You can't judge a video game by the number of discs it ships on—not unless you're prepared to declare the four-disc Lost Odyssey as the best Xbox 360 game of all time. You can, however, judge the intent of the developer to give you a whole lot for your dollar.

The folks at Rockstar, never ones to skimp on the amount of content they put on a game disc, have made, in L.A. Noire, a game that spreads across three discs on the Xbox 360, the company confirmed to Kotaku. The forthcoming game about being a detective in 1947 Los Angeles fills a single-layer, 25 GB Blu-Ray disc on the PlayStation 3.

In fact, the developers made so much game that it spilled over into downloadable content.

"L.A. Noire was always going to be a massive game, from the size and detail of the world to the length of the cases, and of course, the sheer amount of MotionScan data required for the faces of over 400 actors in-game," Jeronimo Barrera, one of the company's top people, told me. "To tell the story and make the game we wanted to make, we knew that it was going to take an entire single layer Blu-ray disc and three Xbox discs."

Rockstar doesn't tend to ballpark the number of hours it will take to complete their games, and the number of discs on this one doesn't exactly mean the game will take, say, three times as long to play as the single-disc Grand Theft Auto IV. It does indicate, as Barrera explained, that the MotionScan data—the heavily-promoted new technique for rendering realistic facial expressions from the game's actors—requires a significant amount of storage.

The only down-side to a multi-disc game is that it could require a lot of disc-swapping. You don't want to play, say, the two-disc Mass Effect 2 and want to keep changing discs. Not to worry, Barrera said. "Since the game is built around the concept of progressing through individual cases from desk to desk, players on Xbox will find disc-swapping is hassle-free. In fact, players will only need to swap discs twice at natural breaks between cases without interrupting the flow of the game."

I've seen several of the game's cases, each of which is presented as a discrete episode, though players can diverge and tinker with some side-missions. Rockstar and Team Bondi people who worked together on the game have likened L.A. Noire to a couple of seasons of a TV show. And it turns out they made some episodes they didn't have disc space for. "Throughout development, we created lots of great cases, the bulk of which were central to the main story of Cole Phelps and his rise through the ranks of the LAPD, alongside other cases that felt more like strong stand-alone episodes," Barrera said. "This gave us a powerful main story, and left us with quality extra content that we wanted to put out as DLC, that would slot seamlessly into the existing game."

L.A. Noire is sounding like another massive Rockstar game. Will it rival the length of the dozens-of-hours-long GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption? It probably doesn't matter. But if for some reason you were wondering if L.A. Noire was a small experiment or a tiny game, that's not the case.

With the release of the dual-GPU AMD Radeon HD 6990, closely followed by the competing Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 we saw graphics card performance reach new heights. With bandwidth throughput in excess of 300GB/s, these cards can consume more power than entire computer systems. Moreover, the two GPUs on board of either product are so complex that combined make up for 11,000 million transistors.

Generally speaking this type of graphics card is designed for the most demanding of PC gamers as they enable ultra high resolutions without even thinking about compromising visual quality. As of recent the only problem faced by gamers is that we haven't seen a great deal of computer games that really push the envelope, like the original Crysis game did, for example.

Many had expected Crysis 2 to be the game that would bring even the most power hungry gaming systems to their knees. Sadly the reality was far from it as Crysis 2 in its current condition is nothing more than a well polished DirectX 9 engine port.

What we describe has become a widespread practice in the industry with a majority of new PC game releases being console ports to one extent or another - in the worst of scenarios to an overwhelming degree. Given the limited horsepower of today's console, which are now up to 5 years old, games designed with them in mind fail to stress modern PC hardware.

AMD and Nvidia have seen this coming and decided to get a little creative. AMD was the first to aggressively push multi-monitor support with their Eyefinity technology. Announced along the Radeon HD 5000 series, Eyefinity allows you to connect 3 or 6 monitors to a single graphics card. By supporting SLS (Single Large Surface) the technology is able to group together multiple monitors which the operating system recognizes as a single ultra high resolution screen.

