system-specs
Latest
Killer Is Dead: Nightmare Edition due for PC on May 23
Killer Is Dead: Nightmare Edition won't lend PC gamers its dose of quirky Grasshopper Manufacture action until May 23, but fans can check its system requirements right now and plan accordingly. With minimum requirements calling for Windows Vista 64-bit, a 2.0GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM, a GPU that can handle Shader Model 3.0 and 13 GB of space, Nightmare Edition shouldn't be too taxing for your gaming rig. Recommended specs jump up a bit, calling for an Intel Core i5-2400 Processor, 8 GB of RAM and a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450. The $20 Nightmare Edition adds a difficulty mode, includes the Smooth Operator DLC and offers a theater to re-view cutscenes. Aside from its uncomfortable Gigolo side missions, we'd recommend giving Killer Is Dead's bizarre brand of combo-driven action a shot. [Image: Deep Silver]
Here's the hardware required to run Dark Souls 2 on PC
Yesterday, Bandai Namco revealed that the PC incarnation of Dark Souls 2 will arrive on April 25. Today, the publisher offers a rundown of just how powerful your gaming PC will need to be to properly render the morose action game. The bare minimum requirements for Dark Souls 2 include 2GB of RAM, 8GB of free hard drive space, an AMD Phenom II X2 555 dual-core processor at 3.2Ghz or Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo E8500 at 3.17Ghz and either an NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT graphics card or an ATI Radeon HD 5870. Dark Souls 2 supports a range of Windows operating systems dating back to Windows XP, and obviously, a functional Internet connection is required for online play. Any sort of sound card will do, as long as it supports DirectX 9.0c or a later version of the de rigueur API. Those hoping for the "recommended" Dark Souls 2 experience will need 4GB of RAM, 8GB of hard drive space and the same sound card technology mentioned above. For processors, Bandai Namco suggests either an Intel Core i3 2100 at 3.10GHz or an AMD A8 3870K at 3.0GHz. As always, players will benefit by using the most powerful graphics card they can afford, but the game's official specs recommends nothing less than an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 or ATI Radeon HD 6870. Full details on the PC incarnation of Dark Souls 2 can be found on Club Namco, along with information on pre-ordering the game and a handful of images depicting what the adventure should look like if your computer is up to snuff. [Image: Bandai Namco]
Find out if your PC meets Max Payne 3's minimum requirements
We hope you just bought your computer today. Even better, we hope you were just about to go buy your computer, because otherwise you may have to have to turn some settings down in the PC version of Max Payne 3. Rockstar posted the system specs, including both recommended and required processors (it'll run on an Intel Dual Core 2.4 GHZ or an AMD Dual Core 2.6 GHZ, but Rockstar recommends an i7 3930K 6 Core x 3.06 GHZ or FX8150 8 Core x 3.6 GHZ). Find the full specs after the break.Rockstar also announced pre-order incentives for the digital version at several shops, including Steam (Max Payne 1 and 2, multiplayer DLC for MP3) and Impulse (the two classic games, some multiplayer DLC, and an exclusive map). Find the full list of retailers with pre-order offers on Rockstar's site, and decide if any of them are worth the 35GB download.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning sets modest PC specs
The average hero lives their life day-to-day, most of the time only holding enough coin to fund their next expedition into a haunted mine or dark forest. The true hero is a frugal hero, not one seeking financial gain or notoriety. A post in the official forums for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning reveals some PC specs sure to surprise and delight those heroes who have stayed the course -- broke heroes, basically. If you haven't updated your equipment in some time, fret not. The only thing that may steer you off the course of adventure in 38 Studios' upcoming game is the graphics card: the minimum needed is a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB or ATI Radeon HD3650 512MB or better; the recommended is a NVIDIA GeForce GTX260 1GB RAM or ATI Radeon HD4850 1GB RAM or better. Head past the break for the full list of minimum and recommended specs.
