HP Fansite

A weekend with Dirt 3 and Dreamweaver CS5.5

Dirt 3!

Playing a new PC game and adding new things to HP Fansite… what a fantastic way to spend an early summer weekend! And next week we’re gonna be talking lots about computers, hardware and touch on a little gaming since E3 2011 is happening for most part of the week…

I’ve already got some things in mind, but I wanna hear your feedback – what’s the one new feature (or ten) you’d like to see on HP Fansite? Shoot me an email (email address at the top right corner of the site) or post your thoughts in our comments section!

Big bad earmuffs!

Hey all, how was your week? Mine was hectic as ever.

I’ve been very busy over the last one week, attending several events and product launches (errr… non-HP ones unfortunately) and I recently received a pair of Panasonic ‘earmuff’ headphones as a gift. And let me summarize things for you: Best. Gift. Ever. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you’d know that I’ve been enjoying loud, thumping bass along with crispy clear sound. I’m loving it! This pair of Panasonic headphones have better sound quality, bass thump and design versus my old, now-defunct Creative headphones. Well, not exactly defunct, it still works, but because of the dumb design, the second ‘upper’ band which keeps the ‘muffs over your head broke. Oddly enough, it’s made of plastic and there used to be a small, visible plastic ‘seam’ at the breaking point – planned failure, huh? Don’t get me wrong, I love Creative’s in-ear buds though, just not their big headphones.

I know I’m supposed to post my review of the HP Elitebook 8440p and HP Envy 15 feat. ATI Mobility 5830. And I will… over the coming days. And I also caught a few more titbits about the ever-elusive Elitebook 8740w during the weekends – Will have that posted soon as well =)

What to expect this CES 2010

It’s Tuesday already for everyone around the world except Hawaii residents. The biggest thing we’ve been hearing on the net and in the media lately is the Consumer Electronics Show 2010 (CES) being held in Las Vegas. CES is where many electronics and technology companies come out to showcase their greatest concepts and launch their latest products. For the computing sector, I’ve got a small list here of what to expect from this year’s CES:

• Pine Trail aplenty – Lots of netbooks sporting Intel’s latest N450 Pine Trail processor. While offering roughly the same 1.66 GHz clock speed compared to its predecessor, the N280 processor, this latest Intel processor sips even less power than ever and sports a marginally better integrated graphics chipset (but no, you still can’t play Modern Warfare 2 or Need for Speed Shift on your N450 netbook).
• Tablet PCs – Expect to see a lot more computer manufacturers entering the tablet fray. CES has barely begun yet we’ve already seen Lenovo come up with a “hybrid” netbook/tablet today and an accidental information burst from an internet retailer detailing HP’s upcoming Touchsmart tablet… and of course, the ever-present, ever-discussed speculation about Apple’s tablet, the iTablet (or not).
• Core i3 and i5 for notebooks – Both Intel’s Mobile Core i3 and Mobile Core i5 will finally see the day of light in many, many full-sized notebooks this year. As proven by initial benchmarking of new Core i5 processors against last year’s Core 2 models, we’re gonna see quite a speed boost from Intel’s latest with similar/less power consumption… and while it hasn’t happened yet, this is probably going to lead to the complete replacement of Core 2 “Socket P” processors by their Mobile i3/i5 counterparts. We’re already seeing Core 2 processors being phased out.
• More graphics power – ATI made a big bang last year with the 5000-series graphics cards and their famous performance benchmark numbers and have already come out with ‘notebook’ versions of their 5000-series graphics. Nvidia recently added their new GeForce 300 series graphics cards for notebooks, which offer a supposedly large leap over their predecessors. Reliable sources have also told me that there are still yet-to-be-announced Quadro Mobile variants of their GeForce 300 series for CAD work in mobile workstation models.
• Touchscreens and High Definition everywhere – With even the most basic of digital cameras about to feature 720p HD movie recording capabilities, computer manufacturers will be touting their HD features here, there and everywhere. “HD” displays, “HD” graphics, Blu-ray drives, HD this and HD that. They’ll also be quick to offer more touchscreen devices, and touchscreens on more devices. Savvy? More touchscreen phones, touchscreen LCD displays, touchscreen all-in-one computers, touchscreen tablets, optional touchscreens on notebooks (whose extra charge I would fail to justify unless a stand for holding my arm up to the screen for prolonged periods is included)…

I would say 2010 is a terrific year to go out there and shop for new gadgets; especially notebooks. With so much new and improved stuff (as in REAL, justifyable improvements), notably Mobile Core i5 and next-generation ATI/Nvidia graphics cards, getting a notebook this year would be great, because there’ll be a big leap in performance over last year’s models. And of course, who knows what other interesting things the year may bring in the tech area. I foresee lots of exciting, shiny stuff in my crystal ball

What single-player gaming should be…

Batman: Arkham Asylum for PC (I'm enjoying it, "only" 47% done)

The date is January 2, 2010. No sign of any HP news or rumors so far… so before we get all busy with CES 2010 (Consumer Electronics Show) and the rumored new HP notebooks and stuff, I’d like to take some time today to talk about gaming.