Nvidia responded with Vision Surround when they launched the GeForce GTX 400 series. Vision Surround has been adopted by the GeForce GTX 590 and it's been a driving force behind this graphics card offering.

By utilizing three monitors games can become roughly 3x more demanding as the graphics card is required to render an overwhelmingly higher number of pixels. Whereas we commonly test graphics cards at single monitor resolutions of 1680x1050 (22"), 1920x1200 (24") and 2560x1600 (30"), today we are taking these and adding two more LCD monitors for effective resolutions of 5040x1050, 5760x1200 and 7680x1600.

We'll show you the kind of performance you can expect when playing nearly a dozen popular games using triple 22", 24" or 30" monitor configurations.

Benchmarks: Civilization V, Dragon Age II

For testing Civ V we used a saved game that is more than 300 turns in which provides a good representation of gameplay. Using Fraps we measured the performance at various zoom levels while scrolling around the map.

The Radeon HD 6990 is back on top as we test with Civilization V and at 5040x1050 we found it to be 19% faster than the GeForce GTX 590. This margin is reduced to just 9% in favor of the Radeon at 5760x1200 and then finally 6% at 7680x1600. Still we were impressed to find both graphics cards averaging over 30fps at 7680x1600 in this DirectX 11 title.

Also check out our complete Civilization V GPU/CPU performance report.

Dragon Age II

We used Fraps to measure frame rates during a minute of gameplay from Dragon Age II's first single-player level. The test begins as the player engages a number of hostiles on top of a rocky mountain outcrop. The scene is fairly busy, so as usual this should present an ideal scenario for testing the GPUs.

Whereas Crossfire is poorly implemented in Crysis 2, the same can be said about SLI when playing Dragon Age II. Although recent Nvidia driver updates have done a lot to correct Dragon Age II performance it appears that SLI is still lacking even with the latest 270.61 driver. This in spite of Nvidia's claims that a GeForce GTX 580 SLI configuration will see up to 516% performance increase at 2560x1600 with 8xAA/16xAF enabled using the "Very High" quality preset.

We know that the GeForce GTX 580 is 10% faster than the Radeon HD 6970 at 2560x1600, so the weak performance from the GTX 590 you see above is due to lack of SLI support. As a result the Radeon HD 6990 was 84% faster at 5040x1050, 81% at 5760x1200 and 133% faster at 7680x1600.

Also check out our complete Dragon Age II GPU/CPU performance report.

Continue Reading...

Test Setup and System Specs
Benchmarks: Battlefield Bad Company 2, Bulletstorm
Benchmarks: Crysis Warhead, Crysis 2
Benchmarks: Dirt 2, Far Cry 2
Benchmarks: Just Cause 2, Mafia II, Metro 2033
Final Thoughts

What do you get when you mix Pokémon with the wonderfully twisted work of Theodor Seuss Geisel? Geek art mash up site Draw2D2 gives us several colorful answers.

Every two weeks the artists of Draw2D2 tackle the task of combining a pair of geek references into a single image. They've mixed The Avengers with The Office, and King Kong with The Iron Giant, so it's pretty clear that no mash up is too obscure for these folks. Compared to some of the other subjects they've took on, combining Pokémon with Dr. Seuss almost seems sane.

My personal favorite of the bunch (so far at least) is Alex Ryan's Christmas-themed drawing of Jigglypuff getting the better of the Grinch. No one can resist that pink puffball's siren song.

Check out the gallery for some of my other favorites, and then hit up the link for even more Dr. Seuss/Pokémon madness.

Pokemon Meets Dr. Seuss [Draw2D2]

A Cat in the Hat riff by Justin LaRocca Hansen.

The Grinch catches them all, by Jack Hendrick.

Jason Wellborn creates a full double-page spread.

Paul Hargrave's version of Green Eggs & Ham.

The Lorax evolves, courtesy of Andy Hunter.

