Common SEO Mistakes

Search engine optimization has become the focus of many people who have online businesses and for good reason. If you can be noticed and ranked well by search engines, you will be more visible to current and future customers. Optimization is something that so many web publishers are pursuing but in the course of trying to be noticed many are making some huge mistakes. These mistakes can easily be avoided, and many have found these mistakes to be hampering their success by trial and error.

The most common SEO mistakes is to have bad titles for your pages. The reason is titles are the very first thing that the search engine spiders will see when they look at your website. A title should give the spider as well as the visitor a clear idea of what the website is all about. If you can focus your titles, you will then find that your page rank will soar and you will likely have many more customers come your way as a result. A focused site is always a good thing and this includes something that seems as insignificant as a title!

Another common SEO mistake is to have bad content on your website. A couple years ago, web publishers thought that you simply had to have keyword rich content, but today it is known that it is not that easy. You need to have more than the typical how to or vague and useless content on your website if you want to really be optimized for the search engines. You can have keyword rich articles, but be sure that they are informative as this will allow for you to be seen by the search engine spiders but also keep visitors on your site once they click and enter your page!

Linking is anther common mistake that web publishers face. Links are important because the more incoming links a page receives, the more important the search engines view the web page. But, the links have to be good incoming and outgoing links. If you have poor incoming links or there is poor internal linking all of your hard work to obtain links will be in vain. Web publishers have to find a balance and only involve themselves with good links.

These are some of the most common problems that web publishers make when they attempt to optimize their websites for the search engines. SEO is not easy, but if a web publisher avoids these very common mistakes he or she has a leg up on the competition. Remember, optimization is not something that happens over night. Those that rush tend to do more harm than good to their page ranking so take your time a do a good job if you want to succeed.

About the Author
He has performed work for companies such as BCS Website Services, a Richmond VA Web Design Firm. He recommends Richhost.com for Richmond Events, and Red Fern Gifts for collectible gift ideas.

Consumers face tricky decisions as the DVD format war rages on

Hi-def content looks certain to be the way forward, but with 2 different formats available, consumers could either be spoilt for choice or victims of a technological tug of war

With the way that things are going, it is highly unlikely that there will be any eventual winner in the war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. With an increasing number of hi-def displays finding their way into people's living rooms, there's a great opportunity to exploit, but the two camps are not interested in sharing this trove, and we could well see a clearly defined line separating the market. What started out as a race to see who could produce the next generation format has turned into a rather large spat between Sony and Philips of Blu-Ray and Toshiba and Hitachi of HD-DVD.

Both formats provide the same end, but just by different means. Hi-definition content is the aim, and there is no doubting the quality that they provide. Unfortunately, consumers could well be the ones to lose out if they adopt early for either one of the formats. Currently, different film studios have signed up for different formats, meaning that films released on the new discs could only be available on one type, and that's no good if you've already spent a lot of money on a player for the other format. Toshiba were the first to enter the hi-def market with their HD-DVD player, and Blu-Ray's presence was confirmed shortly after when Samsung released their first hi-def player. With neither side yielding, the biggest problem facing us all is deciding which format would be best to choose?

At the moment, consumers have a limited range to choose from when it comes to picking a player to watch their preferred format discs. There are only a handful of HD-DVD players, and even fewer Blu-Ray ones. In terms of price, which can be seen as one of the more important factors, the HD-DVD players can be bought for less. The introduction of the PlayStation 3, priced at under £500, can be seen as a victory for the Blu-Ray camp in terms of getting closer to equalling the prices of the HD-DVD players. All the same, not very many people will be able to afford to buy 2 players at over £300 each just so they can cover all bases. Luckily, LG have produced a hybrid player that can handle both formats, and this could be a step in the right direction. It's by no means a perfect system as it's predominantly a Blu-Ray player that can play HD-DVDs, but without some of the advanced features, but with a similar machine announced by Samsung to be produced, manufacturers could well be sensing that there is a market to be served. This isn't a guaranteed solution though, as initial prices are expected to be in excess of £800.

So, it seems that the public will have to settle for either one of the formats after all, at least for the time being. Looking at the statistics, Blu-Ray discs are able to store more information, with one layer being able to hold up to 25GB, compared to HD-DVD's 15GB capacity. This isn't to say that Blu-Ray is superior. For this extra capacity, consumers will have to pay a bit more, with the reason being that they use thinner protective layer on their discs. HD-DVD discs conform to the current DVD trend by using a 0.6 mm thick surface layer, but Blu-Ray uses a miniscule 0.1mm thick surface layer. Using this thinner layer means that current equipment will need to be modified or replaced, where as HD-DVD discs can continue using current tools. The layer also needs to be much more robust to withstand any abuse that gets thrown its way. The fundamental differences between the two technologies cause this variation in layer thickness. The reason Blu-Ray can hold more is because its track pitch is tighter, and thus the pick up aperture is 0.85, weighed against HD-DVD's 0.65. The 0.1mm thick surface layer helps the laser to focus with the 0.85 aperture. All of this goes to prove that the two formats are different, and incompatible, and that if you want more storage, you will have to be able to pay for it.

As mentioned before, the different film studios will also have an impact on which format will become more successful. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers have signed themselves up for both camps, but many others have decided to back just one of the formats. HD-DVD has support from New Line Cinema and Universal Studios, and Blu-Ray can rely on 20th Century Fox, MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Blu-Ray also has the added advantage of a few gaming studios, such as Electronic Arts. It won't be easy to predict the quality of films to be produced by differing studios, so it's hard to tell which side has the better support. Seeing as Blu-Ray has more studios signed up, it may well have an edge over HD-DVD.

Early indications appear to suggest that Blu-Ray has managed to get ahead of HD-DVD, with stronger backers and higher storage, but it would still be far too early to write one of these formats off. Higher running costs will only take effect in the future, so whilst early adopters will be quick to nail a flag to a mast, many others will wait and see. If more manufacturers are able to produce hybrid machines, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray may well be able to coexist quite happily together.


About the Author
This article has been brought to you by Laskys, Laskys is a trusted supplier of a wide range of LCD TVs, Plasma Screen TVs and DVD Players.

