wide·screen gam·ing fo·rum (wsgf):
[-noun] Web community dedicated to ensuring PC games run properly on your tablet, netbook, personal computer, HDTV and multi-monitor gaming rig.
Submitted by ViciousXUSMC on 14 March, 2012 - 18:18
For those of you patently waiting for the release (or at least public beta) of Guild Wars 2 there is some good news for you.
The pre-purchase date for the game has been set. There are three different versions you an buy, and the more coin your willing to part with the more goodies you bring home.
All versions of the game will give you access to the weekend beta's between now and release and also give you a early start on the game when it is released.
Submitted by AussieTimmeh on 12 March, 2012 - 23:33
Today a package rocked up from the United States from our fearless leader.
This video blog is just a quick thanks to Ibrin, I'm glad that we can all work together to achieve things for the site. I look forward to testing this gear and improving on the Red vs Green vs Blue article.
Prior to CES 2012, I wasn't familiar with the Roccat brand. Now that they are moving into the NA market, we are getting more news about their products and plans. Engadget recently reported that Roccat was offering a mobile app called Power-Grid that would turn iOS and Android users monitor their PC stats, and turn their mobile devices into touch screen interfaces for PC gamers.
The idea is similar to the Switchblade concept device from Razer, which itself has morphed into the Razer Blade laptop and the SW:TOR keyboard. Roccat is taking this idea of customizable user interfaces for gaming, and leveraging the touchscreen you probably already own. In addition to the software component, Roccat is also offering hardware accessories. The Phobo keyboard offers a dock for your iPhone on the right hand side, and largely mimics the functionality of the Razer SW:TOR keyboard. If you already have a keyboard you love, Roccat is offering a charging dock to help integrate the iPhone into your gaming rig.
Earlier this week AMD took the wraps off the latest entries into its Radeon HD 7000 series, the Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition (GE) and the Radeon HD 7850. The HD 7800 family is billed as a replacement to the HD 6900 series. From a price and specifications standpoint, that looks to be the case. The "flagship" models in the HD 6000-series (the 6970 and 6950) each had 2GB of VRAM and carried price tags of $349 and $279. The 7800 family has the same 2GB of VRAM (as expected, considering that the 7900 family came with 3GB), and price points of $349 and $249.
In their press materials, AMD bills the Radeon HD 7800 "Pitcairn" platform with the tagline "Serious gaming starts here". Two generations ago, with the launch of the Radeon HD 5870 and Eyefinity, the x800 family was seen as the flagship and the x900 moniker was reserved for the dual-GPU card (the Radeon DH 5970). The 6000-series moved the flagship "enthusiast" cards into the x900 family (the HD 6970 and the HD 6950) and edged up the dual-GPU to carry the top end of the naming with the HD 6990 badging.
The 6800 family was great in widescreen, but could be hampered in Eyefinity to the 1GB VRAM limitation. The 6900 was reserved for high-end Eyefinity gaming, due to carrying 2GB of VRAM. The 7800 family now sports the 2GB of VRAM of the enthusiast class cards in the "performance" tier, but it also now sports the $350 - $250 price range of the 6900 series.
Submitted by ViciousXUSMC on 6 March, 2012 - 23:56
Trying to get some product reviews out of the way. I finally got the KBC Poker X keyboard in that I was looking forward to for a long time. I did a full on review of the unit to both review the keyboard in detail and also give some information on mechanical keyboards and the switch types for people new to mechanical keyboards.
Submitted by AussieTimmeh on 6 March, 2012 - 20:41
Welcome to the next of my video blogs where I look at co-op games and how satisfying the experience is in multi-monitor. I love co-op gaming, but not all co-op games play well in multi-monitor. My reviews cover what I needed to do to get the game working in Eyefinity, any issues that I found in the game that relate to it, and how fun I found the whole experience.
This episode reviews the game Saints Row: The Third.
In case it is helpful, I have provided a text copy of the transcript as well. Enjoy!
The Radeon HD 5770 was a runaway success for AMD. It garnered huge market share with it's solid performance, mainstream-target price, and introduction of the Eyefinity ecosystem at an attainable price point. Within the generation, it ended up being one of the most popular video cards on the market.
Back in the summer of 2010, I reviewed the Radeon HD 5770 and 5750. In my conclusion I wrote, "The 5770 is really the tipping point in the ATI Radeon HD 5000-series. It performs quite well in a single widescreen environment, and there are instances where it performs admirably in Eyefinity. If you frequently play older titles that aren't shader intensive, such as anything based on the Source engine (Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Left4Dead), then the 5770 could well serve you in an Eyefinity environment. Even newer titles such as Batman and Dirt 2 can easily hit 30fps in Eyefinity."
Fast forward two generations, and we're now at the Radeon HD 7770. There really wasn't a Radeon HD 6770 - it was just a rebadged 5770 originally intended for OEMs. Games have come a long way in the last two years, with greater adoption of DX11 and advanced features such as tessellation. Has the "mainstream" offering from AMD kept pace with the times?
Todays review is Syndicate (2012), which is a first person shooter that is set in a future where large corporations have taken the place of governments. Once again your feedback is appreciated.
To use a multi-monitor resolution, open My Documents, and find the Syndicate folder, then edit the environment.cfg file, changing VID_DWIDTH and VID_DHEIGHT to your correct resolution.
While this video can be watched on any screen it has been encoded to look best on a multi-monitor system, so if your running such a system, then select original quality from the drop down box and watch in fullscreen.
So, Gizmodo picked up this story from the New York Times about a study proving that multi-monitor configurations make users more productive. Really? Is that new news? We could have told you that.
The article cites a study (funded by monitor maker NEC) that says having multiple monitors can save you 10 seconds of toggling between windows, for each five minutes of work. Sum total in a day, this works out to saving 15 minutes - enough for a coffee break. Yay! Too bad they missed the larger point...
