Gran Turismo 5:Prologue Review

The Gran Turismo series is without question one of the best game franchises out there. They have always had a passion for realism and fun, and they took it to a whole new level in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. However, the game does feel a little weak… but not too much.

 

Now, although the game is very good, it seems to lack in sheer content. There are only 6 tracks to choose from (although each is beautifully rendered) and only roughly 40 cars. Not to mention the lack of some major car companies, like Lamborghini. Why is this? Well, this whole game is actually a demo of sorts–hence the prologue. The full Gran Turismo 5 game is scheduled for release sometime in March 2010, with realistic damage and over 950 cars and 20 tracks, among other tasty tidbits like NASCAR and WRC racing. But unfortunately, I’m not here to review Gran Turismo 5– I’m here to review Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. So, without any further ado, let’s play!

Now, although the game features a disappointing 4o or so cars, each one is fully enjoyable. The cockpits are rendered very realistically and each car has its own unique feel and sound. Collecting each car is truly wonderful and it actually feels like you are driving. Even details like the navigation screens and the heads-up display (à la Corvette Z06) are included in the cockpits.

Now, GT5 does lack a car upgrade feature like many of its competitors, but I don’t feel like that’s necessary. The cars are so realistic that you get that feeling of speed even if you are going only 100mph. In other car games you can put 1000hp on a Ford Focus and go well over 250, but you still don’t really feel the speed. But with this game the speed comes through very nicely even in a 95hp Suzuki Cappuccino, and I like it.

However, I was sort of lying when I said that there was no upgrade feature. It turns out that when you beat the game (get third or better in every event) you get the ability to customize features on your car without spending money, which in turn increases your performance points. In some events in the S class races (another thing you unlock) you need to keep your car within a certain amount of performance points to participate in the race.

 Overall, I think that Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is a very realistic and solid racing game, and that there is a lot of detail in things like cockpits. However, just due to the fact that there is so little content in the game–I’m giving it a 3.5 out of 5.

TV Buying Guide

It seems like more and more people are making the switch to HDTV’s nowadays. Even I just upgraded last year! But are YOU ready to take the plunge into the new realm of HDTV? If you are, then you might want to keep reading.

Now, the first major thing that you need to decide on when buying a new set is whether to get an LCD or a Plasma display. Now, LCD’s (Liquid Crystal Display) are great for the home theater and average TV watching because they fare better when the room is dark. However, when exposed to high levels of light, they tend to experience glare–which is quite annoying. Plasmas do better in high-light situations, because glare is almost nonexistent. So they would do very well in living rooms, bedrooms, and such. They are also great for gaming, as they don’t display motion blur as LCD’s do. They also have quicker response times. One caveat of Plasma TV’s is the fact that they experience burn-in. If one object on the screen stays the same for too long (A channel logo or a news ticker, for example) it will burn in to the screen, and when you change the channel, the image will still be there for a brief period of time. In extreme cases, burn-in is permanent. However, the image usually disappears after a while.

The next thing you want to find out when buying a TV is what size you want to get it in. Now, some people think that when it comes to TV’s, bigger is better. However, that is not always the case. It depends on the environment in which you are going to be using your TV. It is important to note that the bigger the TV is, the farther away you have to sit from it to be able to enjoy the experience (Ever sat in the front row of an IMAX theater? It’s not fun). Typically, 30-40 inch TV’s are best for bedrooms or other small spaces, as the minimum recommended distance from a 30 inch display is only 3 feet. For a 40, it’s around 4.5 feet. A TV that is anywhere from 47 to 65 inches will feel right at home in your living room or home theater. The min. viewing distance of a 47 inch TV is right around 6 feet, whereas a 65 inch is a massive 8 feet! Note that when you want to find out the minimum viewing distance for a TV, just multiply the size of the tv (in feet) by 1.5.

So there, two main things that you need to know when buying a new tv! Have fun!

I Got My New Computer!

Now, in the past few months I have been pretty silent. Not making any videos or posting anything to my blog. Well, It’s because that back in early September my 3-yr old Dell Dimension 9200c bit the dust (apparently the hard drive failed) and I was left without a computer. Fortunately for me, I ordered a new Dell Inspiron system and received it! Here’s the unboxing video.

New PS3 Slim Is Faster, Quieter and Cheaper?! Sign Me Up!

Over the past few months, rumors have been circulating around the ‘net saying that a PS3 Slim is going to be released sometime in the near future. Well, I’m happy to say that they were right about that, and it seems that the new PS3 is even better than we predicted.

Geeks All Across The World Are Drooling Over This Picture... Including Myself

The PS3 Slim features 2 USB ports (Just like the original), and comes in much larger sizes than the original PS3 (120 and 250 GB options are availible). Also, the new PS3 is faster and quieter than the original PS3! Sweet! Not to mention that it’s 50% smaller (as the name suggests).

