I recently reported that the cloud gaming service Onlive would be available in the UK. I am glad to announce that it is now LIve. If you are in the UK, go to onlive.co.uk and sign up for your free account. Remember, you only pay when you wish to buy or rent a game.
Tag Archives: PC
Linux on Windows 8 could be a problem
For many years, PCs have been running on something called BIOS. Essentially, this was the chip in your computer that allowed your keyboard, mouse, monitor and other components to work when turning on. However, there is something similar and newer that does the same job called UEFI(Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). It will allow your computer to boot up faster amongst other things.
Of course, Windows 8 will be taking advantage of UEFI, meaning you could have a Windows 8 PC with a decent boot time. However, there is a sting in the tale. When windows 8 is released, manufacturers will be putting Windows 8 on the PCs that they sell. However, the PCs must have UEFI, which also has a secure boot feature(which must be enabled). If the manufacturers follow this rule, then they can put a sticker on their PCs saying that their PC was designed for Windows 8. Essentially, this means that you cannot install Linux on a Windows 8 PC.
With that being said, you can install VIrtualBox(or VMWare Player) on Windows 8. From there, you can create a virtual PC and install Unbuntu Linux on it. For more information on virtualisation, click here . I know that Microsoft wants to make an effort to secure their operating system, but they have to consider people who want to run Linux alongside Windows.
Freebie Alert: Portal is free until 20th September 2011
Valve have decided to let gamers get Portal(one its most popular titles) for free. I should warn you, that this offer is only valid until 20th September, so I suggest you jump on this one right now. It’s available through steam on PCs and Macs, as well as on Xbox360 and PlayStation 3.
To get your hands on this freebie, you have to have a Steam Account. If you don’t have a Steam account, then you can create your Steam account by clicking here . By the way, I should mention that it is completely free to create a Steam account. There are no monthly subscription fees, no signup fees or any other fees. In addition to that, you can also use PayPal as your method of payment.
Once you have created your free account, click here to get steam for free.
IP Addresses are not enough to identify illegal P2P users
Netflix is a popular service which allows you to watch many TV shows and movies for a monthly fee. There was a small glitch over this previous weekend(3rd september 2011 to 4th September 2011) that basically limited people to streaming 1 piece of content at a time on one device at a time. For example, if I was watching an episode of The West Wing on my iPad, then my brother could not watch an episode of sports night on his Windows PC until I had finished watching my TV show. I know netflix is not in the UK yet, but you get the idea.
Netflix has a policy that says that the number of devices you can watch your content on at the same time is limited to how many DVDs you can have out at the same time. If your Netflix plan allows you to have 3 DVDs out at the same time, then you can only have up to 3 devices watching what they want at the same time. If you have a Netflix plan that only allows you to have 4 DVDs or more out at the same time, then you can only watch your content on up to 4 devices at the same time.
After many complaints from their customers, Netflix had acknowledged that this was a technical fault. To make things right, they had fixed this and customers can now stream their Netflix content on two devices at a time.
Doom and Doom 2 now approved for sale in germany
Doom and doom 2 are part of a series of one of the most popular first person shooters in the history of gaming. For 17 years, these two titles have not been available in Germany due to being considered too violent. They were also banned due to having Nazi imagery. However, Germany’s federal department for media harmful to younger persons have recently considered these titles to be “mainly of historic interest”. Due to this decision, the ban have been lifted.
Of course, Bethesda Softworks(current owners of the Doom series), have announced that they will let the German people know about availability in Germany.
Is the PC dead?
So, with HP getting out of the PC business and Apple claiming that we are in a post-PC era, is the PC dead?
In my opinion it is not. I believe that the term PC is defined as a tower that sits under our desk. However, I also believe that this is not the case. Let’s face it, most of the devices that we own are in fact PCs. Macs are PCs, smartphones are PCs, tablets are PCs. Little do we know it, some of us in one way or another own a PC. Why do I say this?
It’s because a lot of the mobile devices(smartphones, tablets, and laptops etc) allow us to carry out tasks that desktop computers do equally as well.
We are able to go on the internet, shop, read the news, customise the desktop background to our desire, run and install the apps we want to. most of the devices that we own can be personalised. I am sorry, but to say that the PC is dead is just wrong. Better yet, to say that we are living in a “post-PC” era is completely wrong.
However, we can say that the PC is not only a tower that sits under a desk, but it is also the phone in your pocket, your laptop, your netbook or your tablet.