Firewall & Port Basics

Gaming in general is fun, but there's something about multiplayer gaming that's even more enjoyable. Perhaps it's the satisfaction of realizing that the car you just passed in the last lap is being driven by a real person, like you, and not some computer program.

But the Internet connection that makes gaming so much fun also serves as a doorway through which nefarious hackers can send malicious code, causing havoc with your computer. Broadband users are especially fertile targets for bad seeds. That's why a firewall is so important. A good firewall, such as Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) that comes with Windows XP, protects your computer from attacks.

A firewall works by blocking communication ports that are used to transfer data to and from your PC. However, games (and all applications that work over the Internet) use those ports to communicate. This raises some questions that we frequently encounter on message boards and in the Usenet: how does a firewall affect the performance of online gaming? What do you have to do to enjoy online gaming with a firewall in place? I'll answer these questions in this article.

How Ports Work To get the most out of online gaming through a secure connection, you have to have some idea of how games communicate over the Internet and how a firewall works. Don't worry; this discussion won't get inaccessibly technical. I'll stick to layman's terms. To start with, let's look at how programs talk to each other over the Internet. All Internet-aware programs communicate with each other through ports. What, exactly, is a port?

Think of your Internet connection as a water conduit. But instead of thinking of it as one big pipe, picture it as a conglomeration of thousands of small pipes: 65,535 of them, to be exact. That is the number of Internet ports through which communications can take place.

Different services use different ports--the assignment of which service uses which port is more or less arbitrary. For example, World Wide Web communications use port 80. Why port 80? Because a few years ago, a bunch of Internet-related people got together and decided that that's how it would be. Similarly, SMTP e-mail traffic uses port 25. Those same people decided that that's how that would go, and so on. These and other services use protocols to transmit and receive their data through these ports. Two protocols that they use are Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

The 65,535 ports are divided into three groups: Well Known Ports (ports 0 through 1023), Registered Ports (ports 1024 through 49151), and Dynamic or Private Ports (all the rest). A list of port numbers and what services commonly use them is kept up by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.

Like other services, the Internet components of games use ports and protocols to communicate over the Internet. When you play Halo online with a bunch of other people, it has to transmit your keyboard and mouse-click data to the server so it can tell when you move around or fire your weapon. In turn it has to transmit world data back to your computer so you can see where other people move so you can aim at them and chase them around. Halo and other multiplayer games like the Quake family, Half-Life and mods such as Team Fortress Classic and the popular Counter-Strike, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Battlefield 1942 send their data down ports and listen for data from the same or other ports. Game matchmaker services like GameSpy Arcade also use ports to communicate.

Firewalls block ports. They are, by their very nature, communications- blocking applications. By closing off ports, they prevent malicious entities from gaining access to your computer through your Internet connection. But doesn't that mean they also block traffic for benign applications that you want to have access to the Internet, such as your Web browser, your e-mail application, and online games?

The answer is sort of. Picture a computer firewall in terms of its namesake. A firewall in construction terms is a specially insulated wall between office suites or apartments, which prevents fires in one suite from spreading to the next suite. But sometimes builders want water or electrical conduits to pass through the firewall. That's easy enough--they just poke a hole through the wall, run their conduit through, and insulate around it. Computer firewalls let you do just that. They let you open specific ports while keeping other ports sealed off.

Gaming through ICF So when do you need to open ports? Believe it or not, when you want to play client-server games like Return to Castle Wolfenstein or Call of Duty on a distant server, you don't have to open any ports. That's because firewalls block data coming in, but not going out. When your PC sends handshake data out to the server, a connection is established, and once that connection is fired up, it allows your game to communicate through the firewall.

However, when you wish to host a multiplayer session or play a peer-to-peer game like Age of Empires, you do have to do a little footwork. In the case of starting a server, your PC does not initiate a connection. When you start up a game and choose to host a server, it just sits there and waits for other computers to connect to it. When ICF is in place, those other computers can't connect. In fact, they can't even see that your PC is hosting a server. You'll have to open one or more ports to allow other players to connect to your server. Such is also the case with peer-to-peer games, in which each participant has to connect to everyone else's computer. Thankfully, most games use a client-server implementation.

To open ports in your ICF firewall: 1) Click Start, click My Network Places, and under Network Tasks, click View network connections. 2) Right-click the connection that you use for the Internet, and then click Properties. 3) On the Advanced tab, click Settings, and then click Add. In the Description of service box type a name for the port you're opening. For example, "Halo Server." 4) In the Name or IP address of the computer hosting this service on your network box, type 127.0.0.1. 5) In both the External Port and Internal Port boxes, type the port number you want to open. 6) Click either TCP or UDP, and then click OK. If you're unsure, repeat the process for both protocols.

If you choose to make things easier, you can opt to turn off ICF when hosting a game and turn in it back on when you're done. However, this leaves your computer vulnerable while your PC is acting as the game server.

Which ports do you open? Different games use different ports and some use TCP, some use UDP, and some use both. You can often find out which ports are used by a given game by consulting the game's documentation, its Readme file, or by visiting its Web site and checking the FAQ pages. Some games make port information readily accessible, and for others, it's hard to come by. You might try visiting a game's Usenet group or the message boards at its official site or fan sites and posing the question: which ports do I open to host a server? In some cases, you'll not only have to open ports for the game's own needs, but also to meet the needs of its matchmaker service, so that your server can be listed in other players' server browsers.

Be sure to close the affected ports when you're not hosting a gaming server to keep your connection secure. That sounds like a lot of footwork, but it's worth it to keep your computer safe.

For more information check out http://www.tornadocomputers.com

About the Author
CIO/Sr. Vice President of Tornado Computers, Inc. in Oklahoma City, OK.

Get Started in Game Creation

I've always loved video games, ever since I first played them on a friend's computer in the afternoon after elementary school. There's something almost magical about the fact that we can move images around and interact with virtual worlds, a living fantasy presented for us to interact with however we please. I've also always wanted to make games myself but, until recently, didn't have the technical knowledge to do so. Now, I'm a second year software engineering student, so if I weren't able to code a game without too many dramas there'd be something drastically wrong. But what about the common person: the person for whom the term 'memory leak' conjures up images of their grandfather, 'pipeline' is where the water flows, and 'blitting' is unheard of? Well, everyone can get in on the game creation process, and you don't even need to learn 'real' programming to do so.

