minimum-requirements
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BioShock Infinite's PC specs revealed
BioShock Infinite's PC requirements have surfaced from the depths of the development sea, and the minimum specs aren't as tremendously demanding as one might imagine. We'd even wager that most modern-ish non-gaming laptops will be able to run Infinite, albeit at "Low" settings, provided that they run Vista (at least), rock an Intel Core 2 Duo/AMD Athlon X2 processor and have DirectX10 compatible on-board graphics.Irrational Games also dropped news that the PC version of Infinite will include controller support and is compatible with Steam's Big Picture Mode, in addition to supporting multiple monitors for those who really exceed the minimum system requirements. The game also spans three DVDs, due to the size of its textures. The full list of both Minimum and Recommended specifications can be found after the break.
Mountain Lion drops support for several older Mac models (Updated)
Every new version of OS X comes with harsh news for owners of older Macs: "Your Mac is too old. You're stuck with your current OS. Forever." For Mac OS X Leopard in 2007, anyone who owned a Mac with a processor slower than 867 MHz was stuck with Tiger. In 2009, Snow Leopard made the biggest (and most controversial) shift yet and dropped support for all PowerPC Macs. In 2011, Lion dropped support for Macs that didn't have 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo processors, which included most of the first-generation Intel Macs. The march of progress continues in OS X Mountain Lion, and with it comes a new set of minimum requirements. [Update: Apple has since released the official system requirements for 10.8 Mountain Lion. –Ed.] An anonymous developer clued us into the minimum requirements for OS X 10.8, and there's bad news for some older Mac owners. Mountain Lion will only run on the following Macs: iMac (mid 2007 or later) MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later) MacBook Pro (Mid/late 2007 or later) MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later) Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later) Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later) Xserve (Early 2009) This means the following Macs which are supported under OS X Lion will not be able to run Mountain Lion (model identifiers in parentheses): Late 2006 iMacs (iMac5,1, iMac5,2, iMac6,1) All plastic MacBooks that pre-date the aluminum unibody redesign (MacBook2,1, MacBook3,1, MacBook4,1) MacBook Pros released prior to June 2007 (MacBookPro2,1, MacBookPro2,2) The original MacBook Air (MacBookAir1,1) The Mid-2007 Mac mini (Macmini2,1) The original Mac Pro and its 8-core 2007 refresh (MacPro1,1, MacPro2,1) Late 2006 and Early 2008 Xserves (Xserve1,1, Xserve2,1) Update: It slipped my mind that there were two pre-unibody plastic MacBooks introduced between the aluminum MacBook and the plastic unibody redesign, both of them with the model identifier MacBook5,2. Those MacBooks, which still feature the legacy pre-unibody case design and were manufactured in early- to mid-2009, are supported in Mountain Lion because they feature an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card instead of the integrated Intel GPUs in their predecessors. If you're running Lion and not sure if your Mac is supported under Mountain Lion, go to the Apple Menu and select "About this Mac." Click "More Info," then click "System Report." You'll be presented with a window showing a Hardware Overview, and your Model Identifier will be the second entry from the top. If your Model Identifier matches the list above, then regrettably OS X Lion is the end of the road for your Mac. The loss of support for all most pre-unibody plastic MacBooks and the first-gen MacBook Air are likely to come as a big shock to many Mac users; personally I know many people who own older pre-unibody MacBooks. Dropping support for these models in Mountain Lion appears to have something to do with the Intel integrated graphics processors from that era; no Mac with an Intel GMA 950 or Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor will be supported in Mountain Lion. My Early 2008 MacBook Pro dodged the bullet... this time. I have a feeling many of you out there will not be so lucky, and I have a sneaking suspicion that OS X 10.9 will drop support for my Mac, too. It's rough news to be sure, but keep in mind that OS X Lion won't spontaneously combust once Mountain Lion goes live; even if your Mac is stuck with Lion for the rest of its operational life, you can still look forward to several more years of software support for your current OS.
Atlantica Online adds a new mercenary to the mix along with optimization fixes
Hwarang. No, please, don't ask us how to pronounce it. We tried looking it up and not even Google wanted to tell us exactly how to say it. But, this new unpronounceable mercenary is the latest addition to Atlantica Online.Hwarangs are taken straight from the history books, like most of Atlantica's mercenaries, as they were an elite military unit from 10th century Silla (an ancient Korean kingdom.) In the game they will be represented as potent archers with a high offensive capability but low defense. Hwarang units also have the option of sacrificing themselves in battle to buff the rest of the mercenaries under your command.Hwarangs aren't the only thing coming with this patch, however, as the Atlantica team has made the difficult decision to increase the minimum system requirements in order to cut down on load times and increase client optimization. This move has been made in order to make sure the client can perform in areas with high population counts, as that has been a hang up of the game in the past. Only a small minority of users should be affected by this change, but it will be a wealth of benefits to all other users operating in high population areas.The full patch notes are available on Atlantica's website, if you wish to delve into the many changes and fixes.
The Daily Grind: How low do system requirements need to be?
The World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King system requirements were announced earlier this week, and they weren't really much higher than those of The Burning Crusade. WoW's impossibly low system requirements have always been part of its recipe for success -- a recipe past and present competitors would do well to learn. But on the other hand, part of the PC gaming culture is the constant race to new graphical frontiers. Many hardcore gamers upgrade their PCs every year or so to keep up with the latest advancements. Sure, they're the minority -- but they're the base for almost any 3D PC game. How would you describe the optimal balance? Should MMO developers err on the side of accessibility, or graphical showmanship? How high is too high when it comes to system requirements, and how low do games need to reach to make sure they're accessible enough to the masses?
Wingnuts 2 released
Freeverse has released Wingnuts 2, a $29.95 OMG (original Mac game) that has been billed by the game's creator as the "ultimate arcade game." Based on the time we've spent with a pre-release version of the game, we're tempted to agree. Wingnuts 2 is a bucket of fun to play, and it happens to look great too.According to Freeverse's minimum system requirements, you'll need at least an 800MHz G4, 32MB of VRAM, 512MB of system RAM and just under 1GB of Hard Drive space to run and store the game. You can download the demo here and watch a movie of the game in action here. Expect a full review of the game from us in the next few days.
