Gametopia Planitia

Of macbooks and laptops...

noreply@blogger.com (Retrogamer) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:35:00 +0000

So my wife has agreed to let me buy a new laptop...
-.-....
I know...

Anyways, my current setup is an HP Pavilion zd8000. Here are the specs so you can understand how limited I am on gaming choices;

CPU: P4 3.0ghz(desktop processor)
Memory: 2GB
Graphics: ATI X600 Mobility

As you can see, I'm limited to flash games and World of Warcraft. I've long outgrown Counterstrike and Quake 3. When I try to game, the thing heats up like a supernova and the fans start going crazy. It sounds like a jet is taking off in my room.

Anyways, the top choices are:

The Macbook Pro 17inch - $2,524.00
Highlights
Core 2 Duo 2.8ghz
Nvidia 9600M GT (Dedicated)
Nvidia 9400M (Integrated)
128GB SSD
1920x1200 widescreen
Comes with a free Ipod Touch 8GB - $229.00 Value

Asus W90p 18.4 inch - $2,349.00
Highlights
Core 2 Quad 2.0ghz
ATI Mobility Radeon 4870 x2(crossfire)
320GB 7200rpm HDD
1920x1200 widescreen

GPUs
Now I know what you're thinking about the two Nvidias on the Macbook Pro, but sadly, no, the Macbook Pro doesn't have SLI. The Macbook must use ONE of the GPUs at a time. Apple has integrated graphics as a choice so the user can switch to a less power hungry gpu card when not running graphics intensive programs.
I'm pretty sure you all know as do I the Asus wins hands down in the graphics department.

Storage
Now the storage on the laptops are important for me not because of actual storage, but because of the heat created. I've been told that the SSDs put out much less heat than the HDDs, which equals greater longevity. But so far I haven't been told exactly how much less heat is generated by the SSD, whether its a significant amount or not. I am not concerned at all about the smaller storage on the Macbook because I have plenty of external HDDs, and 128gb is plenty for the OS and programs. Overall, I would say the Macbook wins in this category.

Cpu
Although at first glance for me, the quad core seemed like the better performers, but after some research the answer may be a lot more complicated than I had thought. Not necessarily all programs(read: games) utilize the quad core, and essentially in that situation, the quad functions as a dual core.

Here is list of games that support dual and quad cores;
Games and Dual/Quad core support

As I gleamed the list of games, I noticed that for the most part, the games that only supported dual core were older games, and the newer games utilize the quad core, which would make sense of coure, but I just wanted to confirm.

So as it seems that as time progresses more games will support quad cores, the ASUS wins in this category, though not by a huge margin as it did in the graphics department.

Free Ipod Touch 8gb
I know this doesn't have to do with the laptop itself, but I've always wanted an Ipod Touch or Iphone because of all the amazing apps that are available. I no longer have a mobile gaming console so this is kind of a big issue for me. Macbook wins.

Tech Support
After reading some feedback from buyers of the ASUS lapop, one issue quickly came to my attention, lack of updated drivers available. ATI/AMD does not provide drivers for their mobile line, it is on the notebook manufacturer to create and provide them. The last time ASUS released drivers for the laptop was November of last year, 9 months from the date of this blog. I saw reports of games crashing due to outdated drivers.
The Macbook on the other hand carries with it the impeccable reputation of Apple. After many years of buying Apple and non-Apple products, I've seen a huge difference in the quality control and tech support that Apple provides. The Macbook wins this battle... but on with the war.

Conclusion
I've checked benchmarks for both machines, and suffice to say, the ATI 4870 x2 eats the the Nvidia 9600M GT apart. I've also checked youtube videos of people running the games on various settings to see how well they perform in practice. There didn't seem to be a noticeable difference, but then again the low quality of youtube videos probably degraded both videos to similar quality.
Judging from the number of wins for the Macbook, logically, I should buy the Macbook, but that would only be true if all the categories weighed equally. And of course, me being a gamer, they don't. Graphics are god damn important, so in conclusion... I still have no fucking clue which one to buy... someone please help me.

Links to the laptops;
Macbook Pro 17 inch

ASUS W90p

Casual Gaming

noreply@blogger.com (Retrogamer) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:33:00 +0000

Up until recently I've always thought of games geared towards casual gamers as either a gimmick, or a misrepresentation of a game. No matter how little effort was required to play a game, the player was still required to watch the game, stand in front of the computer, or at least have the program running on their computer.

A few months ago I stumbled on a game called Ikariam(Ikariam.org) Now the game itself wasn't anything special, but the demongraphics that it was geared towards and how it went about that was very interesting.

First Let me explain the game, it's a browser based (non-flash based) strategic warfare game. You create colonies and build up your cities while gathering resources to expand your empire with more colonies. You interact with other players through alliances, battles, wars, raids, spying, messaging, etc.