However, Sony has removed the ability to run other operating systems on the Slim (though undoubtedly hackers will find ways around this). Also, we will not be seeing any new features added to the PS3 such as PS2 backwards compatability.

The PS3 Slim will ship in early September with a price tag of $299.

Speed Up Your Old Computer For Free!

Most of us have a couple of old computers kicking around the house. Whether they lie in the garage, basement or attic– these computers waste precious space. However, what may seem like an old junker can actually be a pretty useful computer with the right tune-ups.

What are these tune-ups you ask? Well, it all starts with a complete operating system makeover– you will need to get rid of your old windows operating system (Windows 95,98,ME,2000 and XP) and slap on a fresh batch of Ubuntu Linux. To do this, just follow the steps below.

1. Back-up your important files (pictures,music,documents) to an external hard drive or a set of DVD’s. Installing linux will delete everything on your system so back-up what you want to keep.
2. Point your browser to http://tinyurl.com/2cm3o5 to download the Ubuntu ISO (it’s free). This will take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours depending on your connection (keep in mind that you are downloading an entire operating system here).
3. Once the Ubuntu ISO file is done downloading, you will need to burn it to a disk in order for it to be useable. Now, you can’t just drag and drop the file to the disk for it to work– you will need to download a CD/DVD burning program and burn the disk using that. My personal favorite is InfraRecorder, which you can get for free at http://infrarecorder.org. Now, just pop a disk into your computer and burn it!
4. Once you have the disk in your computer, you will need to restart it and enter your setup menu by pressing F8 alot (if that dosent work, then try F2 F10 or F12). Then, select the boot from disk option and hit enter. Now, ubuntu will give you a few options to choose from. The only one that you need to be concerned with is the first one: Start or Install Ubuntu. Just select this option and hit enter.
5. Now, the great thing about Ubuntu is that you can run the full operating system straight from the disk! This lets you try it out before you install it. Once you play around with it for a while and you are ready to install, just go to your desktop and double-click the “Install” icon. This will bring up the setup dialog.
6. Setting up Ubuntu is pretty straightforward. The only part that you might have trouble with is when it asks you whether or not to partition  your hard drive. Now, because this is an old computer that isn’t very useful while running Windows we don’t need to partition it. Just select the option to format the whole hard disk, and go on your merry way.

There! Once you have gone through and installed Ubuntu, you now have a quicker computer that is ready to be used! This is great for people who just want to check email, instant message, do simple office work, work with pictures and do other simple stuff.

Got questions? Email me at techtalkwithchad@gmail.com or send a comment in the box below.

Google Caffeine: Better Than Bing?

 Google has just recently launched the developers preview of the new iteration of the famous Google search engine–dubbed “Google Caffeine”. It promises to improve speed, accuracy, size, and comprehensiveness of Google search. But does it live up to that promise?

In my purely non-scientific tests, I compared the Google Caffiene developer preview (www2.sandbox.google.com) to the current version of Google (www.google.ca) and also to Microsoft’s Bing search engine (www.bing.com) and I judged them in three different category’s: Speed (how long it takes to come up with results), Relevance (how accurate the engine was in it’s results) and Index Size (how many results there were). So, let’s see the results!

Speed

Google caffeine came in first on this test– a quick search of the keywords “ipod touch 1g case” on caffeine took a mere 0.08 seconds, whereas good ‘ol Google took 0.11 seconds. (We were unable to test Bing on this one because time is not displayed in the search results).

Winner: Google Caffeine

Relevance

Again– Google Caffeine took the cake on this test with a remarkable 100% relevance rating! (10 out of 10 results brought us to an ipod touch 1g case). Bing and regular Google tied for second with 90% relevance.

Winner: Google Caffeine

Index Size

Can you guess what search engine won on this test? ‘Cmon– take your best shot! If you guessed Google Caffeine, then you are absolutely right! Caffeine blew all the other engines out of the water– bringing back a whopping 8,050,000 (8.05 million) results for “ipod touch 1g case”. Google came in second with 612,000 results and Bing came in last with a pathetic 377,000 results.

Winner: Google Caffeine

Case Closed.

The New PSP Go Looks Promising, But Is It Worth It?

At last month’s E3 press conference, Sony announced that it would be updating it’s successful PSP line yet again. This time it will he a more substantial upgrade than the PSP 3000 was. They call it: the PSP Go.

The PSP Go let's you play your favorite PSP games, as well as PS3 games!

The PSP Go (PSP-N1000) will feature a cool slider design, much like some new smartphones. Sliding the screen up will reveal all your controls, while sliding it down will allow you to store your PSP easily in your pocket.

