E3 Aftermath

by Eddie Turner on July 25, 2008 2:00 AM EST

As the only vendor of PC hardware to make an appearance at E3 '08, Toshiba had no worries fending off the likes of Alienware or Voodoo with its new X305 laptop designed for gamers. While not exactly what one would call top of the line when it comes to gaming hardware, the X305 appears to hold its own among midrange gaming PC's with an NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GTS graphics card and Intel Core 2 Duo T7350 processor. Sporting a retail price of around $1500, Toshiba's new 17" gaming laptop can be purchased exclusively at Best Buy. They face some stiff competition from Gateway's P-6860 FX (and an upcoming refresh of that model), but it's good to see other companies figuring out that gaming laptops for under $2000 are possible.


Later this year, Ubisoft's Prince of Persia will once again grace consoles along with the Games for Windows platform in a new adventure, titled The Fallen King. With a brand new look and a storyline that breaks away from previous titles, Warrior Within and Two Thrones, the Prince will be accompanied throughout much of the game by the heroine, Erika, who serves as a guide through the game's massive open world setting. Players can expect a truly breathtaking visual experience while leaping, climbing, and wall-running through plenty of puzzle-solving elements, all the while experiencing a totally revamped fighting system. Watch for The Fallen King as it makes its way to store shelves this holiday season.


Ever wonder how a first person shooter would fair if you took away the shooter? Developer DICE who brought us Battlefield Bad Company did, and they went for it with Mirror's Edge, a high-energy action game where gunplay takes a back seat to free running and platforming. While opportunities to grab a weapon and serve up enemies in the traditional fashion exist throughout the game, players may find using their fists and feet to do their dirty work can be equally engaging. Let's watch.

Mirror's Edge is a definitely breakout title that is sure to make waves when it is released this fall on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Stalking the killer apps What evil lurks in the hearts of men?
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  • yyrkoon - Friday, July 25, 2008 - link

    " Rage has been announced as a DX9 game with no plans for DX10 support. Here's to hoping the developers have a change of heart. [Ed: Interesting to note is that Rage for the PC will apparently not use OpenGL as is standard for id Software; however, the Mac version will use OpenGL. Perhaps DirectX has reached the point where Carmack no longer feels it's a handicap, or maybe he's just throwing in the towel as one of the few remaining holdouts.]"

    Or Maybe idsoft wants to port the title to the xbox360 ?
  • JarredWalton - Friday, July 25, 2008 - link

    I've had a few debates/conversations with people online lately about the state of DX10 games. With no DX10 hardware on consoles, and with a huge installed base of DX9 hardware... plus with the Vista requirement for DX10... basically, I don't think we're coming anywhere near to utilizing what DX10 really can do. Everything so far is a DX9 game with DX10 stuff added, because no one is willing to ditch support for all the XP and DX9 user base. It's almost as bad as the state of 64-bit applications. Almost. Still, the fact that id is releasing an OpenGL version on Mac makes the use of DirectX on the PC interesting.
  • yyrkoon - Friday, July 25, 2008 - link

    Actually Jarred, what I meant was that I'm nearly positive that the xbox360 uses Direct3D 9, and there is a development kit for Directx that can be used for PC, or xbox360 titles(sorry, I do not recall the resource kit name). What I was trying to get at here was that IF IDSoft has any hopes of releasing said title for the xbox360, Directx9 *would* be the only way to go, and since this resource kit can be used for xbox360 AND PC titles . . .
  • JarredWalton - Friday, July 25, 2008 - link

    But since they're doing a Mac version, they've already got OpenGL. There's some confusion on the subject of whether or not it's really using DX9, or if it's a DX9-class OpenGL solution. Not that important in the grand scheme of things, of course, as the final game and gameplay is what matters.
  • phideo - Friday, July 25, 2008 - link

    The PC/Windows version still uses OpenGL according to John Carmack. It's a D3D9-class renderer, not a D3D9 renderer.

    "The PC version is still OpenGL, but it is possible that could change before release...I am going to at least consider OpenGL 3.0 as a target, if Nvidia, ATI, and Intel all have decent support."

    'Course, this was way back in September of 2007...

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