So where do games start? With an idea. Games, like all fiction, require an idea to be successful. Sure, in the same way you can just sit down and write a story without foresight, you can jump on in and slap a game together. However, unless you get ridiculously lucky, the best works are usually the ones that have been well thought out beforehand.

There are two methods of planning a project. You can start from a known technological standpoint and build your project on top of that or you can just go for the design, add as many features and ideas as you like, and then remove the ones that you can't use when you've decided on the technology you're going to implement the game with. In general, the second type is probably the best one to go with when designing games. When you're first starting out however, the first option will save you many headaches.

So, for a first game you're going to want a pretty simple idea. Don't get me wrong, crazy-go-nuts game ideas are fantastic, and there should be more of them out there, but you're not going to be able to create a real world simulator with fifty billion virtual people all interacting real time with your actions having a butterfly effect on the future of the virtual universe when it's just your first game. Really. Many people try it; none that I know of have succeeded. Imitation is the best way to start out. Simple games such as 'Space Invaders', 'Tetris', 'Pacman' or even 'Pong' are great places to start. All are largely simple to create but have some inherent challenges. 'Pacman' for example, requires path finding for the ghosts. I recommend that you start even simpler than that for your very first attempt. 'Space Invaders' is a nice point to jump in. You can make a simple, complete game without much effort and it's almost infinitely extensible.

If you're stuck for an idea, pick a genre that you enjoy. Do you love adventure games such as 'Monkey Island', 'Grim Fandango', 'Space Quest', 'King's Quest' etc.? Design one of those. Are you into fighting games like 'Street Fighter', 'Tekken', 'Soul Calibur', 'Mortal Kombat' and so on? Come up with an idea for that. Do you like first person shooters such as 'Quake', 'Half Life' or 'Doom'? I don't recommend it as a first project, but you can always give it a go. Feel free to be as generic as you like, this is a learning experience after all.

Now that you have your idea it's time to flesh it out. Don't worry about the technology or the fact that you may not know how to actually implement a game just yet, just grab yourself some paper and a pencil and go crazy with ideas. Describe the main characters, game play, goals, interactions, story, and key mappings, anything you can think of. Make sure you have enough detail so that someone can read through the notes and play through the game in their head with relative accuracy. Changing game design during the coding process is almost always a bad idea. Once it's set, it should remain set until the tweaking phase (I'll go into this more later) or you're likely to enter 'development hell', where the project goes on and on; more and more work is done with less and less outcome.

At the end of this period of your game creation, you should have the following:

-A written outline of the game's characters and possibly a sketch or two (be they space ships, yellow circles, cars or the prince of the dark kingdom of Falgour, you need to know who or what the player will be and who they will compete against) -A written outline of the story (if there is one, this isn't too vital for 'Space Invaders' or 'Tetris', but for 'Uber Quest: An Adventure of Awesomeness' it's a really good idea) -A description of game play, written or storyboarded. Storyboards are visual representations of ideas. Draw your characters in actions, with arrows showing the flow of action and short written descriptions detailing the events occurring in your image (because some of us aren't fantastic artists and our images can be a little… open to interpretation…)

Now that you have a fleshed out idea, it's time to work out how this will all get put together. If you've gotten to this point and are worried that you're going to have to spend years learning complex programming languages in order to implement your idea, fear not! Others have already done the hard yards for you. There are many RAD (Rapid Application Development) Tools available for game creation, a number of which are available for free online. Some of them still require you to learn a 'scripting language' (a simplified programming language made for a specific task) but in general this isn't too complicated or involved. I've compiled a brief list of some of these I have found at the end of the article. The free ones are listed first, organized by game genre.

Well, that should be enough to get you started in the creation of your game. The most important thing to remember once you've gotten this far is that you need to complete your game. Many people start a project and then lose interest and it fails, or they keep moving on to one new project after another without finishing anything. Start small, build a working (if simple) game that is, above all else, complete. When you get to this stage you will always have a huge number of things that you wish to change, fix etc. but you'll get a great feeling from knowing that it is, in its way, finished.

From this point, you can start the tweaking phase. Play your game a few times and ask others to do the same. Take note of what isn't fun or could be better and change things here. At this stage, it is more important than ever to keep backups of previous versions so that if a change doesn't work you can go back and try something different without losing any of your work. It is at this point that you can add all new features, improve graphics and sounds, whatever you please, safe in the knowledge that you're working on a solid foundation.

When you're happy with your game, why not share it with the world? There are many cheap or free places out there for you to host your files on and then you can jump on link lists and forums and let everyone know about your creation. Well, I hope that this has been a helpful introduction into the art of creating games. It's a great deal of fun, and can open whole new avenues of creative expression for you to explore. Jump in and have fun!

Links: General Game Creation: (Tools that allow easy creation of many different game types) Game Maker, MegaZeux.

Adventure Games: (Games such as Monkey Island, King's Quest, Space Quest etc.) Adventure Game Studio, AGAST, 3D Adventure Studio, ADRIFT (for text adventures).

Role Playing Games (RPGs): (Games such as Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Diablo) OHRPG, RPG Toolit.

Fighting Games: (Games such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Soul Calibur etc.) KOF91, MUGEN (unfortunately the site is largely in French).

Side-Scrolling Games: (Games such as the 2D Mario Games, Sonic the Hedgehog, Double Dragon etc.) The Scrolling Game Development Kit.

There are many others available as well. One particularly useful site for finding game creation tools is: http://www.ambrosine.com/resource.html

Also of note, although not freeware, are the excellent game creation tools available by Clickteam, Klik and Play and The Games Factory in particular are the programs to have a look at and download the free demos of.

If you really want to do things right and program the game yourself, there are some excellent programming resources available at the following locations:

Java Game Programming:
http://fivedots.coe.psu.ac.th/~ad/jg/
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1262.asp
http://javaboutique.internet.com/tutorials/Java_Game_Programming/

Visual Basic Game Programming: http://markbutler.8m.com/vb-tutorial.htm

C++ Game Programming:
http://www3.telus.net/alexander_russell/course_dx/introduction_dx.htm
http://www.rit.edu/~jpw9607/tutorial.htm

General Information:
http://www.gamedev.net/
http://www.gamasutra.com/

About the Author
Daniel Punch M6.Net

The Future of Video Games

I've recently been thinking about where video games could be going in the future. I'm hoping to work in the game industry one day after I've finished university study and I've been wondering about it a lot. What do I want to see happen in the future? Well I may not have too many answers right now, but I have come up with a few ideas that I think may come into 'play' in the not too distant future.