A group of researchers from MIT have developed a new version of the parallax barrier technology used by Nintendo to give the 3DS its signature 3D visuals. The new version of the screen, called HR3D ("High Rank 3D"), can produce the same glasses-free 3D images as the 3DS, but does so while generating a brighter image and using less battery power. HR3D uses two layered screens to produce 3D, just like the 3DS.

However, unlike the console, the top screen creates a custom image based on the bottom projection instead of processing it in large chunks. Basically, instead of only letting the bottom screen show through in a few vertical lines, this lets the bottom screen show through in thousands of places positioned around what's being shown on the bottom screen. Because of this, the HR3D screen lets a larger amount of light pass through, making it lighter, and uses less battery power while doing so.

Since HR3D is still in testing, it's unlikely you'll be seeing the screen in the inevitable Lite version of the console. For now, the team is working on finding ways to make the screen less taxing on a computer's memory, which would be essential if were going to be used for handheld console. [CNET]

The final entry in Bethesda's Get SMART series of Brink training videos explains how to navigate the battlefield, dealing with turrets and mines, and how operatives can disguise themselves as enemy players. Sneaky!

After a week or so of vigorous teasing, Ubisoft finally lifts the curtain on Assassin's Creed Revelations, the third and final chapter in the Ezio trilogy, coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC this November.

In Assassin's Creed Revelations Ezio Auditore embarks on a journey of self-discovery and revelation in the footsteps of his legendary mentor, Altaïr. He'll travel to Constantinople in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, where a gathering army of Templars is threatening to destabilize the region.

Assassin's Creed Revelations also sees the return of online multiplayer, with new mode, new maps, and new characters.

"Delivering the final chapter of the Ezio trilogy is an important milestone in the Assassin's Creed franchise for us and for our fans," said Alexandre Amancio, Creative Director at Ubisoft Montreal. "Assassin's Creed Revelations includes lots of new features and some significant surprises. We can't wait to show our fans what we have in store at E3 this year."

For more on Assassin's Creed Revelations pick up the June issue of Game Informer, available this month.

Update: Game Informer's cover reveal story teases with more details, including a "newly customizable multiplayer game" and the fact that you'll play as Desmond, Ezio, and Altaïr as you progress through the story. It's three assassins in one!

The Angelina-free 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider movie franchise picks up steam today, as GK Films taps Iron Man movie scribes Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby to write Lara's latest big screen adventure.

The first Iron Man movie had some rather snappy writing, so Tomb Raider fans should be pleased by the news that the writing duo that worked on shellhead's film debut will be penning the further adventures of Lara Croft. Ostby and Fergus, who also worked on the movies Children of Men, Cowboys & Aliens, and the upcoming live-action Akira movie, have big plans for Ms. Croft.

The company is today issuing a statement setting bold aspirations for the franchise, with the writers saying they want to create an "origin story for Lara Croft that solidifies her place alongside Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor in the pantheon of great female action heroes."

Hopefully this means they'll cast a real actress this time and not a cartoon character.

'Tomb Raider' Reboot Taps 'Iron Man' Writing Duo [The Hollywood Reporter]

The iPhone and iPad are great for reading comics. The iPhone and iPad are great for playing games. Square Enix taps top talent to combine the two in Imaginary Range, a new sort of interactive comic available free in the iTunes App Store.

Imaginary Range is a digital comic with a difference. Written by Souki Tsukishima, author of the novel Emeth: Ningyo-tsukai no Shima, with art by Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles character designer Toshiyuki Itahana, it tells the story of a bizarre couple named Cid and Ciela as they attempt to save France from a mysterious menace known as Omega.

You don't just read the story, however. You play it as well.

Interspersed throughout the comic are mini-games that bring the reader deeper into the story. The reader might find themselves tasked with directing missiles at an enemy's weak spot, or finding hidden objects necessary to fuel Cid and Ciela's strange powers. Once the story is finished the mini-games are unlocked for anytime play, and coins won in those games can be used to unlock gallery images.

The art is stunning, the games entertaining enough, and the price tag is perfect. Check out Imaginary Range for free on the iTunes App Store.

