Hey Got Gamers!

This is normally were I start off the blog by making a sarcastic comment, but I have something even better for you this week. It’s an audio file that you’ll find below this paragraph. However, before you listen to it, please enjoy this quick back story. As you now know, this is the week that Zack is reviewing Splinter Cell Conviction on our show; and as luck would have it, I recently found myself in the presence of the voice behind Splinter Cell’s protagnoist: Micheal Ironside. I bugged him for a second of his time and asked him how he got the role of Sam Fisher in the first place?

[audio:http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand/ironside-gg-20100417.mp3]

But that’s just a taste of things to come. The real meat of today’s trip down the video game rabbit hole can be found in this next audio file, or as we like to call it, the Got Game Podcast for April 17th, 2010.

[audio:http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand/gg-zc-20100417.mp3]

We talked about a number of subjects during this week’s show. One of my favorites was our discussion about good movies based on video games. You’ll have to listen to the show to hear our thoughts on that subject, but I think there are a lot of possibilities out there that no one has taken advantage of yet:

1. Pac Man: The Movie

2. Mario Kart: The Movie

3. The Legend of Zelda (the movie)

And this last one is actually the real trailer for a game…

… but it’s also probably the closest I’ll ever get to a real HALO film; that is unless Bollywood decides to make one.

Another topic that took up a decent chunk of our time was the new gaming rigs coming out of Dell’s Alienware division. Like I said in the show, I was recently invited to go check out Alienware’s new Area 51, m17X, and m11X, and I may be in love with the m11X. If it’s just a crush, then I can at least still say that the m11X may be the most impressive gaming rig I’ve ever seen. It’s not the most powerful, but it offers as much power as the Playstation 3 in a tiny package that is roughly the same size as the Nintendo Wii. My thoughts on this tiny little gaming laptop are in the show, along with an interview I did with Alienware’s Eduardo Goyanes and pro gamer Andrew Ryder, but I did promise you guys pictures and specs.

m11X

Key Optional Features:
• Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo SU7300 (1.3GHz, 800MHz, 3 MB)
• Graphics: 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M
• Memory: Up to 8GB DDR34 800MHz
• Hard Drive: Up to 500GB5 7200RPM or 256GB5 Solid State Drive
• Operating System: Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate

It also lacks any sort of disc drive, but it has more ports then you can shake a stick at:
• IEEE 1394a (4‐pin) port
• Integrated Ethernet RJ‐45 (100 Mbps)
• 3 Hi‐speed USB 2.0 ports
• DisplayPort / HDMI Video Output
• 3‐in‐1 Media Card Reader
• 2 Audio Out Connectors
• Audio In / Microphone Jack
• Two Built‐In Front Speakers

But in the end the dimensions and weight continue to be the most impressive part of this rig:
• Width: 11.25”
• Depth: 9.19″
• Height: 1.29″
• Weight: Starting at 4.39lbs with 8 cell battery

The Area 51 ALX

I found the Area 51 ALX to be as equally impressive as it’s tiny cousin, the m11X, but for different reasons. While the m11X was designed to be a very powerful but portable gaming laptop, the Area 51 ALX was designed to be the final word in gaming.

For example, in this picture…

… you can see a piece of dark blue plastic covering the bottom half of the cavity that houses all of the desktops parts. Now at first glance, that piece of plastic looks like it would only get in the way of anyone trying to gain access to the inside of this machine, but in reality it was specifically designed and positioned to alter the flow of air inside the box. This is done so that the key computer components for smooth gaming, like graphic cards, can be better cooled.

From top to bottom this thing was designed for only one purpose: gaming. Why else would they include a copper cold‐plated liquid cooling unit with the Intel® Core™i7 CPUs, a 1100 kilowatt power supply, anodized aluminum surfaces, a motorized front door, the automated Active Venting louver system (that look like a series of fins on the top of each Area 51 ALX), internal theater lighting, and 6 SATA2 hard drive bays in a isolated storage compartment (supports traditional hard drives and solid state drives).

Here are the specs:
• Processor: Overclocked* Intel® Core™i7 975 3.86 GHz (8MB Cache)Extreme Edition Quad Core Processor
• Graphics: Dual 1.8GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 2951– NVIDIA SLI Enabled!
• Memory: Up to 12GB DDR3 1600MHz
• Hard Drive: 7,200 and 10,000 RPM hard drives as well as Solid State Drives available varying configurations such as RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 1+0 technologies.
• Optical Drive: Dual Drives including a 6X Dual Layer Blu‐ray Disc™ Burner

Front I/O Ports:
(3x) High‐Speed USB 2.0
(1x ) eSATA
(1x) Firewire IEEE 1394
(1x) Microphone In
(1x) Headphone/Speaker Out
(1x) 19‐in‐1 Media Card Reader (optional)

Rear I/O Ports
(1x ) eSATA
(2x) RJ‐45 Gigabit Ethernet
(6x) High‐Speed USB 2.0
(1x) Firewire IEEE 1394
(1x) Microphone In
(1x) Line‐In
(1x) Front Left/Right Speakers
(1x) Center Speaker
(1x) Side Left/Right Speakers
(1x) SPDIF Digital Output (TOSLINK)
(1x) SPDIF Digital Output (Coax)
(2x) PS/2 (mouse/keyboard)

Dimensions & Weight:
• Width: 277.1mm (10.9″ )
• Depth: 656.3mm (25.8″ )
• Height: 557.6mm (22″ ) (1x) Rear Left/Right Speakers
• Average Weight: 38 Kg (84 lbs)

And on top of all that, I’ll be reviewing the new Grand Theft Auto 4 DLC for the Playstation 3 (yes I know the trailer says Xbox at the end but it was the best trailer I could find)…

… Zack will review Splinter Cell Conviction…

… plus we’ll have a lot of gaming news and more on this week’s edition of GOT GAME!

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 17th, 2010 at 11:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.