Firstly forget Virtual Reality, as we know it. They've tried VR goggles and they made a lot of people sick in doing so. It's probably never going to work very well in its current form. They're still around and you can still buy them but they really don't seem to be taking off. It will probably take a lot to get people totally immersed and involved in a new form of game play. It's threatening to lose touch with the outside world and the people around you aren't going to appreciate it much either. The Sci-fi neural implants are also both a long way off and not likely to be accepted by a majority of the general populace without some severe marketing and luck. I for one am not planning on going through brain surgery just to have a computer attached to my head. In fact I never want anyone to able to plug into my brain.

A technology that was brought to my attention by a zealous presenter at the local 'Science and Technology Centre' (a sort of science museum aimed at making science fun for children and juvenile adults such as yours truly) is that of 'Augmented Reality'. Augmented Reality is essentially the overlaying of virtual elements onto the real world, such as a pair of transparent glasses that can display certain elements over the top of what is actually there. I agree with the presenter in that this could indeed have some awesome potential. Forget all the socially beneficial applications such as workmen being able to view underground pipes before digging, think about it from a games point of view. This technology could provide gamers with the ability to run around looking like complete idiots shooting at things that aren't actually there and that no one else can see, kind of like in the film 'They Live!' The upside to this is that it would be a lot of fun. A group of people from the University of South Australia created the 'ARQuake' project, http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www/, merging the classic shooter Quake with this Augmented Reality technology. Again, this technology may not ever become overly popular, but it would be entertaining to play with.

Technology has driven the games industry for a long time with new games always trying to keep one step ahead of the competition. It started way back at the dawn of technology and it continues to this day. 2D graphics gave way to 3D and 3D is becoming ever better. Graphics are starting to lose the ability to impress like they once did. The step between Quake 2 and 3 was amazing, but DOOM 3 while being visually very impressive isn't leaps and bounds ahead of its competitors in the same way new games used to be. 2D graphics encountered a similar problem; there comes a point where you just can't do much more with graphics technology. It is this that turns graphics from striving for technological achievement to becoming art. It is my hope that we will start turning away from tech demos and return to game play and making great entertainment. Games such as Zelda: The Wind Waker or The Sims that strive to show greater depth of character through simplifying the game enough to portray emotions will hopefully become more common (and more fun… but that's just one person's view…). Technology plays a certain part in the conveying of emotions and story but it's quite hard to focus on everything at once. When technology is easier and less essential to game sales we'll hopefully see an increase in games that cast a lasting impression.

Somewhat unfortunately the rise of the 'Casual Gamer' will probably lead to more simplistic games being released. While personally I would love to see depth of story and characters, there are a significant number of players out there who want to pick up a game for twenty minutes or so, have a bit of fun, and then put it down until another time. These gamers are generally less interested in the latest greatest technology and more interested in a 'fast food' kind of entertainment that satisfies the moment, despite the lack of quality or the lasting effects. Hopefully the two game types can co-exist peacefully although recently it has been seen that some developers are cutting down on some of the planned depth of a title in order to accommodate the more casual gamer.

As technology pushes forwards boundaries are slowly being broken down between systems. We saw the Bleemcast a few years back enabling the running of Playstation games on the Dreamcast, and the PC is able to run almost anything given the right emulation software. Consoles are able to emulate other consoles and new consoles are being announced that promise the ability to play PC games. The Xbox 2 is reported to have a model in planning that comes in a PC case and with the ability to run both PC software and Xbox software. Macs can emulate Windows software and vice-versa. We'll probably start seeing less of a distinction between consoles and PCs as the price of technology continues to drop and consoles continue to become more and more powerful and able to compete with the more expensive computers. Ideally we'll see a single platform come into prominence so that everything can be run without purchasing a copious number of different machines, although that does have a downside in that it can establish a monopoly for one particular company.

The technology price drop and increase in power has also lead to more powerful hand-held machines than before. Real games, not just simple toys are now available for the portable market. The advent of PDAs and mobile phones with the ability to play games raises awareness of portable gaming and new competitors are starting to get in on the field that was once primarily dominated by Nintendo's GameBoy. There is a new product, the gp32, that can run many different emulators and hence, many different system's games (including some PC games).

I can't say for sure what's going to happen but these are just a few ideas that I've had recently. Hopefully the games industry will continue to strive towards new heights with new and interesting game play, stories, characters and ideas. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the next few years.

About the Author
Daniel Punch M6.Net

Choose the Best Gaming PC for your Needs

Computer game technology is a rapidly-increasing field. In terms of both hardware and software, companies are constantly striving to push the envelope and increase performance. As the intricacy of individual games increases, however, it becomes important to select a computer gaming system that will best fit your particular needs. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of gaming PCs available on the market. How, then, do you select the best gaming system? By answering several questions about your gaming and financial needs, you can determine which direction to turn in terms of a proper gaming system.

What Kinds of Games do you Play?

The specific types of games that you tend to play will help decide which hardware configurations will best meet your needs. All games are not created equal, and depending on the genre developers will devote more of their energy to different aspects of the title. Strategy and simulation games, for example, tend to be less graphically-intensive than other types of games and thus can be run on a less powerful gaming system. As a point of reference, the specifications for Civilization IV, a lush and detailed strategy game, are as follows:

-1.8GHz Intel or AMD processor -512MB RAM -128MB video card

Compared to many of the newer gaming computers on the market today, the demands for running Civilization IV are not all that high. As with many strategy and simulation games, a greater weight is placed on AI and game calculations rather than graphics, and raw hardware power becomes less important to run the title effectively.

