The first is the "Action" mode which focuses on the combat. Moral decisions are already determined and the conversations play as cut-scenes. In addition, the player is using a "prefabricated" Commander Shepard instead of a self-created toon. The combat difficulty is adjustable in this mode. The second is the  "RPG" mode, which is the classic ME experience.  The player makes his own decisions in the conversations and he can create his own character. The combat difficulty is adjustable in this mode. And last but not least the "Story" mode. In this mode, the gameplay focuses on the story. The player can make his own decisions but the combat is very easy. I chose the classic RPG mode, and the game plays like ME2.  Now, one could write a lot about whether this is good or bad but I just say that I had a lot fun.

What I never expected was the emotional explosion that knocked me while I was running through the first level. Not to spoil anything, but there is a particular scene in the demo where I had to cry. Imagine that, a grown man like me starts crying over a video game. But that moment when it happened was just incredible. For this experience, I thank you Bioware!

But enough talk, here's the video walkthrough for the Mass Effect 3 Demo, just for you, dear readers. Have fun watching!

Part 1 of 3

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 2 of 3

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 3 of 3

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. The Darkness 2 (demo walkthrough)
2. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (walkthrough)
3. LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean – A game for all ages (walkthrough)

Like the first "The Darkness", the sequel is very brutal and violent and by no means suitable for minors. There are new finishing moves and blood and guts and other body parts, flying around like tinsel on a parade. And all the carnage is commented by "The Darkness" aka Mike Patton, who once again performed an excellent job with his voice.

The new graphic style is well received but the change of voice for Jackie is controversial for fans. It will probably remain a mystery why actor Kirk Acevedor (Charlie Francis from FRINGE), no longer lends his voice for Estecado but as so often, it was probably a question of money.

Brian Bloom is now the voice of the Don. Mr. Bloom is no stranger to the genre of video games. Star Wars: The old Republic, Call of Duty, Dragon Age, Kane & Lynch...you named it, he was involved in all of them.

That said and because we had such a fun with the demo, we uploaded a mini-walkthrough to our YT channel just for you, dear readers. Have fun watching.

Part 1:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 2:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. Mass Effect 3 (demo walkthrough)
2. LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean – A game for all ages (walkthrough)
3. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (walkthrough)

Encoding speed is measured in (average) frames per second. The more, the merrier. It's also important to know that there are, what I like to call, "motion-heavy" and "motion-light" scenes.

This is, like the name suggests, a scene in-game (or anywhere for that matter, but I'm talking video gameplay specifically here) in where there's either very much motion / moving happening on the screen or the opposite. Why is that important you ask?

Motion-heavy scenes take much longer to encode than motion-light ones, at least that was my experience in those 2+ years since. I might of course be totally wrong about this, and unfortunately I don't have hard statistics to show for, i.e. benchmarks while encoding. Just my observation, unfortunately.

This is of course explained as if you were 5 years old. There are much, much more complex processes going on during encoding which I won't get into because this article isn't about that. Please also bear in mind that I'm by no means an expert in video encoding. I do it as a private hobby and I say what I have observed.

Right, moving on then. A standard 10 min. uncompressed gameplay video recorded in 1920*1080 with FRAPS is about 20GB large.

When I was using my old, overclocked 3GHz Intel Quad Core Q6600, with the settings linked above, I encoded with about 8fps in motion heavy videos and about 13fps in motion light videos.

With my i7-2600k, clocked at stock speed, I average at 16fps in motion heavy videos and at 25fps in motion light videos. That's an increase of 50% in motion heavy scenes and 52% in motion light scenes.

For example my recent video was about 24GB uncompressed. And compared to action games there's not very much moving/motion happening in those 11 minutes. This video took me, with above linked settings, 15 min. to fully encode at average 24fps. The final size was about 200mb.

VirtualDub makes use of HyperThreading, while encoding, this is how my CPU load looks like. The blue bars are HT, the green ones cores.

Was the purchase worth it (for me)? Absolutely. If you, like me, are encoding quite a lot, the 2600k is a good choice. It brought me a huge boost in encoding speed and will save me a lot of time down the road. Not to mention it will encode even faster when I overclock my 2600k to 4GHz and beyond.

Unfortunately I've no access to a 2500k, so I can't compare the 2600k to the 2500k and see for myself how much better or worse the 2500k performs under the same set of circumstances. If I'd hazard a guess, I'd say not by a whole lot.

The 2500k is essentially a 2600k without the HyperThreading, and I don't quite believe HyperThreading alone makes up for the huge performance jump from Q6600 to 2600k. So if you don't care about a few dollars, get the 2600k. If budget is a priority, get the 2500k. Or wait for Ivy-Bridge CPUs, which will come out next year.

