Get your PC ready for Battlefield 3

There aren’t many game launches which get people looking at their PC and wondering if it’s powerful enough. But the seemingly high system specs of Battlefield 3 have got a lot of us suddenly concerned about the state of our hardware.

With just one weekend to go until it’s released, it’s time to face the question: do you need to upgrade for Battlefield 3?

Confession time: I didn’t get enough hands on time with the beta to do reliable benchmarking, but since there’s a day one patch and new graphics drivers already confirmed, even if I had it wouldn’t mean much. If you do want to see a very thorough analysis of graphics card performance in the beta, though, I can recommend Ryan from PC Perspective‘s work comparing 10 different chips at a range of settings here.

What I can say is that I think a lot of concerns will turn out unfounded. It ran flawlessly at Ultra settings on my generation old Radeon HD5870 from 2009. That was backed up by an embarrassingly good CPU, mind you.

Then again, perhaps I’m in the minority in thinking that. According to a report on IGN a couple of days ago, Battlefield 3 has already resulted in $1bn of PC sales and upgrades in the last year. I’m a little sceptical about that figure – NVIDIA’s last three month sales figure are good, but only $100m more in GPUs than last year.

Nintendo abandoned the Hardcore Gamer? Thats BS and other Rantings - Perspective of an Old Schooler

Now over the years Ive seen things come and go... Atari lynx, Sega Gamegear, the Dreamcast. Nintendo losing the title of King to Sony during the n64 to gamecube years and the emergence of Microsoft with the Xbox.
If there is one thing that hasn't changed... It is that Nintendo is an extraordinary company. Unlike Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo doesn't have extra resources or other branches of tech that they can get money from. The Money is exclusively coming form the one thing they focus on: Gaming.
Nintendo is probably the only gaming company in existence to have proven that they can survive and profit exclusively from their 1st party games.

now before I go praising Nintendo any further... I will admit I am a fanboy for Nintendo. But not really for the company itself. Only for one IP: Fire Emblem. Why? Its due to that it is that great a game. Give me an option between any game u can think of vs a Fire Emblem game and I'll choose the FE game every time. Now unto the point of this Rant before I derail myself any further.

The Hardcore Gamer... Too many times this term has been blurred and how do I say this...? Slandered to different meanings that not many people agree on 100%. For some its playing Call of Duty. For others its about owning one of the HD twins the PS3 or the Xbox 360. For others it could be that playing M+ games whilst ignoring games like Mario, Kirby, DK, or any E rated game makes one hardcore and lol "Grownup" (LMAO being Grown Up is about being mature and I see nothing but immature and childish concerning this version of hardcore.)

None of that is hardcore that is bullshit. Any REAL gamer knows this to be true. What is a hardcore gamer? for me its being someone that can complete a game no matter what Genre, ESRB rating, or difficulty the game may be. Hardcore wud be someone who really doesn't give a shit about these so called console wars. Why? Because real Hardcore gamers get all the available consoles and not play favourites. This sadly Rules me out of being hardcore as I favor Fire Emblem and because Fire Emblem belongs to Nintendo I favor Nintendo above all else.

Now why am I making such distinctions of what hardcore is? Don't worry this is very much related to the main point. Having said all this about the hardcore, These "fake" hardcore seem to to think Nintendo has wronged them. Bringing on the Wii and its Motion Controls, Sub par 480p graphics, no AA nor Upscale, no HDMI, no Blu Ray, Finally gone to DVD only when it became obsolete and inferior. Kiddy games, not enough Exclusives, no Original IPs (which this one the complaint is rightly grounded as they do need new IPs), the rehashing of Old franchises, etc. But Most of all, the so called Betrayal that Nintendo went to the darkside by aiming for a non existent market which is now known as the casual market. These fakers think that Nintendo abandoned the hardcore gamer for these casual sheep. How retarded are you people.

I find it pretty sad that people still think that Nintendo abandoned the "hardcore gamer" when it was that same audience that abandoned Nintendo all those years ago. Starting with the n64 was when the so called "hardcore" left and went to the PS1. Sales weren't great but the best game ever came out on n64 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Though my personal choice be Majora's Mask). then came PS2 and GameCube. Granted the GC did look like a lunchbox but i actually liked it especially the "handle" as it makes carrying it much easier whilst at the time ps2 didn't have its slim version and was clunkier. GameCube had more power than ps2, only limited by Nintendo's refusal to adopt dvd and instead went for propriety minidvd. Had Nintendo gone with dvd this gen would have been completely different.

The n64 and GC era showed Nintendo that the hardcore don't give a shit about Nintendo anymore. Nintendo then did what they had to do: just as the hardcore ignored the Big N, Nintendo would ignore the hardcore back. Nintendo then decided to go for a new market that would give Nintendo attention and this gen is the result of that. Whilst the hardcore were all at Sony or ms side, the new gamers aka the casuals started by the masses, siding with Nintendo, and returning Nintendo to its Rightful spot in the world: King of the Gaming Industry aka 1st place as it should be.

