It' not a secret that Windows Vista requires a lot more memory to run that Windows XP did, but part of the problem when playing a game is the in the way the OS handles the video drivers. To solve that particular behaviour, Microsot has a hotfix in the works. It's not recommended to install it just yet, but keep an eye on the publishing date (August 23rd) because this seems to be one of those really usefull hotfixes.

Anandtech tested it with Company of Heroes, STALKER and Supreme Commander. Memory usage goes down the hard way and it doesn't look like there's any performance penalty at all from using this hotfix. CoH, in particular, goes from 2110 Mb to 1480 Mb (only 12% more than Windows XP). I'm telling you, this is one HOT fix!

If you can't wait a whole week to get it, try here (x64 version) or here (x86). Remember to check for viruses and apply latest video drivers before installing.

And speaking of waiting, here you have one that's almost over. YouGamers has the story:

"As previously reported from their conference call, EA announced that Crysis will be available "early November" - however, we can now confirm that the actual date will be the 16th of November!"

This is supposed to be the real deal, a game developed with DX10 in mind (although it will also run on DX9 hardware) by a team that already delivered an AAA game as Far Cry. A multiplayer beta should be available soon, to ease the final weeks before Crysis day.

Finally, all those who bought a Geforce 8800 a year ago, will have a game to play on it that will make it justice.

Three years and counting.

- id Tech 1: Doom 1 and Doom 2

- id Tech 2: Quake 1 and Quake 2

- id Tech 3: Quake 3

- id Tech 4: Doom 3 and Quake 4

And it's a new game for a reason, it won't just be a first person shooter, it will incorporate vehicles meant for racing, not just for dull driving. It will also feature an open and non-linear enviroment; forget those claustrophobic rooms. Well, in this case I will miss the closed, dark hallways, they added to the atmosphere of the game.

Link: Firing Squad. 

Not dead yet, but almost.

Not having games is one of the bad things Ageia has to face, but not the only one. The option to  calculate physics on GPUs through software is there since Q2 of 2006 with Havok FX. No game use it but the problem is that nobody knows which way of bringing physics to games will eventually succeed.

So many delays will probably end up leaving everything more or less as it was two years ago: with the CPU in charge of the physics calculations. As more cores are added to CPUs, it's FPU weakness will be less evident, and the need for a dedicated piece of hardaware (or an engine that offloads the task to the GPU) will dissappear. More details at Anandtech.

In the meantime, hardcore gamers who bought a PhysX card are left without the possibility to experience true interactivity in their games. Shame on the developers!

The guys at TweakTown have performed their usual tests on the latest ATI driver release and the news aren't good this time around:

"This is one of the worst driver sets we have seen in some time. Not only did performance go nowhere on our lineup of games, but Company of Heroes actually took a small step backwards.

An even bigger issue we had with the drivers was the constant random crashing when starting COH."

Lets make clear that this is the DX9 version of Company of Heroes, so this is rather unexpected. It's not a dealing-with-a-new-API related problem.

The frame drop is mostly suffered when using a high end card, whether it's a brand new HD2900XT or a previous generation X1950Pro doesn't really matter.

This driver release is supposed to improve Far Cry performance, but even if that's the case, doing it at the expense of other games is not the way to go.

Not long ago, while talking about the Lost Planet DX10 demo, I hinted that Fraps could be used with that version of the game. Wrong. As I discovered a little bit later, at that time, this application was compatible with Windows Vista but not with DirectX 10 games. Since then, I have waited for a new Fraps release to add support for them.

Earlier this month, beepa made version 2.9 available. Only two days later the bugfix 2.9.1 was also ready. If you want to try the unregistered version, you can download it here.

Mistake corrected, now let's see what the upgrade offers. Apart from the benchmarking, the in-game video capture and the option to save screenshots, there's a nifty new use you can give to this progam: monitor Vista's desktop. Since the Vista Desktop Window Manager runs through DirectX, you can now take screenshots and record video from the desktop just like any other 3D application. Now it's easier than ever (without leaving home) to make that friend of yours understand where the system properties are to be found!

At $39.99, the Timberwolf is probably more expensive than your average keyboard. In fact, it's more expensive than some wireless keyboards available, but for a gamer's tool, it's priced $20 cheaper than the popular Logitech G11.

As you can see, the design's idea is to, basically, sacrifice the numpad and shrink the entire QWERTY keyboard. In the liberated space, you add an ergonomic WASD gaming pad and... voilà. The gaming pad is unusual because it doesn't re-label the keys, it just lists everything as it's recognised by the computer. The WASD includes two Ctrl keys, ERGT buttons and a vertical space bar for convinience. Other keys (O and B) have been made bigger and widely spaced.

After a few games, bit-tech found the keys offered decent response and the buttons all fell within reach. It makes games a little easier to play and the two-toned colouring of the gaming buttons makes finding controls easier and lets your eyes concentrate on the screen.

The only drawback is it's usefullness as a writing keyboard, because of it's size and a "laptop-esque" design. Then again, the Timberwolf is aimed at hardcore players on a budget. If you happen to find yourself writing and playing a lot, you are better off buying two keyboards instead of one that accommodates both needs and costs much more.

If you own an HD 2900 XT you should definitely check it out, since that graphics card is on top of the to-do list for ATI's driver team. If not, it will depend on the games you play and how many months have gone by since your last update.

Before downloading it, take a look at the release notes (performance improvement department):

"Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and Dark Messiah Might and Magic performance improves on the ATI Radeon™ HD2900 XT Crossfire configurations. Improvements of 16% or more can be seen with HDR enabled."

It doesn't sound like much, but TweakTown and Technic3D have tested them and, as usually, OpenGL performance is improved.

As for bugs fixed in this release of the ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite, the list is rather long, specially the one for Windows Vista.

IGN has compiled an article on upcoming games for the "summer drought". The worst time for gamers? More than a new title per week (June 21-September 21) is more than enough to cast aside that statement. And we are talking about AA titles for the Xbox 360. This are the games sorted by genre:

- First-Person Shooters: BioShock, BlackSite: Area 51, The Darkness, Medal of Honor: Airborne, TimeShift and Turok.
- RPG titles: Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata, Mass Effect and Two Worlds.
- Action: John Woo Presents Stranglehold and Overlord.
- Sports: Madden NFL 08 and Skate.
- Racing/ fighting: Project Gotham Racing 4/ Virtua Fighter 5.

Rybka 2.3.2 released!

There are people, though, that don't agree with that date of late 2006 as the turning point, because the favored chess engine was actually not the best one available and had not been for a year. One of those persons is no other than the author of the relegated candidate: Rybka, which sees now the last 2007 release and the polishing of the 2.x branch. You will have to wait for 2008 for version 3 and see what brings to the table, but this year's champion can be crowned right away.

So sure is Vasik Rajlich about the superiority of his creation, that he's challenged the FIDE and it's betting 100,000$ that it will win a match against their favorite. This is a dire reaction to the FIDE organizing what they call "The Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge", which pits to engines from the same company against each other. The funny thing is that none of them is even 2nd place in the most important rankings.