Conversely, first-person shooters (FPS) and action titles tend to rely more heavily on graphics and physics to create the proper ambiance and environment. As such, the system requirements for these types of games are usually significantly higher than other genres. Titles like Half-Life 2 and Quake 4 bombard the player with graphically intensive scenes, and the physics of the game are precisely calculated to create the most realistic scenarios possible. In contrast to the specifications listed above, the recommended system configuration for F.E.A.R., one of the more advanced FPS titles in terms of graphics prowess, are as follows:

-3.0 Pentium 4 or equivalent processor -1GB RAM -256MB video card

Although F.E.A.R. and Civilization IV released at roughly the same time last year, the recommended system requirements for the former are nearly double those of the latter. This is often the case with FPS titles; because developers largely intend these games to be "showcase" pieces of a particular technology or graphics engine, a more powerful gaming computer is usually required to run them in their full graphical glory. The graphic rendering takes enough resources, but when you figure in the requirements for precise real-time physics calculations, these get bumped up even further. As you can see, the types of computer games that you play invariably affect the hardware that you should purchase.

Must you have the Best Graphics?

Genre alone is not the sole deciding factor in determining which gaming PC to purchase, however. Many titles, including such showcase pieces as Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, provide the player with the option of scaling back the graphical effects in order to run the game smoothly on a less-powerful system. While FPS and other games often require a behemoth of a system in order to run with all graphical effects turned on, they will generally run adequately on older rigs. If you can live without such taxing effects as particle shading and frame rates in the hundreds, chances are that you can spend less on a gaming computer and still be able to play the latest games.

What's more, in many cases game developers and players will discover ways to make a game run more smoothly and stably shortly after it releases. It is generally expected that, in the rush to hit the marketplace, many games are not truly "finished"; that is to say, the code behind them could stand to be optimized slightly more. Therefore, developers and publishers will usually releases patches or updates in order to fix certain technical problems. In the case of F.E.A.R., many players reported shortly after its release that the frame rate would often drop down to unplayable levels mid-game, chugging along even on powerful gaming systems. Once the game was patched, however, this shortcoming was largely rectified. Similarly, avid players or members of a gaming community will often find ways to improve a game's performance on their own through hacks or tweaks. When this happens, their findings are usually released online in short order, and a game that might have taxed your gaming computer beyond its capabilities may suddenly become playable. Again, it's not always necessary to have the absolute best hardware in order to play the latest games.

How Much do you Plan on Spending?

Naturally, all of this technology comes at a price. As the adage goes, you have to pay in order to play. Everybody aspires to one day own an ultimate gaming computer; the specifications are mind-boggling, and there is no shortage of companies offering monster gaming rigs. However, the cost of owning one of these machines is often prohibitive. Keep in mind that the newest and most powerful video cards tend to hit the market at the $500 price point. Additionally, the most powerful processors can be priced at $1000 or more. When you design a system around these top-level components--a system that can take the latest game releases, chew them up, and spit them out--you can expect the cost of it to soar. It's not unheard of to see dedicated gaming PCs priced at $4000 or more for the tower only.

Obviously, the first two questions influence the third quite a bit. If you don't play many graphically-intensive games, or if you are willing to live with slightly degraded in-game graphics, it is simply not necessary to spend that kind of money on a gaming system. There are plenty of computer companies that have in their lineups midrange setups that are perfectly capable of playing the majority of games on the market today--and at a significantly reduced price. Don't despair if you can't afford the latest and most powerful computer technology; while economic means may be the most influential of all deciding factors, it won't necessarily prohibit you from playing the games that you want.

About the Author
Jordan Hall, the editor of www.best-gaming-computers.com is an avid computer gamer and technology enthusiast who enjoys providing consumers with advice concerning gaming computers and gaming laptops.

Counter Strike - The History

Counter-Strike, arguably the most professionally played computer game in the world, is a team-based FPS (First Person Shooter). Two teams (Counter-Terrorists vs. Terrorists) battle in one of many gaming modes to complete their objectives. Standard modes are DE (Defusal), CS (Hostage Rescue) and AS (Assassination). The gameplay in each of these modes is completely different, both in the way they are played, but more obviously, the team objectives, as will explained later on this article.

Counter-Strike was originally designed and perceived to be a realistic game rather than the more futuristic FPSs such as Quake, Unreal Tournament, and more recently Halo. As time passed the game evolved, but not in a way to disrupt the original style of gameplay, and more tactical games, Rainbow Six and the Ghost Recon games series were released.

Each team starts with a pistol (Glock for Terrorists, USP for Counter-Terrorists) as well as their melee weapon, the knife. If you survive the previous round, all weapons, grenades and remaining equipment will be kept. You are given the opportunity at the start of each round to buy new weapons, additional ammo, armour and other equipment including grenades, flash bangs, defuse kit and night vision. In the most recent versions of CS a Tactical Shield has been added to the equipment list, however this is infrequently used, and currently serves no real purpose for both the professional and non-professionally played matches.

The in-game scoreboard, (Available by pressing the default key, Tab) shows each players Name, Score, Deaths and Ping / Latency, as well as if a player is the VIP or is holding the bomb. In more recent versions as way to try and make people complete the objectives additional points were given to the individual player who either defuses the bomb or plants it with a successful explosion.

Bomb Defusal
All standard DE maps contain two bombsites, appropriately named A and B. The objective for the Terrorists is to enter one of the bomb sites, plant the bomb and cover. To win the round the Terrorists need to either kill the whole of the Counter-Terrorist team, or successfully plant the bomb and have it explode.

Counter-Terrorists need to either kill the Terrorists, or if the Bomb has been planted, defuse it. If the bomb is defused the Counter-Terrorists automatically win, the same goes for the Terrorists if the bomb explodes, regardless of the number of people currently left alive. To decrease the defuse time, Counter-Terrorists have the option of buying a defuse kit.

Deaths caused by the explosion of the bomb do not contribute to the deaths displayed on the scoreboard, however you are not given back any weapons of equipment.

Hostage Rescue
Most hostage rescue maps start with Counter-Terrorists needing to attack the Terrorist spawn location where the hostage start. There are usually 4, in 2 groups of 2 placed close to and inside the Terrorist's spawn area.

The objective is for the Counter-Terrorists find the hostage and take them to the Hostage Rescue Points. If all hostages are rescued, or the Terrorist team is killed the Counter-Terrorists win. The only ways for Terrorist to win, is to either wait it out (once the round timer reaches zero without hostages being rescued, Terrorists win), or for the entire Counter-Terrorist team to be killed.

