GT5 Prologue Good Title, Despite Lacking Content

By now I'm sure many of you are either well aware of GT5 Prologue's launch, or you could already be playing it yourself. I purchased yesterday and managed to drag myself away from the PC for a few hours to get some good game time in, and I have to say, it's a well put together title. It has problems, but does good to help hold people over until GT5.

I don't believe the game to be worth the $40.00 asking price though. Granted, that's still $20 less expensive than most new PS3 titles, but this game lacks a lot of content. Six tracks, sixty cars, no customization/upgrades... and a general lack of functionality. Even the tracks themselves are shorter than they should be (when compared to their real-world counterpart). In all fairness, I'm still early in the game, so those might grow.

The graphics are not too mind-blowing, but the presentation is still sharp at 1080p. The car models themselves are what make the game though, and they all simply look gorgeous. Each car offers stock color options, which was nice (M3 Sparkling Graphite, ftw!), but again, each manufacturer only includes a few different models, so it's a little bland in that regard. At least what's there, kicks ass (well... minus the Suzuki Cappuccino).

GT5 didn't "floor" me, but it's the classiest racer out there and includes a lot of great music on top of having decent online play. I personally have a few odd issues (such as the date being incorrect, even though it's correct on the console) and found the online play to be incredibly laggy in some online races, but hopefully you'll avoid both of those issues. If you have $40 to blow and want a solid racer, this game will definitely kill your entire weekend.

Grand Theft Auto IV a "Perfect" Game?

Alright. Who out there thought for a second that Grand Theft Auto IV was going to be a lackluster title? Come on, admit it. None of you? Well that's great, because had you thought that, you would have been kicking yourself right now because of how WRONG you would have been.

In a Take-Two shareholders meeting, Chairman Strauss Zelnick let it slip that he's seen pre-reviews of the game from major publications and is quoted, "to a one, they are perfect scores."

Outright lying during a shareholders meeting is generally frowned upon, so it's likely that the game is indeed going to receive some rave reviews. Whether or not all of the reviews are actually going to award "perfect" scores to the game, from all we've heard so far, it is definitely shaping up to be one heck of an experience. April 29 cannot get here quick enough...

It's no surprise that GTA IV is garnering great reviews, as all previous major GTA releases have as well. It is interesting that the reviews are apparently flawless - not to mention that Zelnick has revealed this information ahead of time.

Source: GamePolitics

Could AMD Have a 12-Core Processor Up Their Sleeve?

When Intel first launched their Quad-Core processors in late 2006, people wondered what the point was. Just how could someone reap rewards from four cores? It's been a while since that time, and now more than ever, multi-threaded applications are popping up in droves. But even now, some of the most common applications are still not multi-threaded, and some that are, won't even use more than two cores.

Of course, that's for the majority of people, and don't be surprised if we see a whopping 12-core (Dozenal-Core?) later this year. According to DailyTech, engineers have admitted to great things ahead, which includes a revised HyperTransport 3.0 clock generator and also 6-core offerings, to help combat Intel's upcoming Dunnington chip.

With the upcoming "Istanbul" 6-core offering and the fact that dual-die models are in the works, it would be possible to see a 12-core chip. The big question is whether we actually will or not, because there isn't exactly a huge need for it, except in workstations and servers. However, it's one thing to actually need something, but it's a completely different thing for it to be amazing to think about nonetheless.

But sextuple-core processors have been done, or at least we'll see the first ones this year. The real neat stuff comes a few months after, where AMD will finally ditch the "native-core" rhetoric. Two separate reports sent to DailyTech from AMD partners indicate that Shanghai and its derivatives will also get twin-die per package treatment.

Source: DailyTech