Return to Rapture

I've just started playing Bioshock 2 which was released this week. it is really great to back to the experiences of one of my favourite games. The wondrous visuals and atmosphere, the music and sounds, the ghostly voices in my head helping me unravel the secrets of the underwater city. I even bought the strategy guide as well to help me make the most of my journey through the splicer infested realms, and more effectively use the traditional weapons plus plasmids that add another dimension to the combat.

I'd been trying Dragon Age Origins which I got at Christmas, but I've been frustrated by being a mage with weak spells, leveling up decisions and the random game play aspects. I'll probably return to this highly rated game after I've enjoyed the delights of Rapture once again.

It is difficult for me to describe to anyone who doesn't play such games the escapism, fantasy experience of being in another imaginary world, interacting and fighting the inhabitants and solving puzzles and exploring the sights and sounds that lead you to the next challenge.

All I can say is that it is good to be back in Rapture!

Wireless N is a WiNNer!

I admit I've been a bit slow in jumping on the Wireless N boat. My excuse is that I was waiting for the draft IEEE 802.11n specification to be ratified. Also to spend upwards of £100 for a router and receiver adapter just to try it out was a bit expensive for me.

So when ebuyer offered a Tenda Wireless N cable router (I'm on Virgin Media cable) for just £15 and an Edimax USB adapter for £13, I could not resist any longer. They were easy to install and though they only offer 150Mbps (actually 135Mbps), this still tripled my bandwidth. It seems to be snappier accessing the Internet and I'm sure the backups to the Windows Home Server will be quicker too. Now if only it had a Gigabit Ethernet switch as well, I'd be really happy.

I'm a Wireless N convert!

Intel's Core iX policy

Now that Intel has released its full range of Core i processors it is interesting to see how and where system vendors are positioning them. For example DELL offers the consumer oriented Inspiron 580, the small business Vostro 430 and the gamer oriented XPS 8100 boxes. All are over £400 in price, leaving the lower ground to the Pentium, Core 2 Duo and Quad CPUs. These are seriously over performed and under priced by the new AMD Athlon II and Phenom II processors which DELL also sell in Inspiron 570 boxes.

So typically there is a £100 premium for buying a Core iX-based system. Granted you do get slightly better performance and a motherboard that should last as long as the venerable Socket 775 ones have. I can only think that once the older Intel CPUs, have gone from stock and the manufacturing has switched over fully to Core iX then the prices will drop considerably. But it seems difficult to recommend buying one at the present time unless you really want the latest technology and are willing to pay for it.