As an incentive to complete the objectives, money is awarded to the player who rescues each hostage, and as an obvious advantage could be given to the Terrorists for killing the hostage, money is removed for damaging and killing hostages, and on many servers, players are kicked after killing hostages, the default for servers is 5.

This is not the most popular mode for the professional, and even the beginner leagues, however there are leagues and divisions specializing in hostage missions, and of course there are thousands of servers all over the world running hostage rescue maps.

Assassination - VIP
This game mode starts with a single player on the Counter-Terrorist team being assigned as the VIP. This player is not allowed to purchase weapons, ammo, or equipment and is also not able to pickup any weapons. This player is however given 200 armour, which is a lot more help than it sounds.

The aim for the Counter-Terrorists is protect the VIP, and escort him to the rescue point. If the VIP is killed, the round ends, and the Terrorists win. A new VIP is then assigned for the start of the next round. If the VIP does successfully escape additional money is given, on top of what is given for winning the round.

To win, the terrorists need to eliminate the VIP, or just stop him from reaching the rescue point before the time runs out. The Counter-Terrorists either need to successfully get the VIP to the rescue point, or eliminate the Terrorist team.

Escape
This mode still exists, however the maps (in official distributions) were removed in the later betas, and work was not continued on this mode, however maps containing the prefix es_ are still played on a few servers on the internet. You can also download several of the maps from the internet.

Counter-Strike : Condition Zero
This was a game which was in the making for many years, going through many developers. The final version of Condition Zero was by two developers, one for the single player, and one for the multiplayer. The multiplayer remained unchanged from the original, the difference lay in the sounds, and texture quality. The single player mode contained a selection of levels, with a few missions for many locations around the world, which you need to make you way though. The multiplayer version includes a Tutorial mode, where you are given a set task, whether kill a certain number of players, defuse the bomb, or use a specific weapon to kill people. You play in the same way as you would online except you play with bots.

Counter-Strike Source
This follows the original idea of Counter Strike, however everything has updated. The most noticeable difference are the graphics. Based on the Half-life 2 engine, the maps look nicer, the players move differently and the weapon animations are better. The only real changes in the game itself, are the changes caused by the new engine, and the slight changes in maps because these are now support by the engine.

A version of Counter Strike on the HL2 engine called CS Pro is being developed which is being designed to have gameplay almost exactly like CS 1.6 however, will just look visually cleaner.
Information on CS Pro will be published as soon as its made available, to see if will really serve its purpose of taking CS 1.6 into the future.

Well this concludes, our basic guide to Counter-Strike, hopefully this gives you a better basic understanding to the world of Counter Strike.

About the Author
I am a website developer, currently working on Routed Gaming - A large gaming community community network, which is what I have written most of my articles for.

Online Multiplayer Games - How It All Began

Just a few years ago, multiplayer gaming was just a "+1" for each game that supported such a gameplay mode; other than that, almost nobody cared about whether or not the title he wanted to buy supported a multiplayer mode.

Well, a few years have passed since then. As years pass, things tend to change; as things change, trends of the past become, as the word suggests: something that belongs to the past. Nowadays, it's almost inconceivable that a new title doesn't support some kind of multiplayer mode. Developers will throw in multiplayer elements in each and every way possible; after all, multiplayer gaming is the hottest gaming trend for the moment, why shouldn't they? Let's have a look at how this all began.

Although there where quite a few other multiplayer games available at the time, the real heat began when id software released the blockbuster title DOOM during the third quarter of 1993. Doom was a revolutionary first person shooter that shook the whole gaming world. Never before had the gaming society witnessed such a lifelike gaming environment and such an advanced multiplayer gameplay. DOOM was a real revolution; but this, was just the beginning! In the following years, id software released numerous sequels of the title; needless to say, all sequels had a great success.

As years passed, multiplayer gaming began to gain more and more popularity. In 1996, the same guys that did DOOM released a new smash title, Quake. Just a year after that, Quake II shook the whole gaming world for a second time; the time for hardware accelerated graphics processing had reached and Quake II was the only FPS multiplayer game to take advantage of this technology at the moment. Millions of gamers started to play Quake II online and countless multiplayer MODs (modifications of the original game rules) where released.

Finally, one of the last milestones in online gaming is Valve's Half-Life. This is probably the most popular and successful game of the last decade; in fact, millions of fans are playing it's extremely popular MODs (Counter-Strike, Call of Duty etc.) at any given moment, even now!

Following those great games, nowadays there are numerous blockbuster titles that boast an extreme multiplayer experience. New multiplayer titles are released every day but the most dominant ones for the moment are games such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life2, Lineage, Warcraft3, WoW, DOOM3, QuakeIV etc.

About the Author
Get game server hosting for your games - we also offer dedicated servers.

Get a career in video games - What you can do to prepare yourself

Starting a career in the video game industry used to a difficult thing; there were very few options and very few schools that could teach the required cutting edge skills. If you wanted to choose this path you had to be self taught. Today this dilemma has been turned upside down. You now have a plethora of schools to choose from and lots of programs and specialties to decide amongst. Here is some advice on what the industry has to offer and what you can do to prepare yourself.

The video game industry has changed over the past ten years. It has matured and is now a full-fledged industry. This means that there are plenty of opportunities to find a rewarding career without being a hot-shot game programmer. As a matter of fact, the days of the hot shot developer are pretty much over. In today's world the creation of a state of the art video game now requires a dedicated team of employees with a wide range of skills and interests.

What does this mean for you?

It means opportunity in a lot of different disciplines and it means that you have to specialize within a subgenre of the big picture of "Making Video Games". But before you pack off and go to a video game school or dish out the dollars for an online school there are some things you should do and some things you need to know.

1. Learn the basic concepts of game design

Have an understanding of video games, how they're played, and what they're all about. You should have a feel for the game industry; know what games are out there, what styles of play they have, and how they handle the game playing experience. Chances are good that you already fulfill this requirement.

