After a Holiday 2007 that was filled with games like Halo 3, Mass Effect, Uncharted and others, the games of early 2008 have a large shoe to fill. Turok is one of those games that’s reception could change depending on the time of year it’s released. Turok itself isn’t a bad game…but it isn’t a great game either. There are times when the game shows a truly awesome moment. And there are times when it’s simply downright frustrating and annoying.

Turok is the 4th game in the franchise. While the first title in the series was fairly well received, the latter titles left much to be desired. The story puts you in the role of Turok trying to track down is old teacher Kane for some unknown reason. Suddenly the space ship Turok is on comes under attack and crash lands onto a planet filled with dinosaurs and other creatures. The original Turok was subtitled “The Dinosaur Hunter” and the latest game is no exception to the rule. There’s a good variety of dinos to hunt, though not all of them necessarily need to be massacred. In fact, by utilizing flares you can use the dinosaurs as weapon to attack an enemy. The other neat thing about the dinosaurs in the world is they will stalk and hunt you. You won’t necessarily see them, but you can hear them, and before you know it you’ll be knocked on your ass fending off the dino attack. There’s a button press mini game that is played to survive every attack, as well as during a few cutscenes in the game. There’s a good variety of animations and differences in the mini games that keep it interesting.

Like I said before, there are several scenes and moments in the game that will simply put a smile on your face. Sneaking up behind enemy soldiers and knifing them in the back is one. Launching explosive arrows into groups of unsuspecting enemies is another. But there are times in the game where things are simply so unbalanced that it’s just downright frustrating. Part of the problem is the screen shake in the game. When you take hits from gunfire your viewport is skewed a bit. The bigger problem is when an explosion goes off near you and knocks you off your feet. You become disoriented, and can’t shoot or move for a few seconds. The even bigger problem here is most times an enemy will be able to get off another rocket or grenade before you even get back to your feet, thereby knocking you back down before you really get back up. Before you know it your screen is a blurry red mess and suddenly you are dead.
The single player campaign was mildly entertaining, as was the story. There’s a solid voice acting cast with the likes of Ron Perlman as the cynical sidekick Slade. The game features a pretty indepth multiplayer mode complete with dinosaurs that roam the playing field. There’s also a small co-op campaign online which consists of 3 short missions. It would have been nice if the actual campaign was co-op, but what we get is pretty solid.

Turok is a game that many people will overlook, and while it’s not something everyone should play, fans of shooters or the previous titles will enjoy what the game has to offer.

Score: 3 out of 5

I’ve posted up a review of the Saitek Eclipse II gaming keyboard over at Evil Avatar. Be sure to check it out!

Evil Avatar - [ACCESSORIES] - Saitek Eclipse II

technorati tags:saitek, eclipse2, eclipse, II, gaming, keyboard

I posted up a review of the Logitech G15 Gaming keyboard over at Evil Avatar.

The first thing you’ll notice when you unwrap the magic keyboard is thesheer size of it. It’s HUGE. In fact the keyboard takes up my entirekeyboard tray on my computer desk. There’s almost no room for my mouse!The ironic thing about this is they central part of the keyboard, thekeys themselves are pretty tightly packed together, and for someonewith big hands it’s almost a bit uncomfortable to use.

Evil Avatar - [ACCESSORIES] - Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard

technorati tags:logitech, g15, gaming, keyboard

I’ll take 2 please.� It’s only a mere 17.5k.� Just think of the GAMES!

Nvidia says it has achieved a “quantum leap” in visual compute density, packed in what the company claims is the world’s first “visual computing system.” Called the Quadro Plex 1000, is a professional graphics machine that is offered in a desktop or 3U rackmount configuration, which are designed to provide higher graphics performance for 12-megapixel HD video (4K) processing, 3D styling and design, scientific and medical visualization, oil and gas exploration, or visual simulation and training.

Nvidia intros 80 billion pixels/s graphics machine

technorati tags:nvidia, graphic, beast, quadro, plex

Just when you thought the Dell Laptop Battery Explosions couldn’t get any worse…they did.� Just remember kids…don’t mix Dell Laptops and Ammunition.

“Flames were shooting about three feet out the window,” the 62-year-old Forqueran said. “I ran to the driver’s side door and the flames were rushing at me and the three boxes of bullets in the glove compartment. It was extremely accelerated. It was like someone was firing napalm.”

“Exploding” Dell Laptop Destroys Truck, Imperils Outsdoorsmen

technorati tags:dell, laptops, battery, explode

There is this really cool technology from Microsoft Live Labs called Photsynth. What it does is take a collection of photographs and build it into this VRML type 3D enviornment for navigating and viewing photos. While not necessarily creating a 3D model to walk through, it’s sort of a simulation of positions of objects in the photographs. It even appears to find common objects across photos and remove the redundancy.

There is a pretty cool demo video here.

With Photosynth you can:

* Walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle.
* Seamlessly zoom in or out of a photograph whether it’s megapixels or gigapixels in size.
* See where pictures were taken in relation to one another.
* Find similar photos to the one you’re currently viewing.
* Explore a custom tour.
* Send a collection to a friend.

Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth - What is Photosynth?

This is one speedy PC!� Great for gaming…but HL2 still has audio problems on it. ;)

IBM and Georgia Tech have coaxed a chip to run at 500GHz, a record for a silicon-based device, by dropping the temperature to minus 451 degrees Fahrenheit.

Chip breaks speed record in deep freeze | CNET News.com

The ESRB has changed the rating of The Elder Scrolls: Oblvion from a T to an M.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has changed the rating assigned to the game “The Elder Scrolls® IV: Oblivion™” from T (Teen 13+) to M (Mature 17+). The content causing the ESRB to change the rating involves more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating, as well as the presence of a locked-out art file or “skin” that, if accessed through a third party modification to the PC version of the game, allows the user to play with topless versions of female characters.

Source�

Absolutely fucking ridiculous. This shit has GOT to stop. The ESRB apparantly doesn’t understand software or how it works. What locked content is, what a hack is, etc. Go to fucking hell ESRB.