In today's fairly straightforward episode of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Monsieur Froid wonders why so many people have a problem with linear gameplay.

Why do so many people dislike linear gameplay? If I'm going to buy a game, then I want for it to have a good story as well as good gameplay. Movies are linear, books are linear...why can't games be linear, too?

A lot of the time people use the map of one of the DOOM games juxtaposed against a fake map of a modern FPS, showing the mass amounts of corridors and walkways next to a single path cut up with cutscenes. This picture is used more often than not to poke fun at the 'problem' with modern FPS games. Why is it a problem, though?! I enjoy these games *because* they are action-packed stories with pretty visuals. Yes, it's linear...but that's not a dirty word. It just means that there is a story that the developers made for you. Take the time to enjoy it, I say.

I know you've been curious about video games for a little while now. And how could you not be? People around you talk about them all the time.

Furthermore, I know you have great taste—you and I have had some really involved conversations about the dense storytelling of The Wire, the crazy awesomeness of Michael Chabon, and why Memento is so much better than Inception. Clearly, you get it. You are an it-getter.

So I've been hoping for a while now that a game would come along that I could finally recommend to you without reservation, something that would ease you into the world of gaming while simultaneously showing you just what it is about video games that so many people love so much. I believe Portal 2 is that game.

But wait. What Is Portal 2? How long is this going to take me? What if I didn't play the first game?
Portal 2 is a puzzle game. But it's not the kind of puzzle game you play in a window at work while the boss isn't looking. It's a "sit down and give it your full attention" sort of game, complete with characters and plot.

Technically it's a "first-person shooter", the same kind of game as Halo or Call of Duty. But you don't kill bad guys or anything like that. It just means that what you see on your screen is what your character sees.

You can have the whole game experience in around eight hours for the single-player game. The game is broken into three acts, which actually make three great evenings of entertainment. (There's also a "co-op" mode you could play with a friend either in person or online when you're done with the main story, but don't worry about that for now. See if you like the main story first.)

The first Portal is a gem, but the writers and directors of Portal 2 have done an excellent job explaining the story in the first few minutes of the game. Here's the crib notes version: You're a test subject in a giant corporate research and development company—except the computers who run the place have all gone a bit mad.

Portal 2 is an excellent teacher.
Video games don't quite "come to you" in the way that films, books and music do; in order to properly enjoy a game, you need to learn how to use it.

Fortunately, Portal 2 is a fantastic teacher. It gradually increases the complexity of its puzzles and challenges while telegraphing their solutions in an uncommonly smooth and subtle way. You'll have to learn in order to progress, but you'll never feel like you've been thrown into a situation without the tools you need. And the real genius of Portal 2 is not only does it teach you how to play Portal 2, it teaches you how to play video games in general.

You can suck at using a game controller and still do just fine.
Control and navigation can be two of the most intimidating aspects of modern games, particularly with first-person games like Portal 2. On top of that, the high-pressure, move-or-die pacing of modern action shooters can be really frustrating for newcomers. By way of contrast, Portal 2 will allow you to relax and take your time. The game contains no combat at all—no enemies bearing down, no unpredictable bullets whizzing your way. You will (almost) never feel hurried, and as a result you can take all the time you need to ponder the puzzles and line up your shots.

It's available on (almost) every type of video game console or computer.
One of the big challenges with getting you interested in games has been that you don't own any video game consoles. Why would you? You don't play games! Well, not to worry—although Portal 2 is available on the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, it is also available digitally for PC and Mac. (You just buy it and download it, like an iTunes app.) You don't even need a state-of-the-art graphics card or a desktop computer to run it; all you need is a two-button mouse and a reasonably new (say, up to three year-old) PC or Mac/MacBook. Installing the game via Steam and getting it up and running is a piece of cake, too. [see sidebar]

Portal 2 doesn't pull any immature video game crap. It's not embarrassing.
Now, don't get me wrong; I love video games. But you know what I'm talking about. Portal 2 doesn't feature needless violence or cursing, it doesn't objectify women, it doesn't make clumsy stabs at topical relevance and none of its characters are offensive racial stereotypes. In fact, the only human character in the game—the mysterious, silent protagonist Chell—is a woman. I know, right? They don't even make a big deal out of it, she's simply… a "she."

