Nalin's profile

Nalin rated:

If you haven't tried any civilization game before , here is a quick rundown. All games in the series involve the player starting with one Settler - who builds a city - which makes technology, culture and production. Production makes units and buildings. Culture grows boundaries , and Technology reveals new units/ buildings/ resources. A standard game spans 2-3 centuries over some 300 turns. In short, every civilization play is epic.

Plus, there are 5 different victories possible in each game. All factors make this a very complex game - not necessarily hard, but very complex to truly master. Old time strategy players (who might excel at AoE , C&C or even Starcraft ) will be amazed at how little their old skills will apply to this game. This is not a "build build , fight fight" kinda game. A few wins or losses will really show the strategic depth that this game has. Plus, the game is endlessly replay-able - like a box of chess ... every game you start will be unique.

I recommend this game to all folks who try games beyond FPSs ( you know, "got gun , go shoot" games ;) Parents of gamer kids should definitely buy this. I think it'll make em smarter - thekids too ;) The lazy gamer will discover that the Civilopedia - sort of like a game help menu - is a highly educational tool.

"Civ IV expansions" ( also available on Flipkart ) is probably the best of the series - with other aspcts such as religion and espionage and corporations ( all of which have been removed from Civ5 ) - but it can be considered a little too complex to actually handle. This title has balanced it out (at least on the lower difficulty levels ). There are 18 Civilizations - each with its own benefits or problems - including our own headed by a hindi speaking Bapu.

One more thing - the game will activate on Steam , and will allow you to add many more civs / maps /etc as Steam DLCs. All said ... legend of a game , at least till Civilization VI emerges .

Nalin rated:

The CPU is the 3rd fastest offering from AMD in the 4-core series, and given its price and performance, is the most cost efficient CPU. I advice buyers to check the "benchmarks on Anandtech" to compare the performance stats with other processors. The 4-core series seems to perform better than the 6-core offerings running at the same clock speed.

The CPU is fast , and has cut down my Win 7 startup time by nearly 40% ( I had a dual core 2.5 GHz CPU earlier) . It performs very well on CPU intensive games such as Shogun 2, Borderlands. Since replacing my old CPU, I have been able to run Skyrim with all advanced options maxed out at 1080p without a problem. ( My ancient and trusty HD4850 GPU deserves a small mention as well ;)

Cooling wise, the temps are relatively low. The CPU is currently running idle at around 31 degrees, but the Delhi winter might be contributing to that as well. This is with only stock cooling.

The one negative I did find was that the stock fan is bit too noisy . The noise is slowly reducing over days of usage, but I would still think it is above desirable limits. I plan to fix in a better CPU cooler after a while to replace the stock fan heatsink . This is not a major issue though , and I was kinda prepared for it too.. based on reviews on the net.

That said ... it is still a great product at its price. Performs well in general, and is very suited to my gaming needs. It would also do well on AM2 mobos and with DDR2 memory ,although the preferred interfaces are AM3 and DDR3. Just make sure your mobo supports a 125 W TDP processor before you make the buy. Also, AMD promises that this CPU gives great performace when paired with a Vision-enabled GPU, which I cannot account for.

One last thing ... Being a Black edition, the CPU is also good for overclocking, and I have personally managed to run this at about 4.0 GHz with very little increase in temps , with stock cooling. I did not even try higher clock speeds because the I still need to temper the CPU for a few weeks , but I am sure it would not be a problem getting this to run at around 4.2 GHz .

Nalin rated:

I recently upgraded from a HD4850 ,also OC to this beast, and on the whole , I am very impressed with the improvements. DX 11 support itself made the "shadow" effects very realistic. This shows very well in games like Skyrim (with HD textures pack) , L.A.Noire, Portal 2 and Alan Wake . The improvements in L.A.Noire were beyond my expectations. The second most impressive feature - the card has not exceeded 55 C temperatures while running any game. It idles at under 40. So the stock cooling is superb.

PROS:
1 Great performance with very well designed cooling.
2 Factory Overclocked from 800 to 975 MHz - reportedly can be pushed beyond 1000 - thats equivalent to a 7950 or better
3 Low power draw - a 500 W PSU is more than sufficient
4 Low noise levels
5 Comes with a Crossfire bridge

CONS
1 Like all AMD . no PhysX support - this is easily supplemented if your CPU is decent enough
2 About 3k higher than the current price in US markets :(
3 No free games ... cmon , Gigabyte need to showcase the game better - a game that can prove its performance would be nice... maybe Flipkart should fill this gap.

Elder Scrolls 4 : Oblivion was probably the most vivid RPG experience ... the world was so rich and diverse ... it almost felt real... and that was 4 years back.

With all the improvements in game graphics over the last 4 years, and having seen fresh ideas in other RPGs such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age, the next Elder Scrolls edition should really be something special.

I hope the release date and pre-order option appear soon. And sincerely hoping Flipkart will offer a good discount on the pre-order. Maybe some freebies too ;)

Make it happen , flipkart

Nalin rated:

The funniest game created , ever . The one they'll talk about for decades to come.

The game begins as you wake up from a looong sleep, only to hear danger alarms sounding everywhere. A friendly an goofy robot enters the room ... to control the panic fit you were about to have... and give you a bit of the background. The funny intro/tutorial also includes 'staring at art' and 'relaxing to classical music' ;)

The game in a nutshell looks like a First-Person Shooter, except there is practically no one to shoot at , and you have just a pair of guns throughout the game. The guns , serve a single purpose ... to create Orange and Blue portals - you know, enter Orange door - come out of the Blue ones . So for pretty much the rest of the game, you are trying to help a couple of Robots test out their puzzle rooms. The job is made even more fun , thanks to the crazy chatter by the Robots(sic) .

So, if you hate being stuck in closed spaces - this is the game for you , or maybe not ;) If you love logical challenges and spatial puzzles , this is the game for you. If you just want a game thats so funny it'll start a laughter that only ever ends with your untimely death , this could very well be the game for you.

My pick of the "Game of the Year" 2011 . Recommended for all ages - human or robot , gamer or non- . It will activate on Steam (being a Valve product) , and so you don't really need the physical CD. And there's an endless number of Co-op ( friendly multiplayer )maps available to play for (hopefully) years to come.

One last thing - this game has the most beautiful ending (for the Single Player Campaign ) that I have Ever seen in 15 odd years of gaming ... a true meeting of cinematic arts and 3D Gaming. Hell, the ending itself is worth the price. Play it - I order you :D

Nalin rated:

First up : this game was released in 2004 - thats before most systems had a decent graphics card - so the look and feel may seem quite outdated. If that one fact does not bother you, this game is pure pleasure.

You play a Dr. Evil like character, whose primary mission in life is world domination. Of course , being such a high figure , you don't need to get your hands dirty. You carry out the various heists, killings, and other criminal activities around the globe by sending your henchmen, while you hide your precious self in an underground base .

The game is very much like a Sim game ( eg. Tropico , * Tycoon, or Theme Hospital ) - and is loaded with very funny visuals and dialogues . I still play a bit of this game for comic relief.

All said, this is a great title if you really like your games and the prehistoric graphics do not matter. Even then , I personally feel that this game should ideally cost less than 300 Rupees given its age. This is the same you would pay if you got it through a online digital distributor ( eg GOG ). Also , This game might not work well under Vista / Win 7 ( unless it has been updated before packaging ) Be careful