Posted 06/24/2009 at 07:38:54pm

Finally, here’s a 3D gaming solution that doesn’t send us headfirst into a vomit bag. GeForce 3D Vision is Nvidia’s attempt to revive stereoscopic 3D, a century-old technology that has never been implemented successfully in PC gaming (despite many headache-inducing efforts in the late ’90s). Along with wireless shutter glasses and an IR emitter, this $200 kit comes with the promise that you’ll be able to enhance your existing library of DirectX games by turning them into true 3D experiences—if you’re running a GeForce 8800 GT or better videocard. And for the most part, the promise is delivered —but not without some serious issues.

Posted 06/01/2009 at 01:30:00pm

Holy smokes! Who saw this coming? Valve and EA have just announced the sequel to last year's multiplayer zombie-killing smash hit (and Maximum PC's Game of the Year). Left 4 Dead 2 will be released later this year on November 17th, and will feature five new campaigns that follow the story of four new survivors. PC Gamer has the full scoop in an exclusive 8-page feature in their August issue, which hits newsstands this month. 

Hit the jump for more game details, Valve's full press release, and a high-res image. 

Update: More game details revealed and gameplay footage!

Posted 05/20/2009 at 10:45:00am

We love the excitement of being on the cutting edge, but have to also acknowledge the risks of being early adopters of hardware. In fact, there have been numerous occasions where tech enthusiasts have put their faith into the seemingly fastest or the more innovative pieces of technology, only to be burned months or years later when that tech is revealed to have to a serious design flaw or falls victim to sudden obsolescence. In this roundup, we spotlight some of the most memorable PC parts and computing gadgets that showed huge promise but just didn’t deliver in the end. Whether it was high defect rates, underperformance, or bad launch timing, these products were poised to be market leaders if not for their spectacular failure.

How could the world's fastest optical drive be a failure? Read on!

Posted 05/11/2009 at 07:02:11pm

This anti-zombie kit came in the mail today, courtesy of PopCap and their latest Plant vs Zombies game. We're not sure if it's going to be effective, but we're definitely curious. The seed has been planted and the tin pot now sits by the window, absorbing the awesome power of the sun. Observe the seed standing guard for the inevitable undead apocalypse after the jump.

Posted 04/17/2009 at 12:45:15pm

Breaking: The Swedish District court holding the infamous Pirate Bay trial issued a Guilty verdict early this morning, sentencing each of the four defendents involved to one year of jail time and split fines of 3.6 million dollars. The founders of the Pirate Bay were found guilty of assisting copyright infringement, even though half of the initial charges against them were dropped shortly after the trial began. The complete verdict can be found here (in Swedish). More news on the ramifications of this trial as it develops.

Posted 04/15/2009 at 10:00:00pm

After pricing out $1000 and $1500 gaming systems, we wanted to go a bit on the high-end and see how we would configure a $2000 gaming PC. $2000 may be more than a lot of you are willing to spend on a new home-built PC, but there are plenty of people out there who spend more than $2000 on custom-designed boutique systems from OEM builders. And for those fat-walleted gamers, this article will show that you can get a whole lot more if you build it yourself (though putting the pieces together is another matter). Just as with the $1500 PC, this build leans heavily on the CPU and GPU side to optimize the rig for high-res gaming, though it'll perform more than admirably with video encoding and other productivity tasks. And as always, we write this with a disclaimer that your own personal configurations and preferences may differ from ours, which does not make them any less valid. In fact, we encourage you to use our guide as a template so you can create your own spreadsheet to swap out the parts we chose with what may suit your needs and budget.

Read on for our parts and price list, and please leave your feedback in the comments section to get the conversation started!