Related posts:

1. VirtualDub: How to prevent asynchronous sound
2. VirtualDub: How to watermark your videos
3. VirtualDub 720p HD settings for YouTube! [Good quality, small file size]

A few month ago they said it will become a "Gears of War" in the Warhammer universe. Well, it is not what it should be. There is no cover system, no health packs, a modest selection of weapons and a too strong "Fury" system.  Too much fighting and too little story. Nevertheless, it has become a good game with a gripping story (especially for Warhammer fans) and a nice battle system for long-distance and close combat and a decent playtime of about 6-10 hours, depending on the difficulty.

And despite the flaws we made a walkthrough in 1080p FULLHD.  Just for you, dear readers. Have fun watching!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. Steam – Summer Camp Sale – Singularity (walkthrough)
2. Mass Effect 3 (demo walkthrough)
3. The Darkness 2 (demo walkthrough)

It stands out from the classic shooter with an interesting topic. Playing with time. Through a item that you get in the game, it is possible for the player to turn back time and thus to change the future. This opens up an entirely new possibilities of gameplay.

We had so much fun with the game back in 2010, that we had create a walkthrough. So if someone is unsure whether he should buy the game or not, he can simply watch a few of our videos. Have fun!

(In Singularity, you will fight your way through an ever-shifting environment haunted with time ravaged creatures, while sudden time waves hurl you back and forth between 1950 and the present day. Use your wits and the perfect weapon - the Time Manipulation Device - to unravel the conspiracy on the remote island of Katorga-12)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean – A game for all ages (walkthrough)
2. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (walkthrough)
3. Two Worlds 2 – An Epic Adventure in 120 parts (walkthrough)

VirtualDub, as stand-alone, cannot handle mkv, mp4, flv, mov or any other files besides avi. You need a plugin or plugins to load anything else besides avi. Mind you, VirtualDub still only can and will save in avi!

There are a couple plugins that can handle loading different files formats. For me personally only 2 come to mind:

There's my personal favorite: Ffmpeg Input Driver which can handle 31 different file formats according to the plugin developer. Among them are the popular mkv, mp4, flv, mov, rm, rvmb, wmv and ts. The plugin is based, as the name may suggest, of the ffmpeg libraries. And if something doesn't work, remember, this is a plugin still in early development stage as of 03.07.2011.

Then there's fccHandler, which can handle mpeg-2, flv, wmv, fli, flc, mkv. However fccHandler also offers the AC-3 ACM codec, which I use for sound in my videos.

Download whichever plugin you prefer, and unpack it into your VirtualDub plugin folder.

Remember however that those plugins only allow you to load said file formats. You cannot save those loaded files in mp4, mov, flv, only in avi.

Related posts:

1. VirtualDub 720p HD settings for YouTube! [Good quality, small file size]
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Galaga Legions DX (Namco Bandai)

Galaga Legions is a classic shoot 'em up and was developed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the series.

Galaga Legions returns with greater features! Three years after the release of the sensational remake Galaga Legions. This year marks the 30th Anniversary of Galaga, a sequel to a classic title! Like the previous sequel, the world renowned Pac-man CEDX development team has worked on the title! With more intuitive and smoother controls, experience the great gameplay of famous battles with immense swarms! Compete with your friends for high scores! Once you start playing, you won't be able to stop! Why don't you give it a try?

Xbox Live Trial Gameplay

Click here to view the embedded video.

Half-Minute Hero - 勇者30 (Marvelous Entertainment)

Half Minute Hero is a remake of the 2009 PlayStation Portable game. It is a mixture of RTS and RPG.

The world is at its end, and you have 30 seconds to save it. Welcome to HALF-MINUTE HERO -Super Mega Neo Climax-! A complete hypersonic RPG adventure: start your quest, meet people who need your help, fight through dark dungeons, earn money, upgrade equipment, level up, level up, level up, and take down the final boss...all in just half a minute! There are 62 entire RPGs in HALF-MINUTE HERO, each with its own leaderboard to earn medals and compete with friends. You've never played an RPG like this before!

Xbox Live Trial Gameplay Part 1

Click here to view the embedded video.

Xbox Live Trial Gameplay Part 2

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. Braid – A lovely jump ‘n’ run puzzle adventure!
2. Two Worlds 2 – An Epic Adventure in 120 parts (walkthrough)
3. ‘Dismembering for Dummies’ by X-Men Origins: Wolverine [HD gameplay clips]

And because we had so much fun with the game we made a walk-through , which you can watch over at our channel on YouTube. Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. Two Worlds 2 – An Epic Adventure in 120 parts (walkthrough)
2. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (walkthrough)
3. Trine – A platform game utilizing physics

Five years have passed since the dramatic events in Antaloor brought the whole world to the edge of the abyss and the hero's strength is finally exhausted. He is a prisoner in the dark dungeons of Gandohar's castle and any hopes he has of saving his sister seem to have vanished along with his freedom. In spite of a self-sacrificing battle against evil, the twins were separated and Kyra is now under the influence of a powerful magic spell from which there is no escape. Evil influences are attempting to awake the slumbering powers of an old generation in order to dominate all of Antaloor, and the hero is powerless to do anything about it...

