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Game Section by Gareth Von Kallenbach
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VIVENDI UNIVERSAL GAMES ANNOUNCES EMPIRE EARTH® 2 Award-Winning Real-Time Strategy Formula Gets Refined in Upcoming Sequel LOS ANGELES, CA (April 26, 2004) – Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) today announced development of Empire Earth® 2, the ambitious sequel to GameSpy.com’s 2001 “PC Game of the Year,” Empire Earth. Developed by Mad Doc Software and due for release in the first half of 2005, Empire Earth 2 will build upon the award-winning formula of its predecessor by adding features requested both by casual game players interested in a brief spin through history and by more hard core gamers who demand a real-time strategy game that will challenge them for dozens, if not hundreds, of hours. More information about Empire Earth 2 can be found at http://www.empireearth.com/.

“Empire Earth was a tremendous worldwide success for us, but we aren’t resting on our laurels for Empire Earth 2,” said Michael Pole, VU Games’ Executive Vice-President, Worldwide Studios. “We are going to great lengths to ensure that the sequel is in every way a worthy successor that builds upon the Empire Earth franchise.”

Empire Earth 2 will build upon the success of its predecessor by adding unique units, powers, leaders, and inherent bonuses to all of the game’s 14 different civilizations. Cities, territories, and borders in Empire Earth 2, often treated as “eye candy” in other real-time strategy games, will factor into game play and be treated as tradable resources much like they are in the real world. The game’s artificial intelligence will be more reactive, dynamic, and variable than its predecessor’s, able to adapt to human opponents in ways that are more engaging for the player. And, for the first time in the Empire Earth series, ambient weather and seasons like fog and snowfall will affect game play, forcing players to adapt their strategies to the changing environment. In addition, significant focus has been placed on casual gamers who often become frustrated by difficult and arcane videogame features. Empire Earth 2’s citizen manager system simplifies the player’s job of assigning citizens to movement and harvesting tasks. A new, more intelligent formation system will offer attack bonuses, allow for easier navigation across maps, and reduce the occurrence of “furball combat,” an unfortunately common and confusing real-time strategy game element that can frustrate gamers. And the game’s streamlined research system better mimics the actual development of technology and alleviates the need to micro-manage the game during heated combat.

Empire Earth 2’s multiplayer features will be no less revolutionary. The game’s new Crown System will provide temporary, but potent, rewards for players who demonstrate excellent military, economic, imperialistic, or cultural ability. A war planning screen will help teammates coordinate their efforts by allowing them to use a map of the world to diagram troop movements. Multiplayer competition will feature nine different game types, including new additions to the series such as “Hot Spots,” which forces gamers to capture and hold positions of strategic importance. Lastly, Empire Earth 2 will include popular player-requested features like recorded games, improved tournament support, multiplayer co-operative scenarios, and advanced statistics reporting. In the Empire Earth series, gamers can become the greatest conqueror of all time by creating, building, and leading a civilization to transcend the ages. From the discovery of fire, to flight, to the technological frontiers of the future, Empire Earth 2 will serve up gaming on an epic scale. Each player will take control of a fledgling civilization and strive to forge the greatest of all empires. Hello, I have worked in the gaming industry for several years at some of the top game companies out there. I moved to game journalism and lan events a few years back and this is my new site. I plan many things for the future, but rest assured, I will continue to write for my other publications as well. I look forward to hearing from you. Gareth J. Von Kallenbach P.S. excuse the mess, but I am in the process of merging the site with my Movie Site.

gareth@nwlink.com

Source: Game Rankings.com

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MSI FX5950 Ultra review

The Geforce 4 MSI FX5950 Ultra is regarded as one of the top gaming card on the market. with 256 MB of memory and the powerful Nvidia FX chipset, the card is a gamers paradise come true. Installation to the AGP port was painless, and the driver install was smooth as glass. I wish to note that I used the drivers from Nvidia for use in my testing. The card features the following specs as provided by the manufacturer Microstar.

Advanced pixel shades deliver 2x the floating-point pixel shader performance of previous generations. • Support for MicrosoftR DirectXR 9.0 (DX9) pixel shader 2.0+ • Support for DX9 vertex shader 2.0+ • Long pixel programs up to 1,024 instructions. • Long vertex programs up to 256 static instructions with up to 65,536 instructions executed. • Dynamic, conditional execution and flow control. • Architected for Cg and Microsoft HLSL for maximum compatibility with nextgeneration content. • 128-bit, studio-quality, floating-point precision computation through the entire rendering pipeline. • Native hardware support for 32-bpp, 64-bpp and 128-bpp rendering modes. • Up to 16 textures per rendering pass. • Support for sRGB texture format for gamma textures. • DirectX and S3TC texture compression. • Optimized for 32-bpp, 24-bpp, 16-bpp, 15-bpp, and 8-bpp modes. • True-color, 64x64 hardware cursor alpha. • Multibuffering (double, triple, or quad) for smooth animation and video playback.

The MSI FX5950 Ultra has provided me with simply the best visual gaming experiences I have ever had. The card was far superior to any card that I had previously tested for dynamic lighting effects, smoothness of animation, and speeds at higher resolutions. Testing the card on City of Heroes, the effects unfolded with a dazzling light show without any loss of framerate or hesitation even on the games highest graphical settings. Also unlike the comparable Radeon cards, the MSI FX5950 Ultra blew them away as the framerates were higher, the detail level was greater and the gameplay was smoother. IN massive combat with over 25 characters and their powers being animated the gameplay never once slowed down allowing for unprecedented gameplay. I also tested the games Far Cry, Painkiller, Manhunt, Lineage II, True Crime The Streets of LA. I used the Beta version of Ground Control 2 in my testing as well as the demo for Unreal Tournament 2004, and the sheer number of images the card was able to render as well as the detail was staggering. From the hazy city skyline and building details of City of Heroes to the massed armies and weapons trails of Ground Control 2, this card could do it all with ease.

Despite rigorous testing with all manner of programs and settings I had zero problems with the card as I was able concentrate on gaming not drivers, settings, and performance. I have tested many cards in my day, and I must say that this card impressed me as no other card has. I could find no fault with it, nor compatibility issues with any program while running it. Final Verdict, MSI FX5950 Ultra card is a fantastic piece of hardware that is a must for any gamer looking for top performance on a budget while looking to avoid any complications or compatibility issues that can arise on other cards in the price range. I cant wait to try this game on the pending Doom 3, Half Life 2, and City of Villains

gareth@nwlink.com

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