Saints Row: The Third PC system requirements revealed
Volition passed along the Saints Row: The Third PC system requirements to Destructoid and the recommended specs are kinda beefy. Not Crysis 2 at max settings beefy, but you'll need a GeForce GTX 400 series or better, or ATI Radeon HD5000 series or better graphics card, and a quad core processor under the hood -- you know, if you're looking to really soak in the visual symphony that is watching a man in a feathered hat kill a helpless citizen on the streets of Steelport with a gigantic dildo bat. The required specs are a bit more forgiving. On top of that, Volition also posted about some specific PC features over on the Saints Row site, including "AMD Eyefinity support, DX9, DX10, and DX11 support, Crossfire enabled, SLI enabled, advanced depth of field, reflections, and ambient occlusion quality, and, of course, God Rays." Perhaps the platform's best feature, however, is the Saints Video Record Mode, which allows you to save specific gameplay clips and upload them to your preferred video hosting service. Or we guess you could just hold on to the clips as a personal, secret reminder of that one time you did a barrel roll in your Mercedes through a crowd of people. Entirely up to you. Saints Row: The Third launches on November 15 on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
Rumor: Wii 2 codenamed Project Cafe, controller includes built-in touchscreen
The towering pile of rumors regarding Nintendo's next generation console, supposedly to be announced at E3, continues to grow today with a report from French news site 01net (which divined the hardware specs of the NGP before its official unveiling). Citing unnamed sources, the site claims the system is currently codenamed "Project Café," and adds that it does feature hardware resembling that of the Xbox 360, such as a three-core IBM PowerPC CPU. The real meat of the report isn't in the specs of the console, but rather, its controller. According to 01net, the peripheral will feature a six-inch single-input touchscreen -- which corroborates a similar report published by CVG yesterday. The French site also says the controller features a standard set of buttons, a front-mounted camera (what?) and can even function as a Wii sensor bar, should the player choose to indulge in the console's built-in backwards compatibility. That's actually pretty believable -- after all, the same effect can be achieved using a pair of candles. We'll keep an ear to the ground for any additional reports of a touchscreen-infused remote for the heavily rumored console. At the very least, we can be certain that over the course of the next few nights, visions of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures will be dancing through our heads.
System requirements revealed for Champions Online
Cryptic today revealed the minimum and recommended specs for Champions Online and they contain some happy and interesting surprises. Happy, because the overall requirements are fairly low, especially if you're the kind of person who plays MMOs on any sort of regular basis. Interesting, because for a game coming out a little under two months before Windows 7 hits retail, there's strangely no mention of support for the new Microsoft operating system.We know that the current beta runs on Windows 7, but that's true of many older games released in the Vista era. Given the low upgrade prices currently being offered and the positive buzz surrounding the new OS, there'll probably be a decent amount of early adopters come October 22nd. Still, beyond that small curiosity, we'd have to say the required and recommended specs for Champions Online are definitely good. As an added bonus, this makes another delay beyond September highly unlikely -- as does the announced open beta, we suppose.Check out the minimum and recommended system requirements after the break.
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?
Blizzard releases WotLK system specs
The system specs have just been announced for World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. While the specs are a bit higher than the original game and The Burning Crusade expansion, that's to be expected these days. Will it be enough to deter players, though? Probably not.As you can see from our comparison chart between the two expansions after the jump below, the PC specs didn't increase by much from The Burning Crusade, but they seemed to make a significant jump on the Mac side. Still, compared to most recent games, these comparatively low system specs will prove beneficial to the continued growth of the game. Besides, if you don't have at least 1GB of RAM in your PC already, you have bigger problems than not being able to play a Death Knight.
Find out why WoW conquered the world
Gamasutra has published an article titled "Why World of Warcraft Made It Big." The article was written by Michael Zenke, a member of the family here at Massively! Zenke argues that there's no one reason WoW was the game to explode into the mainstream in Western markets, instead of EverQuest II or City of Heroes. Accessibility, low system specs, polish, storytelling, fun factor, and yes, timing -- all of these had something to do with it. He also suggests that in the wake of The Burning Crusade, WoW is as strong today as it's ever been.So, this begs the question -- and this is not one that's addressed in the post -- is there a game coming that will leave WoW in the dust just as WoW surpassed EverQuest? Or will Blizzard reign as kings throughout the foreseeable future? Maybe we'll see an industry like the one Corey Bridges of Multiverse described -- a place where democratization of the MMO development process creates hundreds or thousands of successful, user-generated experiences? As curious as we are, we're smart enough not to make blind predictions. So let's see what happens this year with the big releases like Age of Conan and Warhammer Online, as well as the democratizing experiments like MetaPlace.
Disney's Mike Goslin stresses importance of low system requirements
Disney Online's Mike Goslin (of Toontown Online and Pirates of the Caribbean Online fame) said in an interview with Worlds in Motion that it's important for MMO projects to "support as low a minimum spec PC as possible." PC gaming is often criticized for being too expensive. You can buy an XBox 360 for $350 or a PlayStation 3 for $400, but a desktop PC equipped with the hardware necessary to smoothly run the very latest games usually costs $1,000 or more. That's a barrier to entry for many would-be PC gamers. Supporting low-end hardware isn't just important for children's and family games. A while back SOE CEO John Smedley told WarCry that "the biggest thing that hurts [Vanguard] is the high system specs." If the MMO genre is carrying PC gaming on its back, shouldn't MMO developers do everything they can to make their games accessible to a large audience?
