Win City of Heroes / Villians Swag!Here at the bit-tech towers we're big fans of both games and comic books. So it's only natural then that NCSoft and bit-tech team up to celebrate the launch of City of Heroes Issue 12: Midnight Hour with a fantastic competition! All you have to do is answer a simple question.

Midnight Hour is the latest update to the popular MMO game City of Heroes. Set in the fictional city of Paragon,

Battleforge Interview: Volker WertichI’d be lying if I said I was fully prepared for the recent EA Label Showcase in London.

Yes, I knew some of the people who I’d be interviewing and I knew just what to expect. I had all my questions scribbled down for talking to Chet Faliszek about Left4Dead and I had fully prepared myself to be slaughtered repeatedly in Battlefield: Heroes. Still though, there were two things that I hadn’t counted on.

Bad Company Interview: Jamie KeenI'd never met Jamie Keen before this interview, but I had read some other interviews he'd given in the past. That's a dangerous position to be in, as I've found that when you know something about someone which you haven't learned firsthand then it can make the entire conversation kind of awkward and forced.

It's like talking to your best friend’s mum after you've just walked in on her in the toilet by accident. Honestly, I swear it was an accident.

When I managed to catch up with Josh Drescher, producer on the upcoming EA MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, he was choking back coughs and wheezing like a broken whistle. His voice was almost totally gone.

For a moment, I thought about letting him off the hook and interviewing him another time when he was feeling better. Then I changed my mind, plonking myself down on a seat next to him as he gave me a tour of the world EA Mythic had been creating these last months.

So I'm re-writing this article for a third fourth time because penning this out has left me with mixed emotions – I feel I owe a warning to you. I had originally buried my head firmly in nostalgia with the intent of not bringing it up until things got more interesting again. I've tried to be optimistic, I really have... and in the end I found myself realising that it's not only the industry that needs re-education, it's the enthusiast community as well.

Thomas Vu is one of the lead producers on Spore, and his work with Will Wright on a number of projects, including The Sims 2, has given him a strong reputation in the simulation market. So, naturally, when we got a chance to go hands-on with Spore and have a natter with him we leapt at it like a Cardigan.

If you’re confused by that last line then you obviously haven’t read out in-depth hands-on preview of the game on both PC and DS. You should probably sort that out before diving into our interview with Thomas.

First Look: Cyberlink PowerDVD 8 & Media Show 4Manufacturer:Cyberlink

Even though CeBIT was just a short while ago, Cyberlink dropped into the bit-tech offices for a chat and demonstration of its new products. Cyberlink is one of the few Taiwanese software developers that can actually make intuitive, good looking software that works as intended and with the promise of even more features and a new 3D engine powering some of its ‘wares, we couldn’t help but find out more.

David Kirk, Nvidia's Chief Scientist, is an incredibly busy man with an even busier schedule. In the last four weeks, he's been touring some of the top universities in China, Japan and Europe to give guest lectures on how Nvidia's technologies will impact the future of computing—and not just graphics.

We managed to catch up with him in London on the final leg of his European tour at the Department of Computing at Imperial College for an exclusive chat about where Nvidia (and the industry) is moving in the future.

Here's a handy link to all our content from CeBIT 2008 - highlighted items are rather unmissable...

First stories are at the bottom, latest stories at the top. Links open in a new window.

Day ThreeAsus introduces new Eee PCs at CeBIT
Asus has introduced two new Eee PCs at CeBIT - a 7-inch model with Windows XP and a newer model with a 9-inch screen.

Dolby Mobile: quality audio from portable sound

Left4Dead Interview: Chet FaliszekAt a recent Electronic Arts event we got a chance to see Valve's latest shooter – the four-player co-operative FPS with a zombie survival theme, Left4Dead.

Well, OK, to say just that we 'got a chance to see Valve' makes it sound a little bit too casual. The reality is that we hung around the demo unit for the game all day, biding our time until we saw the Valve's Chet Faliszek was unguarded and idle for more than ten seconds. Then as soon as Chet's guard was down, we pounced. Very quickly we managed to corner the writer for

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Gaming PerformanceManufacturer:Microsoft

Just a week ago, Microsoft released the long-awaited first Service Pack for Windows Vista and, as a result of its release, we felt it was right to move all of our test systems to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 as soon as possible. There will be a few reviews published during the transition period that don’t use Windows Vista SP1, but starting from this week you will start to see our first hardware reviews using the new Service Pack.

Forewordby Brett Thomas

It doesn't take many looks over my articles to work out that I'm a bit of an open-source fanboy. It's not that I hate Microsoft or wish that Windows would fall into the pit of 1,000 hells and burn forever and ever amen...uh, sorry, I got carried away. It's just that I think there are some things that are better if free – and anyone with a computer has a right to a stable, secure operating system.

Here's a handy link to all our content from IDF Spring 2008, live from Shanghai, China! Highlighted stories are of extra special interest.

First stories are at the bottom, latest stories at the top. Links open in a new window.

Indie and Experimental Games Round-upThe Internet is a big place. Like, really big. Think of the biggest Douglas Adams quote you can, then times it by a billion-million and you still aren’t even close. You may think it takes a long time to find your MP3 folder, but that’s just peanuts to the Internet.