Have an understanding of the underlying principles of game design. There are several ways that you can do this. I recommend one or both of these methods to get you started in this:

Build Mods - Mods are modifications of existing games. Quake is a famous game for this approach. You use the mod builder software and you build levels or worlds that can be added right into the game itself. The Mod sub culture is very vibrant and you can find a lot of support and help. To gain even better experience that translates well into a corporate environment you should join a volunteer Mod development team. This gives you good teamwork experience and gives you insight on how a video game project is broken down into pieces. Get a free or inexpensive Game engine development suite and build your own games. You can build adequate and fun to play games on your own this way. I recommend you do this with the Genesis 3d Game development software. It is completely free.

2. Get familiar with some of the professions in the industry and the tools that are used.

There are a whole host of tools that game design teams use. And the tools you would use are dependent on what role you would play on the team. Here is an overview of some of the different jobs in the industry and what software tools they would use.

If you like drawing and painting with traditional tools you might want to consider being a concept artist. They do all their work with off computer art tools. They would conceptualize and draw the scenes and the creatures in a game.

If you think you might like computer designing worlds and scenes in a video game you should consider being a 2-dimensional artist. They create all the structures, textures and backgrounds in game worlds. Photoshop is the de-facto program for this job. If you can afford a copy of this program you will get a definite insight into this career path. If you cannot afford Photoshop you should consider getting Paint Shop Pro. It is less expensive and very similar to Photoshop and it will give you a good foundation into the world of 2-dimensional artwork.

If Characters and models are what you are enthusiastic about you should consider becoming a 3-Dimensional Model Artist. This type of artist is concerned with making the characters, monsters, creatures and objects that inhabit a video game world. In this area of game art the choice of software is not as straight-forward as in the 2d art. The most accepted software is 3D studio Max. Two other popular programs are Maya and SoftImage. If you are looking for a free 3d modeling tool that will get you started you may want to get Milkshape. It is a tool designed for the game Half-Life. The concepts of modeling are universal so the skills will transfer from one tool to the other. You will just have to learn the specifics of the new tool which will be easy enough.

Animator - This is the person that makes the characters and objects in the game move. It is a very specific skill and it takes good understanding of animation to get things right. There are many software programs that are used for animation and they include Macromedia Flash, Alias/Wavefront, 3D Studio Max and Lightwave 3D.

Programmer - This is something that is a little more traditional when we think of video game making "Programming" and it is a very wide field that can find you doing almost anything in the video game making arena. A programmer could be called upon to do any number of things from managing a database to designing the artificial intelligence within a game or creating specialized software tools that other designers use to create the game.

Other Opportunities in Video game design - There are many other jobs in the video game industry ranging from Script and story writer to even network administrator or computer maintenance and repair technician.

Today there are many different career paths that can be taken into the video game industry. This requires you to specialize in a set of skills. Understanding what these different skills are and getting a head start now will increase your marketability in the very competitive video game industry.


About the Author
Will Kalif is the author of two self-published epic fantasy novels. You can download free samples of his work at his personal website:
Storm The Castle - Creativity and Fantasy with an edge

Or you can visit his site devoted to fantasy on the web at:
The Webs Fantasy Guide

What software should you use to make a video game?

The answer depends on a couple of questions you have to ask yourself? What skill level do you have with the computer and programming and what are your goals for making video games? I answer these questions and help you find the right software for achieving what you want.

Video game design used to be the realm of crack shot programmers who could write programs, troubleshoot computers, write tools and even draw out the graphics needed. You had to be a writer, artist, and programmer all wrapped up in one. But today this is no longer true. There are plenty of programs that do most of the hard work for you and leave the fun part of actually designing a game to you. But every software tool is different and each one is suited to a particular type of game making. Here is a guide for understanding some of the major game design suites and choosing which one is right for you.

For Absolute Beginners to game design and for pre-teens or young adults -

You are the type of person that knows how to use a computer but you don't know how to do any programming at all. You would like to make a few small video games without having to learn too much software stuff. You have lots of ideas for video games and you like the arcade style and side scrolling games. This kind of game would be a thrill for you to make for you and your friends to play.

My Recommendation:The Games Factory or Games Factory 2 by Click team This is an enormously successful software tool you can use to make arcade style games. Everything is drag and drop so you don't have to learn how to program and you don't have to draw up your own graphics and images. You will learn some of the fundamenal concepts behind game making and have a blast doing it.

For medium skill computer users, for high school age to adult

You have a bit of Savvy with the computer and have tried and used different kinds of programs. Maybe you have done some level design for a popular game. You would really like to make something three-dimensional like Quake and you have the thought that maybe you would like to make whole worlds and dungeons. You really want to make a game that you can walk around in.

My Recommendation:The Reality Factory This is a shareware program that is built on the Genesis 3D game engine. It is a legitimate game engine with a great workspace that you can actually design whole worlds in. The process is similar to something an architect would use -picture drawing out blueprints because this is what you do with the Reality Factory. This software is free to download and within an hour you can actually have a single room game up and running where you can walk your character around and shoot weapons. To do a more involved game you need to spend a significant amount of time drawing out and texturing the rooms. If you get proficient with this free software you will have set for yourself a good foundation in legitimate game making. You will have an understanding of game processes and items like textures, models, scripts and more.

For high skill computer users and adults age 18 and over

You are considering a career in game design and want to set out a good base foundation for your career. You want skills that will transfer to the Real world but you are not yet sure if you want to invest the years it takes to master a high level programming language.

My recommendations: Dark Basic I recommend you look into the program called DarkBasic by The Game Creators. (They also have a Dark Basic Lite version). This is an excellent way to learn how to make games while you learn the protocol and logic of programming. This is a powerful tool that can make professional games. The good thing about Dark Basic is that it is specifically tailored to making games.

You are going to be a Video Game Maker - no doubts about it

My Recommendation: C++ and Direct X - Although this is a matter of opinion I recommend you learn how to program using C++ and you learn how to develop with something called Microsoft Direct X. This is some professional and very serious stuff and you will spend months learning the languages without ever seeing a single game pixel. But this route is how to lay out a professional career. This software is also pretty expensive. But imagine the rewards?

Making video games is a wonderful pursuit that can fully tap your creative powers and whether you are doing it just for fun or for a career there are lots of tools available to help you reach your goals and make some great video games.

About the Author
For more creative ideas and projects on making video games visit the author's website at:
The Making Video Games for Free Website

How Can I Upgrade My PC For Gaming?

