By Cyrris , 3rd May 12:58 am
The past few years have seen me computing on a 17″ LCD from BenQ. It was priced reasonably and for the day it’s 8ms response time meant that it was a decent choice for gaming. Being a budget brand though, it had it’s fair share of problems - it’s viewing angles were terrible, the substandard contrast and colour reproduction meant the images were not fantastic, and most annoyingly for me was the incredibly uneven backlight.
As time progressed, I got used to the nuances of the BenQ, but at the same time I’ve grown more and more aware of the move to widescreen formats. Previously not very well supported by many games, this is now no longer the case. Seeing all of Blizzard’s StarCraft II demos in widescreen format, I knew I’d have to make sure I was able to play it that way by the time it was out. So, I got myself a new monitor.
» Read all of “Wider Pastures - The Samsung 2253BW“…
By Cyrris , 29th March 11:07 pm
Few consumer electronic products are given as little attention as the clock radio. They don’t make for interesting reviews, they’re difficult to get excited about, and unlike plasma TVs or lava lamps, they don’t really add much to the look and feel of a room. It is for this reason, I can only assume, that no-one has bothered to create a perfect clock radio yet.
What irritates me however, is despite the fact that they’ve been hugely common for decades now, you still can’t go out and buy a cheap one which has no glaring issues. Surely manufacturers have had enough experience over the years to iron out the bugs? The only way you can get a product approaching what I would deem an acceptable level of quality is to spend, spend, spend. So, being a very light sleeper and extremely fussy about the things I buy, that’s exactly what I did.
» Read all of “The Perfect Clock Radio - A Pipe Dream?“…
By Cyrris , 11th March 10:07 pm
The more observant of you may have noticed that January 2008 never actually existed. At least, not according to our definitive collection of recorded history anyway. Yes, things have been incredibly quiet on this online home of mine, but the real world couldn’t be more different. Things are in fact much, much noisier than ever before.
» Read all of “Back in Black: iPod Nano + Griffin iTrip“…
By Cyrris , 2nd December 1:54 pm
The latest controversy over on GameSpot is simply the most recent example of why I no longer visit large all-encompassing game media sites. Back in the day I was a frequent visitor of GameSpy and GameSpot - so much so that I’d often end up typing “gamespoy.com” in to my address bar in a subconcious attempt to go to both at the same time.
I’ve thought about writing this piece for a long time, because I have a lot to say about the current state of the gaming sites I used to love. I didn’t, however, want to drag this site down in to an out-and-out bitch fest. Given the latest happenings on GameSpot, however, I can’t help but let everyone know what happens to a gaming site when the establishment goes from being passionate to being corporate.
» Read all of “Gaming Media: The Suits March On“…
By Cyrris , 28th October 1:30 pm
I have been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2 lately, and it’s been fun. Despite being based on the same engine as Half-Life 2 and CS:Source (which my PC runs flawlessly), TF2 has been pushing my computer over the edge, with low framerates during the more intense firefights. On top of this, the performance of the Unreal Tournament 3 demo and the Crysis singleplayer demo has made it all rather obvious: my PC can’t hack it anymore.
On the one hand, I am loathe to spend so much on what will now only be used on a handful of games - unlike before, I now tend to just stick to a few treasured series. It will also be less of an upgrade and more of a… complete replacement. Most of the technologies inside my current box (AMD Socket 939, DDR memory, AGP graphics) are all well and truly out of date, and aren’t going to catch up to the demands of modern games with a simple component upgrade here and there. I’ve never had to buy a whole new box up straight before.
» Read all of “It’s Getting to That Time Again“…
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