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean – A game for all ages (walkthrough)
2. Resident Evil 5, Red Faction: Guerrilla & Batman: Arkham Asylum – Videos and Screenshots!
3. Steam – Summer Camp Sale – Singularity (walkthrough)

What is ffdshow, you ask? Here's the quote from the ffdshow sourceforge page

ffdshow tryouts is a DirectShow and Video for Windows codec with support for a wide range of audio and video formats, such as Xvid, DivX, and H.264. It includes a powerful filter set that can enhance the video quality - with filters for resizing, deinterlacing, and displaying subtitles - as well as audio quality through normalization, down-/upmixing, and resampling.

First of all, you'll need to download the latest ffdshow codec. Although it's "safer" to always use the latest stable builds, in this case however I'd recommend always using the latest SVN builds. Because they are updated way more often including the filters. The latest SVN build, as of the time writing this article was 2011-01-19.

Even the SVN builds are subdivided in 3 areas:

• 64-bit
• 32-bit

Start installing the ffdshow codec now. You'll be asked what you want to install. This is your choice:

After that leave the rest of the settings as they are and continue finishing the codec installation. After the installation a file named ffvdub.vdf should be inside your VirtualDub/Plugins folder:

Now we can start using the ffdshow filter in VirtualDub. Start up VirtualDub, open a video file, then add the filter:

Now the important part: VirtualDub processes the selected filters in their order. Meaning concurrent. This is very important because it affects your quality especially in connection with watermarks.

Say such as if we were using the filters in this order: 1) waterwark, 2) sharpen, 3) resize. What happens is this: First a watermark is slapped on a frame, then this frame including the watermark is sharpened and after that the sharpened frame including the watermark is resized. Now this is not an idea. Why?

Imagine you have a watermark 100*100 pixel. This image is first slapped on each frame, then it is sharpened and then it is resized. You don't want that. You want the watermark to maintain its original quality and size. So the ideal filter order would be:

Resize the frame, sharpen the frame and insert original, unedited watermark. Let's take a look at the selected filters.

ffdshow filter: Resize

It's pretty much straightforward. Enable resize, choose "Specify horizontal and vertical size" and enter the numbers you want to resize it to. It's 1280*720 for 720p HD and 1920*1080 for 1080p HD.

If you're resizing down or up from a 4:3 resolution, remember to enable "Keep original aspect ratio" under Aspect ratio. Otherwise the end-result will look over-stretched/-squeezed.

If you're resizing down or up from a 16:10 resolution, you could ignore this option. The end-result won't look too bad. But check it out yourself to make sure!

ffdshow filter: Sharpen

Sharpen is a bit trickier, and a lot different from VirtualDub's internal one. In fact there are 5 different sharpening algorithms, I haven't experience with them all, but I've made best experiences with "msharpen". Enable "high quality".

Sadly I can't give you ballpark figures like in the previous guides because this filter works very different. I'll do my best to try to explain how it works.

There are 2 sliders: Strength (1-127) and Threshold (0-255). Strength dictates how strong it should sharpen. Threshold dictates how much of the frame should be sharpened. A Threshold of 0 means everything (every pixel) in the frame will be sharpened, a Threshold of 255 sharpens nothing in the frame.

In order for you to see how much of a frame is sharpened enable "only mask" and press "Preview", play with the slider "Threshold" and set it to your liking. All that "white" in your Preview will be sharpened. Once you've set your Threshold to your liking don't forget to turn off "only mask"! Now play with the slider Strength and set to your liking. Each video needs a different setting I've concluded so far.

This is how the different msharp settings look like: Sharpen filter off, Sharpen Strength 127/Threshold 255, Sharpen Strength 127/Threshold 0, Sharpen Strength 35/Threshold 20, Sharpen Strength 30/Threshold 3.

Sharpen filter with "only mask" activated: Threshold 255, Threshold 0, Threshold 30, Threshold 15, Threshold 7, Threshold 3, Threshold 1.

ffdshow filter: Bitmap overlay (Watermark)

First thing fist: The watermark image needs to be a bitmap (.bmp). Everything else is pretty straightforward. Position your watermark with the sliders "Horizontal/Vertical position". Choose the mode of watermark inclusion and its Opacity. Preview your settings.

Related posts:

1. VirtualDub: How to watermark your videos
2. Fraps & VirtualDub: How to save disk space and enjoy good quality, small file size HD video clips
3. VirtualDub: How to use mkv, mp4, flv, mov and other file formats with VirtualDub