Now the method in which this game attracts casual players is that the game literally only requires a few minutes of attention every few hours. You set the building queue, any shipments, and send messages, then come back in a few hours. Battles are also automated for the most part. You send your troops, they battle autonomously with the defenders then you look at the battle reports afterwards.

The interface is all browser based html(?) coded. There's no fancy plugin to download like with flash. Mostly because there are no animations involved, aside from a few sliding bars. So it's virtually 100% safe for work or wherever you want to play it. And since it's a casual gamer, it can easily be played at work without affecting your work performance. But as always, play at your own risk at work.

I've only been playing for 2 months, but I can already see many bugs and design flaws in the game, not to mention some seemingly ridiculous rules regarding interaction. But I will be better able to give an accurate assessment of the game after another month or two when I've explored more of the games features. Until then I suggest you guys give it a try. www.ikariam.org is the international server(it's older and therefore many more players) www.ikariam.com is the USA only server.

Here are some screenshots of the game, the first one is island view, the second one is town view, and the last one is the interface for the town hall building. I've blacked out personal information.

A timeless classic

noreply@blogger.com (Retrogamer) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:49:00 +0000

Recently I have been spending quite some time playing an oldie that I dug out of the closet(well not so much dug out of the closet as downloaded through torrents), Civilization 2. This game, well more like the entire series, is friggin' awesome. Sid Meier created a timeless game that outdid Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and all other strategy games. Undoubtedly, his civilization series has amazing gameplay, which can even make up for outdated graphics and UI, which is why I still love playing part 2. Most other games become outdated within the same year they are released.

Civilization 1 which he made for Microprose occupied my entire middle school years. That game was gold. Personally, I loved the simplicity of the interface. Sure graphical cutscenes are nice, but when your in the meta game and attacking 15 times per turn, you just want to do it fast.

I recommend also to any Civilization fans out there who want to try something new FreeCiv. It's an open-source project that was inspired by Civilization. It's graphics are somewhere between 2 and 3, and for the most part follow the Civ 2 ruleset. You can find it here:
FreeCiv Download page

I am anxious to try the new expansions for Civ 4, Warlords, and Colonization. But what really catches my eye is Civcity Rome. Looks like Sid may be venturing out from his traditional style and trying a Simcity type game. I can't wait to see how it plays.

Gametrailer Retrospective Documentaries

noreply@blogger.com (Retrogamer) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:12:00 +0000

I dig up some oldies I thought you would like to watch. Gametrailer did a lot of documentaries on fan favorites. They cover the entire Final Fantasy series(which is embedded below), Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Metal Gear, Star Wars, and Grand Theft Auto. These videos are well done, and they did a fine job of fact finding. Although they do skip over some important points they cover most of them

And heres the entire list of all of them

http://www.gametrailers.com/search.php?s=retrospective

The state of affairs in RPGs today...

noreply@blogger.com (Retrogamer) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:29:00 +0000

When I think back to the yester-years, I begin to miss how innovative and creative battle systems used to be. I mean, look at Final Fantasy 3(6 if your going by the Japanese title). It has the most creative bttle system I've ever seen in an RPG.

Every character's custom abilities were executed differently. For example; with Sabin, the muscle of your team, you had to pull off some Street Fighter type motions on your controller correctly, with Terra, You had to go through many battles without using her ability to let it charge, Celes, while her Rune ability was active, absorbs any spell casted at her, and Relm could sketch a drawing of the enemy and the drawing would use one random ability of the monster against it.

What's my point? Well, after Final Fantasy 7 was released, I began to realize it may be ages before I could see that same kind of creativity in RPGs again, as it has seemed the public traded in their demand for innovative, well-developed, and creative gameplay for flashy polygon graphics. While my hopes are high for Final Fantasy 13, my expectations are going to be low. Hopefully I will be surprised by Square Enix this time around... I'm not going to be holding my breath.

Un po di me...

noreply@blogger.com (Retrogamer) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:16:00 +0000

Okay the real me, I will be discussing my thoughts on games, they can and will range from the old RPGs(Role Playing Games) of yore, to puzzle games on a hand-held system. But for the most part I will concentrate on Roleplaying games... maybe... perhaps...

My love of RPGs began with my first copy of Final Fantasy 1(I ended up buying a second copy after I blacked out from blowing on the first Final Fantasy cartidge because the game was glitching). I was around I had learned the basics of playing an RPG faster than I finished my homework, I believe I was around 9 years old at the time.

I continued to follow the Final Fantasy series up until 7, (for reasons which you can see in a my blog about creativity). For some time after FF7 was released my love for RPGs began to whane, that is until I discovered... Everquest 1. I played this game since launch and for another 7 years. My dedication can be seen in my poor GPA which was sacrificed so I could have more time to raid Nagafen's Lair, or help my friend finish his epic weapon quest.

So, my thoughts, reviews, criticisms, and general opinion of video games is what you can expect. I'm not a designer; I don't work for any video game development company or publisher. I'm merely an end-user who likes to share his thoughts.

Spero che voi goderete leggere i miei blogs...