Content and news by Rob Williams

SANTA CLARA, Calif., (October 24, 2005) – Leading video games developer and publisher Namco Hometek Inc. today announced “Pac-Man World Rally(TM),” an original kart racing game for the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox(R) video game system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube(TM), PSP(TM) (PlayStation(R)Portable) system and PC. Featuring a lineup of characters, courses, and power-ups from classic Namco games and sophisticated power sliding mechanics, players race for the finish line at breakneck speed in the fastest kart racing game ever. Developed by Smart Bomb Interactive, “Pac-Man World Rally” will be released in the summer of 2006.

I love Pac Man, but I’m unsure how well he will translate into a rally game. The screenshots definitely look hopeful though. Check out the full posting over at Blues News.

Women are involved in every level in the gaming industry. I want to talk to women who are behind the scenes of all of the work involved in getting games produced, to help their stories become more visible.

The first thing that I had to do for this particular interview was to find out what exactly it is that Publish Coordinators do! I learned that the job is very important for games that I like to play, such as Guild Wars, and another new NCSoft title, Auto Assault.

Take a full look over at Toms Hardware.

We’ve already established that almost no one reads end user license agreements after one company put into their’s a promise to pay $1,000 to the first person who asked — and it took four months for someone to notice. However, perhaps it’s like making sausage — where you’d never agree to an EULA if you knew what it was you were agreeing to. Slashdot points to an article where various EULAs have been dissected for your reading horror as you realize just how much of your soul you’ve sold to load some programs you probably already have.

Check out the full posting at Tech Dirt.

Enermax is known as one of the top manufacturers of power related products in the world. Based out of Taiwan, Enermax may not be the first to come out with cutting edge products, but instead, knowing what the market wants, it perfects ideas until they are the as good as Enermax can make them. This is the case with Enermax Liberty 400 that am going to be reviewing today.

Check out the full review over at Extensive Mods.

This isn’t really an article, more of something to think about. Things that I observe, questions that I would like answered. Taking a look around the modding community you can see lots of things, the major thing you can see is that modding is becoming more and more mainstream. Is this a good thing? There are 2 TV shows that I know of that are dedicated to modding, but it still is not fully mainstream yet. Some consider it an art form, some consider it a hobby and some say ‘What’s modding?’ Browsing all the forums I see lots and lots of mods, some are great and some are not so great. I see many people modding their computers with some theme in mind, some pull it off well and others do not…

Head over to Think Computers for the full article.

In this review picture you can see what we mean on the map. It is broken up into hexagonal sections where only a single unit can occupy it. Obviously on your PC screen it will look much better than this picture as it does on ours.

One of the Strategic Command WWII PC game options is to have the thin lines marking out the hex sections switched off as in this review picture but we prefer to have them shown on the map.

If WWII strat is your bag, check out the full review over at A1 Electronics.

Your new HDTV looks atrocious. It doesn’t produce a picture any better than the old analog TV you just demoted to the bedroom. The first realization may hit you smack on the head. Then again, it might just sneak up on you gradually. Either way the result is the samedissatisfaction, disappointment, disillusionment, suffering, pain, misery, death. Or the death of innocence, anyway.

Check it out at Design Technica.

All of the eye candy the Case Gear X-Plug PSU offers up is great, but to me what counts the most is how well it supplies clean, stable power to the various voltage rails in the computer. Unfortunately, it stumbled a little bit in this area… The Case Gear X-Plug PSU voltage rails never fell out of specification, but all of the voltage rails did a lot of ‘dancing’ around within the 5% allowable tolerance.

This is a great looking PSU.. the acrylic look definitely works. Check it out at Big Bruin.

The GT model is quite similar to the 7 series flagship model, known as the 7800GTX, having 1 less vertex shader and 4 less pixel pipelines. The GT also has slower stock clock speeds of 400MHz core and 500MHz memory as compared to the GTX’s 430MHz core and 600MHz memory. Seemingly minor differences but we shall see what the benchmarks have to say as we pit the Gigabyte 7800GT against the BFG 7800GTX which comes pre-overclocked out of the factory.

Check out the full review over at Bona Fide Reviews.

