Online games stores

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#1 Post by **Kwackerz** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:19 pm

I have a Hewlett Packard, so get sent various emails from the company (my choice to)

Got sent this link (officially) http://packardbell.metaboli.co.uk/

Had a browse round but cant see anything that hints of a corporate con.. 106 games to download (in theory) for 6 or 7 quid?

Aladinsaneuk · #2 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:26 pm

that is per month - and being honest, how many hours do you spend playing games each month? and how long would it take to work your way through them all?

also, some of those games are huge downloads - will your internet provider allow that much bandwith?

tbh, find games that you like and try the demos - to save the downloads, buy something like PC Zone magazine - lots of demos there :)

#3 Post by **Kwackerz** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:29 pm

Ah.. yes... ISP bandwidth. Hadnt considered that

It doesnt look too bad a package really, thinking more for the Kids than anything.

Aladinsaneuk · #4 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:48 pm

for kids, i would definitly go through a demo disk from a magazine

doing it that way will have one other advantage - - your PC may not run some of those games at all well - and nothing breaks little hearts faster than frustration at such things.
(Many of the shop bought pc's run games like a bag of shite - and need a fair bit of tweaking with drivers etc to really run well)

I seem to recall that some libraries now rent software including games - worth a look?

(Same for video libraries i believe as well)

And apologies if i appear to be talking down to you - is not intended in any way, i just know that setting up a pc for games can be a bit of a black art to many people

#5 Post by **Kwackerz** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:53 pm

No offence taken! I dont usually 'do' computer (PC) games. I prefer gaming on XBOX, PSP or PS2 to the desktop. The plan was to possibly d/load a few games onto the Kids Pooter and run them from there, it's one of the latest HP Pavillions, running AMD cos I dont like Intel!

I may look at the library thing.. our local bus library thing is in..ah..in about 7 mins so I'll get the missus to see if they have games for the PC when She takes the kids up

Aladinsaneuk · #6 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:17 pm

well, i have a psp and an xbox 360 and they are great for gaming - especially for kids as they just work out of the box.

I do also have a ninja PC or two, and i have set a lot of them up for friends etc - please just ask me if i can help with stuff.

May I ask what exactly you have got in your pc? that would make it easier to give simple advice - like how much ram, what video card/ram size and and exactly which processor

if you are not sure exactly what you have, right click on my computer, properties, then hardware device manager will show you a list - OR and better in real terms go to http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/ and download the free version of sandra - it will detail exactly what you have, and what versions of the drivers you are running

#7 Post by **Kwackerz** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:27 pm

Yeah no probs..
Their pooter is a Hewlett Packard Pavillion, AMD Athlon 64 processor 3700+, 2.19Ghz, with 1GB RAM

Theyre running up to date XP with Sp2. The Graphics card is a NVIDIA GeForce 6200 SE Turbocache

Actually now I think about it, exactly the same as mine

Although mine has a DVD+- Writer..

falcomunky · #8 Post by **falcomunky** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:29 pm

Oooh! Nice rig my man!

Personally, I DL ed2k games to demo em and then buy what I enjoy the most...

Aladinsaneuk · #9 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:48 pm

ok, that will run the vast majority of games up to about 12 months ago well, anything more modern may not like that graphics card as it is a little low end now for many modern games

BUT - so long as you have a pcie slot then all is cool as shortly the nvidia 7x series will all be coming down in price when vista/dx10/nvidia 8x series cards come out and then the other prices will drop

If you want them to try online games specifically, then have a look at second life - that is free

Gio · #10 Post by **Gio** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:03 pm

Aladinsaneuk wrote:well, i have a psp and an xbox 360 and they are great for gaming - especially for kids as they just work out of the box.

I do also have a ninja PC or two, and i have set a lot of them up for friends etc - please just ask me if i can help with stuff.

May I ask what exactly you have got in your pc? that would make it easier to give simple advice - like how much ram, what video card/ram size and and exactly which processor

if you are not sure exactly what you have, right click on my computer, properties, then hardware device manager will show you a list - OR and better in real terms go to http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/ and download the free version of sandra - it will detail exactly what you have, and what versions of the drivers you are running

So what can I run on my system.
XP Pro
Its got 2 Intel 6400x2.13 mhz processors
2 gig ram
Nvidia 7500LE 512 mb

Ta

Aladinsaneuk · #11 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:09 pm

lot better systems - dual core, oodles of ram and better graphics card with decent amount vram. The LE is a bit of a downer, but not bad

will run most things very well - though resource hungry AA stuff may judder a bit

It would run Oblivion fairly well and for my money that is a damned high spec game

to get an idea of performance, try http://www.futuremark.com/download/ and see what runs well - and ignore the cpu results - they are shite for most of us LOl - but you will see some hard grfx work being pulled and will indicate what you can do

*****

would it help if sometime tomorrow I put together a post on tweaking a PC for games performance?

#12 Post by **Kwackerz** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:15 pm

That'd be a great idea Aladin! If you could, it would no doubt be appreciated!

Gio · #13 Post by **Gio** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:28 pm

Aladinsaneuk wrote:lot better systems - dual core, oodles of ram and better graphics card with decent amount vram. The LE is a bit of a downer, but not bad

will run most things very well - though resource hungry AA stuff may judder a bit

It would run Oblivion fairly well and for my money that is a damned high spec game

to get an idea of performance, try http://www.futuremark.com/download/ and see what runs well - and ignore the cpu results - they are shite for most of us LOl - but you will see some hard grfx work being pulled and will indicate what you can do

*****

would it help if sometime tomorrow I put together a post on tweaking a PC for games performance?

I was thinking of updating the graphics car, but the fastest game I run is Hidden and Dangerous 2, btw I run everything in 1440x900 as this is the smallest I can view things at properly (specs and all that old git stuff).

What would be a good card?

Aladinsaneuk · #14 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:33 pm

choice of cards really depends on what you do and want to do

H&D is not that hard a game grfx wise - so may well find that other things have a bigger impact than just changing the graphics card

may i suggest that you wait till I have posted a simple guide to tweaking? that may well save a few quid and still increase performance to what you want it to be

#15 Post by **Kwackerz** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:34 pm

Im stickying your series as you go, btw.. saves them getting lost I guess!