Razer Tarantula Review

Introduction

Ideazon?s Merc gaming keyboard remains my current favorite while playing games. Combining the big keys and designs of a gaming pad with a fairly standard work keyboard layout has worked out very well. I can type reviews and previews on the keyboard during the day and shoot virtual terrorists in the head at night with the oversized movement keys and well placed buttons on the left side.

So when gaming mouse company Razer first announced their plans for their entry into gaming keyboard with the Tarantula I was more than intrigued. I?m a big fan of their gaming mice products and even though their recent headphone recently was a little bit disappointing I was looking forward to seeing what they would do for gaming keyboards. After all, a mouse is basically a PC input product so creating a companion keyboard would be a natural fit. When I actually got a chance to use Razer?s Tarantula, however, it was something of a surprise. It was more than what I was expecting from the company?and also a little less. That?s confusing, I?m sure but stay with me; it will all make sense.

The first think I quickly noticed about the Tarantula was its size. It?s a big one. It?s not quite as long as the Merc keyboard (20 inches to the Merc?s 21 inches) but it still takes up more desktop space because the Razer is wider than the Merc. It?s also very, very black with a shiny hard plastic finish that makes you be very careful while handling the product. You just don?t want to scratch it at all.

Unlike the Merc, the Razer Tarantula doesn?t really have a dedicated section devoted to just gaming buttons. Indeed the keyboard layout is pretty conventional for the most part but there are some interesting differences. The main one is the 10 keys (5 on the left and 5 on the right of the main keyboard layout) that are specifically made for the Tarantula?s macro set up (more on how that works later). Those buttons along with the Razer logo on the bottom center of the Tarantula, have an electric blue light glow coming from them that gives the keyboard an eerie presence to it in the dark, much like Razer?s Diamondback mouse. There doesn?t seem to be a way to disable the glow, however.

Installing the Tarantula may give you a bit of a fright at first since Razer is requiring you plug in two included USB cable connections in order for the keyboard to work (it?s possible that the reason for this is that glowing light effect takes up a lot of energy but we don?t know that for certain). Thankfully the Tarantula makes up for it by providing for two on-board USB ports that are placed on the top right hand side of the keyboard which is perfect for plugging in your mouse and whatever other USB device you might want (alas these ports are only USB 1.1 and not 2.0 ports). The USB cables also come with headset and microphone cables as well. If you plug both of them into the appropriate openings on your soundcard you can then plug in your headphone-microphone combo into the keyboard itself through the use of two such ports located next to the keyboard?s two USB ports.

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Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Quad-Core Performance Preview

Introduction

Up until a few years ago, clock speed was the number one barometer used by many to judge a CPU?s performance. It was a pretty simple formula: higher CPU clock speeds means better performance. With their Netburst Pentium 4 architecture, Intel in particular was shooting for breakthrough clock speeds. Intel had hoped to eventually hit 10GHz with Netburst. As you all certainly know by now though, Intel?s plans for Netburst were never fully realized; ultimately the Pentium 4 never hit 4GHz.

While clock speed is certainly still important today, both AMD and Intel have realized that clock speed isn?t everything. After all, both companies have hit brick walls in frequency scaling with their CPU architectures in the past. This dilemma presents an interesting challenge to both companies ? how do you dramatically improve CPU performance without relying on hitting higher clock speeds? The answer both have come up with is simple: integrate more processing cores into the CPU?s die. With two CPUs built into the same CPU die, the CPU can perform twice the amount of work as a conventional single-core CPU.

That?s the theory at least. Of course by now we all know that you?ve got to have software that?s capable of taking advantage of that second processing core, or else it ends up spending most of its time idling.

In 2005, dual-core processing was all the rage. Both AMD and Intel introduced CPUs with two processing cores built-in to the CPU. Initially there was a dearth of software capable of taking advantage of dual-core, but over the course of the past 12 months slowly but surely dual-core software has been steadily trickling in, particularly when it comes to audio/video encoding and 3D rendering.

Kentsfield: Two cores inside


Now in 2006 we see the debut of the first quad-core CPUs. Intel?s first out of the gate with today?s launch of the Core 2 Extreme QX6700, previously known by its codename ?Kentsfield?. Intel had originally planned to release the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 in the first quarter of next year, but decided to move the release up by a few months to make it in time for the holidays.

By the end of the first half of next year, AMD plans to release their first quad-core CPU codenamed ?Barcelona? (it has also been referred to previously as K8L), but until then they plan on relying their upcoming 4x4 platform. AMD?s 4x4 technology is expected to be released later this month, but it isn?t a quad-core CPU. Instead 4x4 is composed of two dual-core processors.

Ultimately with a 4x4 system you?ve still got four processing cores, but its spread across two processors and thus you?ll need a two-socket motherboard. (AMD can?t affordably integrate four processing cores into one CPU die until their smaller 65-nm manufacturing process is ready.) With Intel?s Core 2 Extreme QX6700, you?ve got four processing cores inside a single socket, in fact the QX6700 is compatible with most of today?s existing Core 2 motherboards?