Once my original Mini-ITX project was completed I finally had a chance to sit back and use the computer. After a couple weeks of general internet browsing, emailing, and so forth, I was able to get a better understanding of the system and a feel for its design. Knowing how simple my needs were, the Mini-ITX project computer was orginally designed to be as basic and quiet as possible. This meant no hard drive, no extra accessories- just a stripped down system. While this suited my needs well at the time, its lack of versatility soon became an issue. This meant it was back to the drawing board for a retooling of the Mini-ITX project computer. The changes include a new case, operating system and boot device, along with improved cooilng.

Head on over to XYZ Computing for the full article.

For those that might have noticed things have been a bit quiet at HardwareXL a few weeks ago, this was due to a folded in lung which kept me busy in the hospital for 2 weeks. After my surgery it took me 2 weeks to recover. Now the only thing that hurts are a couple of my ribs which are internally contused (bruised). But this wont get me down.

Grab your chance and win a ” Thermaltake Blue OrbII ” cpu cooler ”. All you have to do is “ TELL ME YOUR IN “

Check out the full details over at HardwareXL.

The fictional superhero Batman was originally conceived in
1939 when appearing in an issue of Detective Comics, and since that
point Batman’s popularity has increased tremendously and is still
popular with its Batman Begins movie, and video game, out this year as
well as other merchandise. Attempting to capture onto the popularity of
Batman, the relatively unheard of Sansun Group Company has created the
SN-C001 BAT Case and we have this themed ATX chassis with us today for
testing.

Check out the full review over at Phoronix.

There’s a new browser in town, and it has great potential if you use RSS feeds and other social networking sites regularly. Based on the Firefox browser, it should prove just as secure. Let’s check it out, and see if it has a chance to battle Firefox and Opera.

HighSpeedPC’s Tech Station is a product for system builders and chronic tinkerer’s alike. It is an open-air computer workshop that gives the user full access to each of their system’s components, allowing for unprecedented ease in installing, removing, and toying with parts. You can, of course, do this in a case but why make things harder than they have to be? Stop by the forums for a chance to win one for yourself!

Head over to XYZ Computing for the complete details!

The art of music production has come a long way, from the days of player pianos, to gramaphones, to magnetic tapes, and the latest synthesizers. Computers of today are capable of processing power unimaginable a few years back, and thanks to technology, the way music is made over the past decade has been revolutionised completely, bringing about the development of the mobile studio. In today’s world, when it boils down to production, the proper equipment and a good computer can easily match a hundred-thousand dollar studio punch-for-punch… and maybe even better it throughout! Only a select few, very special software can execute such a task; hence CyberwizardPit brings to you, on review today, from the infamous Cubase series – the SX3. After a bit of browsing and tinkering around, music-making will never be viewed the same way again…

Check out the full review at Cyber Wizard Pit.

This week I have taken a look at Thermaltake’s Blue OrbII cpu cooler which can be used for both Intel LGA775 and AMD K8 sockets. With specs like 120mm fan, 17dBA it promises to be a silent solution. With this in mind “how would it perform.

Check out the full review at HardwareXL.

Modular power supplies are starting to become very popular for obvious reasons, but there are a few potential drawbacks. Modular plugs can add electrical resistance to the lead. What this means is that almost all modular power supplies are going to be sacrificing voltage efficiency to incorporate this very convenient feature. Another drawback is corrosion of plug pins which could further hinder the unit’s ability to serve good voltages to components. We are talking minimal amounts here so don’t worry too much.

Head on over to the full review at Pure Overclock.

A closer examination of the aluminum fins reveals three copper pipes that are
located in the center of the unit. The copper pipes work in conjunction with
what Asetek refers to as its “evaporation chamber” or “copper chamber” which
contains hermetically sealed gas that uses the same cooling principles as
phase change cooling. Most consumers familiar with Asetek products have seen
this technology primarily used in the larger VapoChill refrigeration units.

Check out the full review over at ModTheBox.

Sansun Arctic is a modular cable power supply which is not only good for cable management but also good for case inner airflow. Since there are many power supply manufacturers have produced modular power supply, but the main advantage of the Sansun Artic power supply is its cheap price; USD79.99/ RM300. The price is considered very cheap for a 500W ATX12 V2.03 modular cable power supply. Hence, we recommend this power supply for those are looking for a decent performance modular power supply on a tight budget.

Check out the full review over at PC Modding Malaysia.

Some of you may doubt our sources, so to clear it up and to prove the reliability of our sources; we decided to post more details about this subject.

Check out the full source at NGOHQ.