where have I seen that before especially considering I don't remember that at all in HALO? Some of the upgrades for the units even seemed a little too similar for my tastes. Granted both games are supposed to be set in a distant future sci-fi universe, but Warhammer 40k didn't remind me of Starcraft as much as this game does. Maybe it's just me and my wild urge for Starcraft 2. I guess the strong comparison to the Blizzard game is because I did not see anything within the demo that seemed like a new idea or creative piece of gameplay or anything else to really set this game apart. I honestly feel that this game will not even stand the test of time and will be forgotten about after about a year of its release unless the need for another reference presents itself.

Regardless, a line in the sand will have to be drawn whether you can pick up this game and ignore similarities to Starcraft. This could be done for those who are big into FPSers and want to branch off into a known game universe. Maybe someone who does not want a game to be so complex that you are bogged down with a ton of commands and options? Or maybe if you are too young to have ever picked up Starcraft? Maybe being a big fan of the HALO universe would help block out the scars of an old bad Battlenet rank?

The next line in the sand would have to be whether you can actually stand, like most other failures before it, playing a RTS on a console. I found it very annoying trying to do unit selections since most of the success of minor and major battles is based on micromanagement of units playing off their strengths. I also found that due to the difficulties of managing specific units, and the limitations of what you can actually do with just a controller in your hands, this game becomes a game of choosing what units to create and upgrade more than how to use the units that you have created.

As you can see, Halo Wars may teach you that what you may be strongly attracted to at first, may eventually lead you into an internal struggle to torment yourself by attempting to look like you are not tormented.

One other thing to note is that the release of Warhammer 40k Dawn of War II is due out on 2/19 for the PC only and Halo Wars is due out 3/3 for the console only. If I was really itching for a RTS right this minute I would probably go with the former since both will be the same price. If I was looking to try out RTS games for the first time I would go with the latter. And if I was really wanting to not get my panties in a bunch for needing a RTS so quickly, I would probably hold off for the release of Starcraft 2 sometime this year, probably near the November time frame. By then it will be like Blizzard saying revenge is a dish best served with laughter and giggles. Or if you want another RTS that's not a sci-fi oriented one, Empire Total War is due out on 3/3.

Five Years - David Bowie

DeBlob: I see people turn their heads and quickly look away, like a new born baby it just happens every day

Not THE Blob

Released for the Wii by the company THQ, Deblob is a game involving humor, creativity, and a general abundance of color violence. Best described as a platformer, DeBlob takes you into the heart of a fantasy world called Chroma City. The evil black and white I.N.K.T. Corporation (notice that it's not called Empire, Army, or other military synonyms) enter into Chroma and start stealing the colors away from everything and begin enslaving the "colorless" citizens. Enter Blob, the round hero with his rag tag bunch of friends to save all of Chroma City from its lack of triumphant true diversity by running around and painting the town red.... and yellow, blue, orange and every other color of the ROYGBIV universe allows unless you have the good old fashioned color-blindness handicap.

DeBlob is quite a fascinating game in its delivery, simple enjoyment, with a buffet of visual and musical dishes. The controls are simple to pick up and respond quite well but the game has very minor typical camera issues found with all three dimensional games. There are simple instructions for available actions and abilities and extra quests/achievements are easily explained and plentiful. The main actions of the game are accomplished by first acquiring a color from an enemy and then roaming around applying that color to everything in sight.

The idea seems cheap and pointless for hardcore gamers, and that reason will keep this game low on the priority list next to shaving, bathing, and soaking up UV rays. For those that take a chance and play this game will find themselves enjoying quite near everything about it. The musical portion alone is done in a manner to keep repetitive sounds from being annoyances and the visuals also stay away from the little sister poking you in the eyes over and over.

The game really helps you reminisce about finger painting. The good old days of putting on a smock, and saying no to using a brush because it already took you five minutes to take your snow pants and galoshes off so you'll be damned if you aren't going to enjoy yourself before you've got to put it all back on again. Ok, if it doesn't do that it at least gives you an electronic mimicry that Jackson Pollock would be proud of.

Overall, if you want a hardcore, violent, difficult challenge of a game, DeBlob isn't for you. If you want to play a simple yet creatively made game, give DeBlob a chance as you'll be pleasantly surprised at how fun the color wheel and painting the town red can be.

Rating: 4 {-10 to 10 scale, 5+ being a must play}