There’s a lot of good stuff out there though – a lot of very fun games that don’t always get the level of respect they deserve. Games that could be as good as something you'd actually pay for, but get kind of lost in the shuffle because the developer doesn’t have a multi-million dollar advertising budget.

How To Start Your Own Games StudioForeword by Joe Martin
Here we are again, back with Introversion’s Mark Morris as he continues to guide a new generation (or a re-enthused old generation) of game developers to the indie way of life and all the treasures that their way holds.

While last month Mark wrote an article about how to develop a decent idea for a game and presented it to us here and on the official Introversion blog, more importantly how to tell a good idea from a bad one, this time he’s taken a rather different tack; how to build the first version – the Alpha. In brief, what form should an Alpha build take and how should it be handled?

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Core PerformanceManufacturer:Microsoft

Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista couldn’t have arrived soon enough; this is only exacerbated after I realised that the “Hotfixes and Security Updates” document was 77 pages long. Microsoft generalises these improvements in its “Overview of Windows Vista Service Pack 1” document which details several sections under the broad compass of compatibility, reliability, security and performance.

It’s fair to say that PC Power & Cooling is one of the industry's premier PSU manufacturers, however that's not to say the rest of the industry hasn't upped its game in recent years.

With the company’s acquisition by OCZ Technology last year, and the increasing number of competent power supply manufacturers establishing themselves in the industry, we felt it was a good time to find out what’s happening inside PC Power. We talked to Doug Dobson, Chief Technology Officer at PC Power & Cooling, to discuss his views on the industry and find out how the company has changed following the acquisition.

Moving On: A bit-tech StoryForeword by Hugh Chappell
Many of you will be aware that bit-tech.net has shared office facilities in Ascot with TrustedReviews.com, an on-line publication founded by myself and Riyad Emeran in 2003. Last October, TrustedReviews was acquired by Time Warner/IPC Media and my tenure as majority owner and Managing Director came to an end.

With both bit-tech and TrustedReviews expanding it has become necessary for

“It’s 34 degrees Celsius in the shade and my eyes are stinging from the salt of my sweat pouring into them. I can just about hear my radio over the wind blowing onto my earpiece and everything that I can hear is barely audible due to the poor range of my secure radio; it seems that a patrol is under fire not far from our position.

Part of me wants to get there as quickly as possible; the other part just wants a cold beer and a shower back at base. My ankle hurts, maybe from jumping off the Chinook fully laden with kit, or maybe from leaping to cover when we reached the perimeter of the Drop Zone.

Assassin’s Creed CompetitionAssassin’s Creed was one of the biggest games of last year, drawing players in with a mixture of hi-res graphics, enthralling plot and vertigo-inspiring gameplay.

As players dashed, clambered and dived through the streets of mid-Crusade cities they were confronted with enemies a-plenty and a split narrative made them question whether political assassination could ever be a good thing – it’s that kind of depth that’s making the PC release such an anticipated event!

Spore: Hands-on PreviewPlatforms: PC, Nintendo DS, Mobile, Mac
Publisher:Electronic Arts

Spore. Games don’t come any more ambitious than Spore and although the premise of the now in-famously delayed game and magnum opus of Will Wright is fairly simple, the actual realisation of that concept has proven incredibly difficult.

The idea behind Spore is this; you are God, the Alpha, Omega and Almighty. You are omniscient, omnipresent and capable of creating a rock so big you can’t possibly lift it. Then you can lift it. You’re God and that type of feat is your bread and butter.

Kalypso Media and bit-tech have teamed up to bring you a fantastic competition which offers the chance to win a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatat1ty Professional Series Sound card and a copy of the new Imperium Romanum game. All you have to do is answer a simple question!

Imperium Romanum is the long awaited sequel to the best selling Glory of the Roman Empire. Set in the heyday of Ancient Rome, Imperium Romanum

Ever since the day AMD confirmed that it had bought ATI, there has been talk about what place there would be left for Nvidia in the industry. And with Intel announcing its intention to enter the discrete graphics card market with its Larrabee project at this month's IDF in Shanghai—merely confirming our thoughts at IDF San Francisco in September last year—it was clear that Nvidia was being put under pressure from all sides.

There has been propaganda coming from both AMD and Intel about the demise of Nvidia and some of the statements made by high-level Intel executives at IDF just a few weeks ago prompted a reaction from Nvidia at its Financial Analyst's Day on Thursday last week. The response came from none other than Nvidia's CEO and President Jen-Hsun Huang – a man with an incredible passion for the business he created.

Big in Japan – an interview with Square EnixIn Japan you don’t get much bigger than Square Enix and, at Square Enix, you don’t get much more influential than Yoshinori Kitase – the Director of the monstrously successful and popular Final Fantasy VII on the original PlayStation.

Now as the prequel to the original is released in Europe on the PSP, titled Crisis Core, we sat down with Yoshinori Kitase to talk things through. Kitase-san served as the executive producer of

CrossOver Games For MacPublisher:Codeweavers
UK Price (as reviewed): £25.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): $39.95 (ex. Tax)

IntroductionI'm going to go against the grain here and embarrass my fellow bit-tech staffers – I love my Macbook. In fact, since I recently acquired my Macbook Pro after an accident involving some rather delicious green tea, I've fallen even more in love.

Now, I'm not here to preach about the love of Macs, because I happen to be a firm believer in the idea that