I promise that at no point while playing this game will you feel remotely embarrassed about it. Should your friend, significant other or potential significant other walk into the room as you're playing, you will not feel even a hint of mortification. And a big part of the reason for that is…

It's funny. Like, actually funny.
Portal 2 is one of the rare games that transcends the dreaded "well-written… for a video game" distinction. The script (by Erik Wolpaw, Jay Pinkerton and Chet Faliszek) is, quite simply, excellent. And more than that, it's funny!

You have to understand, for us gamers that's sort of a big deal—video games are almost never funny. But Portal 2 manages to be consistently hilarious, and it barely breaks a sweat in the process. What's more, the game's superb vocal cast brings the script to life, particularly The Office co-creator Stephen Merchant, whose performance as the helpful robot Wheatley displays a level of assured comedic timing that is as uncommon as it is grin-inducing.

And it's not only Portal 2's script that's funny—the game itself is funny, too. Between the absurd situations you'll find yourself in, the joyfully twisted layout of the puzzles, and the way that the action onscreen ties in with the taunts and observations of your robot companions, you'll be laughing for pretty much the entire duration.

It's smart. And it makes you feel smart.
Video games are complicated and difficult to make, and they are crafted by bright, talented people. Portal 2 is certainly no exception—the developers at Valve are some of the very smartest game creators around. But Portal 2 does one better than that; it will make you, the player, feel smart.

There really is no way to describe the satisfaction that goes along with solving a tricky puzzle—one minute you're stumped, looking from one wall to another, down a ramp and then back again, before… click. You throw a lever, open a door, and set yourself sailing through the air towards your next challenge, laughing and feeling like the smartest person in the world.

It's a joy to play.
But the real magic of Portal 2 isn't in its script, its graphics, its puzzles or its level design; it's in the way it plays. And that's why I'm so excited for you, dear Non-Gamer Friend, to try this game. As important as writing, storytelling, music and voice-acting are, play is the thing that makes a game a game. Play is why we are so passionate about these odd digital artifacts, why we spend so much time talking and reading and carrying on about them.

But gameplay can be so difficult to talk about—what's that old saying? Something about dancing and architecture? In order to really understand video games, you can't read about them or watch someone else play; you have to play them for yourself. It's why we all cried bloody murder when Roger Ebert dismissed the art-game Flower after watching a videotape of another person's playthrough, and it's why you couldn't possibly understand my adoration of the building blocks game Minecraft simply by watching me punch holes in a virtual hillside with a pixelated axe for a few hours.

Playing Portal 2 is a wonderfully kinetic, joyful experience, and it's one that I really want you to have. This is a game that revels in making the impossible possible, in laughingly defying physics by base-jumping from ceiling to floor and back again. It's a Rube Goldbergian problem-solving dream, at once satisfying, graceful, and beautiful in motion.

When I wrote my review, I could really only illustrate the feeling it imparts by breaking out my camera and setting up some dominoes.

Upon first entering a new room, every puzzle looks a bit like this...

…but through some deduction and reasoning, eventually you figure out how it goes together.

But then you think about it some more. You take into account the painstakingly crafted levels, the flawlessly placed visual clues, the lovely musical touches and the clean, colorful design, as well as the witty writing and the detailed world around you… and you realize that in fact, Portal 2 works a little more like this.

So, Non-Gamer Friend, I really hope that you'll give Portal 2 a shot. If you get stuck or have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. And just before you tip that first domino to set the entire chain in motion, maybe you'll pause to reflect upon this smart, joyous, funny experience you're having. Maybe you'll realize just how great video games can be. Even if you never play another game.

You don't even have to thank me; just agree to play co-op with me sometime.

And hey, since you already installed Steam, you might as well try Half-Life 2.

It's totally good. Trust me.