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Rogue Warrior Preview

Introduction

Bethesda Softworks is best known for its series of RPGs in the Elder Scrolls series that it developed in-house, but the company is also a publisher of a number of other third party titles, including this year?s Pirates of the Caribbean movie game and the upcoming Star Trek: Legacy. Next year Bethesda re-enters the first person shooter genre with an all new title called Rogue Warrior. At a press event earlier this month FiringSquad got to see a brief glimpse of the PC-Xbox 360-PS3 game in action which is being developed by Zombie Studios (Shadow Ops: Red Mercury).

If the name of the game is a little familiar, it should be. Rogue Warrior is the name of the best selling non-fiction book written in 1992 by Richard ?Dick? Marcinko where he recounts his former military life of 30 years as founder of the counter-terrorist SEAL Team Six where he and his team were sent into missions around the world, from Africa to the Middle East to Central America and more. Later he was a leader of Navy SEAL team Red Cell, which was designed to test out the security of military bases by staging simulated raids on them. Marcinko is a very controversial military figure and in fact was sentenced to federal prison in 1990 for 21 months on charges of defrauding the US government over the price of military weapons contracts for hand grenades (Marcinko maintains in his book he was set up as part of a witch hunt by a number of senior military officers who he claims were embarrassed by the raids on their bases as part of his time leading Red Cell). After writing Rogue Warrior Marcinko co-wrote a number of fictional novels under the Rogue Warrior series, and served as an advisor for moves like The Rock, GI Jane, and TV shows like 24. He is currently the chairman of Red Cell International, a private security firm

Bethesda Softworks wanted to get back into making action games (its last entry in first person shooters were a series of games based on the Terminator movies 10 years ago) and got together with Marcinko to secure the video and PC game rights for the Rogue Warrior series. They then enlisted Marcinko and other former and current Navy SEALs to work as active consultants. Zombie got the heads-up to develop the game itself. Marcinko attended the Rogue Warrior game press event and he comes across as a person who doesn?t quite fit your normal assumption of a Navy SEAL. He?s clearly strong but not the silent type with a full beard, long hair and wearing beach shorts in a room of game journalists wearing jeans. However it?s clear that he knows his stuff and while he admitted to FiringSquad he doesn?t play video or PC games himself he will be a major source of info for the Rogue Warrior dev team

The game itself takes place a few years in the future and has a storyline that?s about as topical as you can get these days; the rise of a very hostile North Korea. In the brief but live game demo (we were not allowed to actually play the game) we got to see an opening in-game cinematic where a fictional version of Marcinko and three other Navy SEALs are being transported via a mini-sub to a mission inside North Korea, specifically a shipbreaker yard where old hulks of ships are being torn apart for scrap. It doesn?t take long for the mission to turn sour for the SEAL team, as their plans for a swift extraction go haywire due to a firefight. The demo ended with another in-game cinematic showing the full scale invasion of South Korea by North Korea. The bulk of the game will showcase the fictional Marcinko and his team trying to find a way to get out of the war-torn country to get back home. Naturally, the North Korean military has other ideas.

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Hidden Game Inside YouTube Videos

The classic arcade game Snake lives on through YouTube with a clever new version hidden in certain videos.

To find it, you need to go to a video in the gaming category, click inside the area of the video, and then hold down the left arrow key.

Shortly after, a trail of white dots will start scrolling across the video, with a single blinking white dot that you need to steer your snake across.

Its kinda difficult to do on a busy background, but chances are somebody will post a plain black video to make it easier.

Enjoy!

posted by: jmet, 12:12, June 19, 2010
posted by: jmet, 05:13, October 11, 2009
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PS3 Move Bundles Get Cheaper Already

Sony is reportedly preparing to introduce a lower-price PS3 bundle containing a 320GB PS3, Move controller, Eye camera, DualShock controller, and a game for just $399.

Now if you don't need the 320GB edition, Microsoft will be selling the same bundle except with a 120GB version for just $349.� If you would just like the Move controller, it is only $49 while buying it with the Eye and a game cost $99.

posted by: jmet, 12:29, June 16, 2010
posted by: jmet, 05:19, June 15, 2010
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posted by: jmet, 09:57, August 4, 2009
posted by: jmet, 10:02, August 29, 2009

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DVD Ripping & Jailbreaking Now Legal

�Every three years, the DMCA or Digital Millennium Copyright Act gets reviewed and�laws are added and subtracted.� This years review process seems to be going in the right direction as congress has added five new exemptions to the DMCA this year that might allow the breaking of DRM legal�if used for fair use rights.

Jailbreaking cell phones is really where all this started but has since lead to legalizing the�breaking of DRM on video games, e-books, and DVDs as well as bypass external security measures on some computers.� If you paid for the device, you should be able to use it how you see fit.

Please don't forget though, this doesn't make piracy legal.

posted by: DVDGuy, 15:01, December 13, 2009
posted by: jmet, 13:45, February 25, 2010
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Disney Gets Involved with Social Networking

Walt Disney is supposedly making a deal to acquire Playdom Inc. for more than $500 million to get more involved in game play on social networks.

Disney is very serious about using Playdom to develop a bigger presence in games on social networking sites such as the hit game "Farmville".

The two companies have been in negotiations for over two months, but Playdom has scheduled a board meeting next week to decide whether to accept the buyout offer.

posted by: jmet, 12:40, November 18, 2009
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