Now whether the casuals will go to MS's Kinect will be another topic altogether but nevertheless, There are haters of Nintendo for this reason: going casual. These fake hardcore haters, whom may I add are the scum of the gaming industry, blame Nintendo for this motion gen and bash Nintendo whenever it feels appropriate for anything which is no less than trolling. Not once they thought it was their fault. Well as a keen observer I can guarantee you that is definitely those fakers own fault for the way Nintendo is currently. For those who still bitch about casual Nintendo for those who call themselves hardcore yet bash Nintendo, know that the reason why the wii is a "casual device" and that Nintendo went casual that you forced them into that position. Ye who think Nintendo abandon thee has it wrong its the other way around! Ye abandoned Nintendo!
Why does thou bitch so much when it is your doing that Nintendo is this way. Hypocrites and Double Standarding Scumbags... Scourge of the Industry.

Am I disappointed with the way Nintendo currently is right now? Contrary to this rant Hell no. If it hadn't gone this way... We would not have seen Mario Galaxy, or Kirby Epic yarn. No remake of Goldeneye, No DKCR, No Wiimote, No to alot of things that are great and what makes the Wii a great console to own. I played Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn for Wii and I finished the game Completely Satisfied as if Nintendo knew how to make sure I enjoy the game. So There. Done. Thats why I don't see any wrong with Nintendo going casual and you know what? It's probably for the best. I mean without the Wii's great sales, where else would Nintendo get the money for Devving the 3DS and Wii2 without relying on 1st party sales? Once again Nintendo only does Gaming they have nothing else to fall back on. So as I sit back contemplating to purchase a Virtual Boy as I found a working condition virtual boy from a tip by a good friend of mine while typing this... Currently I enjoy what Nintendo has to offer. For me they haven't changed. You kids say they went casual? Say what you want but the games they release remain top notch and make most PS3 or 360 seem pitiful in comparison.

3 methods of reviewing that need to die.

3.The IGN scoring Method.
Example: Graphics 8. Sound 8. Presentation 7. Gameplay 6. Lasting Appeal 8. Final score:10 PERFECT GAME!. While that may be just a little exaggerated, IGN's scoring system is based on scoring the game's attributes then throwing in a number that has little to no relation to the aforementioned attributes. One game that has received the short end of the stick from this arbitrary scoring method is lair. When you average the scores together, you should get a final score of 6.7 but the final score is a 4.9.

A more recent example is the score of Call of Duty Black ops. When averaged together, you get a score of 8.8 and because of the new scale that only allows either a .0 or a .5 at the end of the number, this should round off to a 9.0. But IGN shows thier inability to perform 3rd grade sounding and round backwards instead, making Black ops lose .5 points. So in short, IGN writers seems to suffer from a mathematical disability and this has been causing games to get screwed for years.

How to fix this:Buy a calculator.

2.The G4 reviewing system.
X-play is the most popular reviewer that uses a highly flawed 5 star system to rank games. The problem with this scoring method is that a game can only be a mediocre game or a perfect game based on this system as shown below

1/5=20% or 2/10
2/5=40% or 4/10
3/5=60% or 6/10
4/5=80% or 8/10
5/5=100% or 10/10

So the problem is that unless you want to insult a game that you liked, you have to give it a perfect score every time. This is why G4TV pretty much hands away free 5 star scores to every game that either plays decently or has a great amount of hype to it. There is simply not enough room for choice here. Its either all or nothing for a game on X-Play.

How to fix-Switch to a superior 10 point system.

1. The no score system.

This is mostly used by bloggers or small time websites that have no idea what the hell they are doing. The reviewer types a few giant paragraphs or two and that is it. No score. No nothing. While some may argue that games shouldn't have a number stuck on them, this is really the only way to review a game. Numbers will always mean the same thing, but words can be interpreted in a million different ways. Someone could read a no score review and think it was a positive review while somebody else could read it and think the review was negative. If you want your review to be clearly understood, score the game!

N4G Community Sound Off!

Hello one and all, some of you may know me as one of the corrupt and/or biased moderators who help manage N4G. (THAT IS A JOKE PEOPLE)

But I wanted to hear your thoughts on a project I am working on. As apart of this staff I see the.... questionable editorial content that makes its way onto N4G and I see the appetite that exist for such content.

My pet project is a game website (shock I know) that focuses on quality editorial content, some of the first pieces that I've already written include looking at
The Digital download age vs the changing internet world
(bandwidth caps and all)
How the gaming market has transformed in Japan
Microsoft's first party strategy
Designing games for profit instead of fun

However I have some loftier goals and projects for the site, every bi-week I hope to have a guest writer who writes about some aspect of gaming that is important to them, this will include freelance writers, industry personnel, just to name a few.

I also want to try something different with reviews, since the site will consist of pretty much just me writing doing reviews for everything would be down right impossible so I want to allow visitors of the site who have played a game that I cannot review and would usually write a review on N4G the chance to have it become our sites official review.

Of course I would edit it for grammer/spelling and structure but anyone could participate.

So there it is, again I'd love to hear if this is something you guys would like to see or if this kind of content isn't appealing.