Thursday 29 March 2012

Troubleshooting your newly built PC

Building your first computer and having it work is one of the most fulfilling feelings that you can get. Unfortunately, the computer may not always work first time. This is not an uncommon occurrence, and you shouldn't feel disheartened if your new computer doesn't work first time. Instead, you should try to work out the problem with the tips below.

A typical computer internal, image thanks to expertreviews.co.uk

Thursday 22 March 2012

The Governments' Need to Leave the Gaming Industry Alone

"Warning: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior"

This is the phrase that congressmen Joe Baca and Frank Wolf wanted to see on the vast majority of video games with the bill that they attempted to pass. The bill in question is named 'The Violence in Video Games Labeling Act, H.R. 4204' - at least they're honest and outright with the name, I guess.

Part way into reading the article, I realised that the branding would be on all interactive video game media on the market - and the only titles exempt from this classification are those that have been rated EC (or Early Childhood) by the US Video Game rating board, the ESRB. This means that so many games, that while are not for younger children due to their level of complexity or themes, will be branded with a message relating to the link between violent content and aggressive behavior - regardless of whether or not the game actually has any violent content in the first place.

Now - you'd tell me that's absurd, right? I'd tell you the same. However, the fact that they're even considering creating a bill that affects the video game industry in a fashion such as this is odd, especially since studies that link aggressive behavior to violent video games actually don't have much grounding (come on now, 329 people is not exactly a wide study).

'Cooking Mama' would have to bear a warning about violence and aggression, because it rated 'E'.

Sunday 18 March 2012

The Traditional Console is Doomed - the PC is the Future

Steam is, as you surely know, the platform of the moment for PC gaming fans around the world - allowing users to form communities, play online and purchase games for their accounts, all in a free and complete environment.

Steam saw an 'active user' increase of 178% in 2010, pushing the Steam user counter to thirty million active accounts. It was not the first time that Steam had noted such a significant growth in user-base - and this year was the sixth year running when the Steam product sales were more than 100% higher than the previous years. A staggering growth for Steam, and it reveals just how much profit is being made, especially since Gabe Newell became gaming's newest billionaire, with a net worth of $1.5bn earlier in the year.

Steam already has thirty million users, and internet connections are getting up to speed in most places now. Downloading the tremendously large game files may actually be quicker then going to a store and physically purchasing the game in the coming months, at least for some countries. The usage of digital distribution could be seen to be relatively proportional to the increasing speeds of broadband around the world.

Steam is a digital distribution site for all aspects of PC Gaming, and it's growing at a massive rate.