The PSP Go is about 30% size of the PSP 3000 and about 15% lighter. The screen is a 3.8 inch LCD as opposed to the PSP 3000’s 4.2 inch display. This will help when you are traveling and want to carry it around with you in your pocket.

The new PSP will feature wifi (as in older PSP models) as well as bluetooth connectivity. This will allow you to use all bluetooth Playstation 3 controllers. A great new feature.

The PSP Go gives the classic UMD format the boot in favor of downloading the games directly from the Playstation Store. The PSP will feature 16GB of internal flash storage, which can be upgraded to 32GB with an external memory card. However, it is unclear if existing UMD games can be downloaded to the PSP Go for no extra charge. Some rumors suggest that Sony will supply kiosks that allow UMD owners to exchange their games for free downloads. However, this has not been confirmed.

The PSP Go has a release date of October 1,2009 and a suggested retail price of $355. But will it be worth the extra cash? We’ll just have to wait and find out.

3 Ways Microsoft Can Make Itself Better

Microsoft, what used to be a great name in the software business has now become synonymous with a big, green monster. Many people have turned away from Microsoft as a result of some of it’s half-baked products and other things. However, I have compiled a list of 3 things that Microsoft can do to make itself better. Steve Ballmer, you better be reading.

1. Stop with all the product keys! Microsoft really needs to stop having product keys on everything. It is really annoying having to type all that crap in to verify that I am running a “genuine” version of a program. Also, activating my software? Give me a break. MS needs to stop treating it’s customers like criminals before it doesn’t have any left.

2. Go back to the basics. Lately, Microsoft has been trying to make Windows look nice. Although it looks nice, it doesn’t get the job done as well. Microsoft is using precious time developing the UI when it could be working on performance and reliability. Also, things like Vista’s Aero Glass use tons of RAM and CPU power. I think that Microsoft should go back to the basics and make an uglier, yet functional version of Windows. Take Windows 2000 and 98–the UI of those OS’s wasn’t the most appealing, but it got the job done.

3. Stop spreading yourself too thin. Microsoft is splattering itself everywhere by making a whole bunch of different things–from security suites to video game consoles. I think that Microsoft should only worry on 3 key things: Xbox, Windows and Microsoft Office. That way, it can focus all it’s resources on these things and make them better. It’s better to have only a few quality products than tons of half-baked ones.

So, these are a few things that I think Microsoft can work on doing over the next few years. What do you think Microsoft needs to do to make itself better? Just leave your thoughts in the comments section below! It’s free!

How To Turn Your Computer Into A Web server…For Free!

So, you want to set up your own website, right? But you don’t want to shell out big bucks for a web host or a domain? Well then you’ve come to the right place! In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to turn your computer into a web server and then give your website a professional short URL–for FREE!

First off, you want to turn your computer into a web server and get a home page on there. To turn your computer into a web server , you will need a special program to do so. I recommend the free Apache software. You can download it here.

Just install the Apache software in whatever folder you want. Now, open that folder and go to the htdocs folder. This is the folder where you will store all your site files. In there, you should see one file–index.html. Just replace this file with your own home page file. Name this file index too.

Now, test out your site by going to http://127.0.0.1/

If it works, then you are ready to give your site a unique address. Just go to www.freedomain.co.nr and sign up for an account. Make sure tht you redirect your domain to http://127.0.0.1/index.html or this won’t work. Now, test out your new domain. ex. techtalkwithchad.co.nr

If it works, then congrats! If it dosent, just leave a comment below and I will try to help you.

How To Speed Up Firefox Dramatically In Under 20 Minutes!

Firefox– It’s the world’s most flexible and powerful browser. It’s speedy, never crashes, and it’s open-source! So it runs on pretty much any operating system. Firefox has got it all, and with these little tweaks you can make it even better. No programming knowledge needed and you can do it in under 20 minutes.

Ok, let’s start. First off, go to your address bar and type “about:config“. Then hit enter. Now, in the “Filter” box type in network.http.pipelining and hit enter. Now, you should see three preferences below. Double-click on the first one that says network.http.pipelining. This will change the value from false to true.

Perfect! Now, if the value is set to true then you’ve done it correctly! Now onto the second trick.

In the filter box type network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and hit enter. You should see something like this:

Now, the default value of this is 4. Just double-click on it and a dialog box should pop up asking you to change the value. Change it to 8.

Just press ok and bam! You’re done!

Ok, now go back to the filter box and type network.http.proxy.pipelining and hit enter. You should see something like this:

Now, just double-click on this to change the value from false to true.

Ok, now go to the filter box again and type in network.dns.disableIPv6 and hit enter. You should see the following screen:

Ok, now double-click on it and change the value from false to true.

Done!

Now that you have done these hacks, your firefox experience will be a lot smoother!

network.dns.disableIPv6