Technology moves so fast these days. By the time you've bought a pc it's guaranteed that most of the parts will be out of date within a few months. This can also depend on where you buy your pc from as well. A lot of companies sell pc packages that can seem like good value for money at the time. They bundle a printer, scanner and other add-ons with your pc, but then you find out that you're spending tons of cash on ink, your pc is too generic and not good enough for what you want to use it for, gaming!

If you drop by your local "best buy" or "pc world" to look for a new pc to play the latest games then you're going to run in to problems. A lot of gamers these days make or at least customize their own pc's from scratch. Why? Because they know what's needed to run these games.

90% of pc's today that are sold through those types of stores in packages are aimed at the average "I want a pc so I can surf the net, play music and watch dvd's" consumer. These pc's are acceptable for those needs but if you want to play the latest games then you haven't got a chance of getting them to run to their necessary requirements.

Too many time's I've seen people go out and buy a brand new pc, try to go online and play a new game such as "Battlefield 2" or "Quake 4" and find out that the game runs bad even on the lowest settings. They then end up spending twice as much on a pc by having to buy a new one from scratch or upgrade a lot of the parts because they've made the mistake of buying an "e-Machine" in the first place.

So you have an old pc you want to upgrade so you can play the latest games. The main components you will need to look at for upgrading are :

Motherboard Power supply (PSU) Processor (CPU) Memory (RAM) Graphics card Sound card

I put them in this order for the below reasons although some people may disagree with me.

The motherboard is the main component in your pc as it ties all the other components together. You can buy the best CPU and graphics card and sound card, but if your motherboard stinks then they aren't going to be able to work to the best of their abilities.

The power supply is extremely important. If you can't get enough power to the rest of the parts in your pc then nothing will work properly and in some case, they won't even work at all. You can pick up a cheap power supply for about $20 but normally with technology these days, you get what you pay for. If you intend to have a top notch graphics card and powerful CPU in your pc then you need a good quality power supply that is stable and capable of powering all your pc's parts effectively.

The CPU (central processing unit) is the heart of your pc. If you have a slow CPU but the best graphics card and motherboard then your CPU will hold back the other components in your pc.

Your computer's memory is just as important as the CPU. This will be used to store and transfer the data on your pc fast and if you have bad, slow or not enough memory then it's going to slow the rest of your pc down.

The graphics card is extremely important in today's games. If you can't render the graphics fast enough then you'll experience lag and slow down in your games no matter how good the rest of your pc is. Most "bundled" graphics cards are built on to the motherboards in packaged pc's and share the actual system memory. This is BAD for gaming!

The sound card isn't as important as the rest of the components but it can help your pc perform better. If you have a stand alone sound card, it takes some of the workload off of your cpu and motherboard and a lot of today's best sound cards even have their own special sound system that is used by a lot of new games.

Obviously if you want to be able to play the best games on the market and if you play competitively online then you want to be able to play to the best of your abilities and not have to worry about your pc not being able to handle the needs of today's games.

It can be expensive but there are easy ways for you to upgrade on a budget. Maybe if you're thinking of upgrading now then you should go ahead but even starting to look for the best parts to upgrade your pc can be a daunting task.

Personally when I'm upgrading I never go for the very top of the range. You don't have to buy the best (as you know it's going to be going down in price dramatically in the next few months) but you can still get some great pc hardware for good prices that will run those games without any slowdown and still make them look and feel great to play.

One bad link in the chain will hinder your computer's performance. When you want to upgrade or even buy a new pc you must ensure that each part is as good as the others to get the best performance and stability for any type of computer tasks.

About the Author
Chris G Williams has been a gamer for the past ten years playing competitively in the online gaming scene. His latest site can be found at : Cash 4 Gamers

Expanding Genres Classify PC Games

PC games are a great way of relaxation and having fun for all ages. Either you are a child coming from school or even a working person who just went back home from work, games are for everyone and anyone. The truth is that they have evolved into a real industry. Online or offline, from simple flash games to modern wonders, pc games have attracted a mass of followers that are ready to devour the next impressive achievement.

Nobody could have foreseen 15 years ago that one day we would be able to interact with thousands and thousands of other people online with the means of an online game. That's what technological breakthrough has evolved into nowadays.

There are many PC games genres, which would fall into more categories, each with its own distinctive type of playing. Although the majority of them ultimately need you to defeat the bad guys, the ways in which you can do that are many, varied, and in different environments. You can do that anywhere and anytime, from ancient Rome to epic space battles in the different future.

FIRST PERSON SHOOTERS They are also commonly referred to as "Shoot 'em ups" because of the way in which you need to approach the game. You have a 1st person view, meaning that you will see the game environment as you would if you were actually there.

You are given many different weapons with which you need to kill the bad guys. You will probably need to start out with nothing more than a knife, but don't worry, you will get the big guns later on. Although there are many examples of good first person shooters available out there, the Doom and Quake franchises seem to dominate the market.

REAL TIME STRATEGY This is the type of pc game in which you usually you need to build a strong empire with enough fighting force to overcome the enemy. It has 2 aspects, the military aspect and the economical one. Usually you need to harvest resources in order to be able to produce different military units capable of running a war.

Common examples of this sort of games include Starcraft and the Warcraft series. They also have a common, the TBS (turn based strategy), and a few of those games actually wrote history (the Civilization series, the Heroes of Might and Magic series).

RPG

The abbreviation comes from "role playing game." This is a game in which you start on a character that is weak at first and who gains experience as you progress through the game, by battling different monsters. With the help of the experience gained, your character becomes stronger and stronger, able to fight stronger monsters and enemies, and ultimately defeats evil, which is also the purpose of the game.

A relatively recent development of RPGs is the MMORPG (massive multiplayer online RPG), in which thousands of people fight online in a usually immense world in which you can do anything you want: fight monsters, complete quests, fight other players, and of course gain experience all throughout. Although it has not been the first game of this genre, the most acclaimed game of this type is World of Warcraft which has an impressive community worldwide.

There are many other types of games available out there, I just pointed out the most common of them: racing games, sport games, adventure games, action games and many other types of games form an impressive industry that has truly put the pc games in the first line of entertainment over the last decade.

About the Author

Enjoy the latest PC games available online: PC games.
Fun puzzle and arcade games to play on your PC: Play PC games.