For the last two days before the New Year, I had probably the most exciting and enjoyable single-player gaming experience of 2009. Batman: Arkham Asylum (yes it has a superhero in it, but it certainly won’t be small little children playing this game) is a game which came out in September 2009 for PC, and yes, I’m noticeably late to the party (3rd person perspective games have never been my thing, but a recent experience of Metal Gear Solid 4 on a friend’s Playstation 3 has motivated me to try out more recent 3rd person games for PC*). In terms of single-player replay ability, the Left4Dead series are easily at the top for most re-playable games recently released but in my opinion, Arkham Asylum takes the cake for single-player playing depth.

I’ve spent about 12 hours spread out over two days (New Year’s eve and the eve before the eve) and I’m only 47% through the game (see my little screenshot above). I estimate it’ll take me about 26 hours in total to complete the entire single-player of Arkham Asylum – which is excellent! Compare that to the 4.5 hours it took on the latest Call of Duty title: Modern Warfare 2… and Modern Warfare 2 pales in comparison with its overly short single-player campaign. Granted, Arkham Asylum and Modern Warfare 2 are two games of two different genres but Arkham Asylum is a great example of how single-player should be on every game.

Not only does it take several days (or longer, if you don’t spend too much time playing in one sitting) to complete the game’s single-player mode, the game also makes you feel like you’ve been playing much longer than you really have (especially with some scenarios where you have to sneak around and be stealthy, combined with several high-packed, heart pumping fights/boss fights – there’s a really nice stark contrast here). Arkham Asylum’s gameplay essentially gives you a dose of some ‘stealth’ elements along with quite a bit of action, though it won’t be replacing games dedicated to those respective genres anytime soon.

Oh, did I mention the graphics and environment are both awesome (save for the few pre-rendered cutscenes. My eyes tell me they’re pre-rendered because the details and graphics in cutscenes are much coarser and lower resolution). The “world” of the Arkham Asylum island is nicely sized, and though you have to pass through or go back to some places at times, you don’t really feel “oh no, I’ve been here before, why am I here again” because there’s always something new: be it new bad guys having come back to patrol the area or giant “beanstalk” plants bursting through the walls and floors, presenting the need to find another way around.

What single player gaming should be: Sufficiently long with a good story line (this should be one of the top priorities in my opinion) – 24+ hours of singleplayer gameplay should be good, some level of non-linearity or dynamic/changing in-game elements and/or plot twists. With that all said, I think Eidos (Arkham Asylum’s developer) has won me over and just turned me into a potential customer for the upcoming sequel, Arkham Asylum 2. *Note: I still stand by the fact that I really wish someone would make an MGS4 port for PC!!

Happy holidays/Merry Xmas from HP Fansite (+Colin McRae DiRT 2 preview)

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas from HP Fansite, the title says it all. 2009′s holiday season has been a busy one indeed, and I bet most of us are hoping for an even better year ahead in 2010 (better economy, more saucy HP notebooks and hardware, more mind-blowing game titles, etc).

Oh, speaking of games, I’ve just got the new title Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (it’s a car racing game) for PC for review. I had planned to crash at a friend’s place for a mini “DiRT 2 party” since I know several people who have the game too. Unfortunately, because of everyone’s busy Christmas schedule and my friend/the host’s nice HP Elitebook 8730w(drool)’s display backlight failing at the last minute, I ended up having to play the game myself yesterday.

Although I’m not a huge fan of circuit/grid racing (more of an open-world, non-race car racing game fan), I’m a big lover of DiRT 2′s amazing graphics and sound. Gameplay wise, I’ve finished about six races so far and it’s your pretty standard Need For Speed-style, race to the finish and get 1st place kind of game. I have one beef about DiRT 2 so far though – and that’s painfully long loading screens and wait time before/after every race (the so-so hard metal/rock music during the waits don’t help much either).

I’m not sure if it’s my Pavilion dv4 showing signs of age (hmm, frame rates during races are still good) or poor optimization on DiRT 2′s developers’ behalf, but either way, the 1-2 minute long “Loading…” screens are driving me crazy. I’ll have to go see how the game fared (or fares, not sure many of my buddies would have the time for unboxing video games on Christmas week) on some more powerful notebooks. And that’s it for my initial impressions. I’ll be back with a full review of DiRT 2 after I’m done with the game.

Have a Merry Xmas 2009 everyone!