Onlive UK Launch Date Confirmed
In a recently published press release, OnLive have confirmed that their “Cloud Gaming” service will launch on 22nd September. From this date, you will be able to play games such as Split second and the recently released duke nukem forever without the need
But, how does this awesome service work?
When the service is available in the UK, you would go to onlive.co.uk and create your onlive account for free. You can sign up for free with no commitments to make when you create your account. Once you have done that, you will need to download the OnLive application and install it onto your computer. If you are on Apple’s iPad or a Google Android device, you will need to download the application from Apple’s App Store or Google’s Android App Market.
When you have downloaded and installed the relevant application for your device, you will then need to launch the OnLive application sign in using the email and password you chose during the sign-up process. Once you are in, you can go to the marketplace and check out all the games available.
Of course, you want to see how these games will run, and see just how good they are for yourself. This is why most of the games on the Marketplace will give you a 30 minute free trial. You will have full access to the game for 30 minutes. For me, I like using the 30 minutes to see how far I can get in an OnLive game. At this point, you still don’t need to enter any credit/debit card info.
However, if you wish to rent a game, then you can. You can choose to rent a game for three or five days. If you like the game, you can buy it and play the game as much as you want, for as long as you choose.
There are a lot of advantages to this service. First of all, you can use OnLive to play games on older machines, as well as netbooks. This is because OnLive’s data centers have all the high-end hardware. They send you the video for the game that you are playing. Therefore, you don’t need to have the latest PC or Mac. For example, I have a laptop that is at least 4 years old. Using OnLive, I can play games such as Borderlands and NBA 2K11 without the need to upgrade my laptop.
When it launches here in the UK, you will be able to use OnLive on your Windows PC, Mac, iPad or Android Tablet.
OnLive is already available in the USA and I was able to sign up to it to try it out for myself. From what I have experienced using this service, I believe that OnLive has the possibility to become the future of gaming.
I also think that OnLive reinforces a very important point here. When you buy a game for PC, XBox 360, Mac or any other gaming platform, you don’t own it. The company that makes the game owns it. By buying the game in question, you are only given a license to play the game on the machine that you own.
To use OnLive you will need a PC with the following specifications:
- A 2mbps internet connection
- A PC running Windows XP SP3(32bit), Windows 7 or Mac OSX 10.5.8
- A screen resolution of 1024×768
However, it is recommended that you have a PC with the following specifications
- A 2mbps internet connection
- A PC running Windows XP SP3(32bit) or better, Mac OSX 10.6.0 or better
- A screen resolution of 1280×720
If you want to try it for free, then click here and you will be able to use it right now.
Duke Nukem Forever for Mac Has Been Released
After a long wait, Duke Nukem Forever has been released for mac. you can get it by clicking here. Before downloading it, please make sure that your mac will be able to play this game by checking the system requirements. You can check the system requirements by clicking here.
I have not had the chance to check it out yet. From videos I have seen for Duke Nukem forever, I believe that Duke Nukem Forever has been worth the wait regardless of what the media say.
PC Game Sale Alert: The Humble Indie Bundle is Back Again
That’s right! A bundle of 5 games produced by some independent developers. This package is known as “The Humble Indie Bundle”. They will work on Windows PCs, Apple computers and Linux PCs. They are DRM free, meaning that you can install them as many times as you want, and install them on as many machines as you want. However, what is the cost of this package? I can confirm that you will be able to set the price yourself. I am dead serious! You will be able to pay what you want for these five games. You will also be able to choose the amount of money that will go to the developers and the charities. For example, you can choose not to pay the developers and let all the money from your payment go to the charities. However, I suggest that an equal amount of money goes to the developers and charities.
You have less than two weeks to act on this offer, so I suggest that you all jump on the offer while you can.
Duke Nukem Forever to be released for Mac in August
Duke Nukem is one of the most popular first person shooters of all time. The last “main” game was released in the 1990s and was called Duke Nukem 3D. Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to be the sequel to Duke Nukem 3D. however, 3D realms(makers of Duke Nukem 3D) had stopped developing games for good. To keeps fans busy until the release, Duke Nukem Manhattan Project was released in 2002. After that nothing was ever released………..
Until very recently, when Duke Nukem Forever was finally released. Many years in the making, this game was recently released for the PC, the XBox 360 and the Playstation 3. Aspyr media has made a blog post on their blog to confirm that the Duke Nukem Forever will be coming to the Mac in August. That way, Mac gamers will not be left out.
Now I know that it has been a long time coming, but I think that it should be worth it despite what many people in the gaming media have said. If you have a mac, then be sure to check the system requirements of this game before preordering this.