Demigod - 75% off!

How would you like to own demigod for only $4.99? Use the coupon code DGFRIEND-1038606  and  receive 75% off the purchase price. Coupon is valid until April 8th. Don't delay! Operators are standing by.

NVIDIA 197.13 Drivers - Resolves Fan Speed Issue

NVIDIA has just released new GeForce 197.13 drivers that take care of that fan speed issue that a lot of you were having. Grab the Windows XP 32-bit and 64-bit versions here and the Windows 7 and Vista 32-bit and 64-bit here.

NVIDIA apologizes to any GeForce owners that installed the 196.75 driver and experienced quality issues. For the small number of customers that did experience problems, in almost every case reverting back to our 196.21 driver immediately resolved their issues. We continue to work closely with our add-in-card partners and PC manufacturers to help resolve any additional customer issues not solved by reverting to the earlier driver. Any GeForce owner who has questions about their board as a result of downloading the 195.75 drivers should contact their board supplier.

Bad Company 2 - Weapon Characteristics

Have you ever wanted to know the specifics for the weapons in Battlefield Bad Company 2 such as recoil, spread, fire rate, etc? Wonder no more! (click for full size)

Bad Company 2 - Patch Notes v533175

Single Player -
Fixed: Graphical issues on some systems on SP_03 (at start and when displaying background mountains at “Up river”)
Fixed: Character voice issue during cut scenes in SP_03b (only affected Spanish)
Fixed: Hang when killed using TOW Launchers in SP_05
Fixed: Graphical issue on some systems on SP_05 (displaying background mountains)
Fixed: Voice volume in cut scenes on SP_06
Fixed: Unexpected dialog at start of SP_08 (only affected Italian)
Fixed: Random crash in SP_09 cut scenes

Multi Player -
Fixed: Server Browser - Joining a password protected server results in a connection timeout
Fixed: Server Browser auto updating server list when reopened causing a timeout issue
Fixed: Password issue during Friend invites
Fixed: Password text field issue on joining a password protected server
Fixed: “Flickering” ship on Arica Harbor
Fixed: Clan tags that use numbers in them displaying a “0” on the Select Spawn Point screen
Fixed: Display issue on long server names
Fixed: Mortar Strike icon not updating (Beta issue)
Fixed: No “Exit Game” menu option appearing at the end of some rounds.
Fixed: Flickering user rank icon (appeared as an animated gif) when user reaches rank 10.
Fixed: Flickering trees and “Red Box” on Laguna Presa
Fixed: User is logged out when failing to create a new soldier
Fixed: Zeus stationary weapon not appearing in stats
Fixed: Zu23 not appearing in stats
Fixed: BMD3 AA not appearing in stats
Fixed: Friend request displaying incorrect Veteran stats
Fixed: End of Round screen displayed incorrect “UAV_Station” – now displays correct localized text.
Fixed: K/D ratio displays in the Front End
Fixed: K/D ratio displays correctly when “comparing”
Change: Server browser now defaults to list via Ping first
Change: News Ticker font support for Spanish, Polish, Russian and Japanese
Change: New message for server full (reported as “I get no message when I try and join a server, it does nothing”)
Change: New message displayed for attempting to join a password protected server without providing a password (reported as “I get no message when I try and join a server, it does nothing”)
Change: Displays version number on Front End Legal Screen
Change: Display of weapon icon during loading screen

Game Devs Only Use PhysX For The Cash

According to this article, AMD’s senior manager of developer relations says that game developers only use PhysX for the cash. Thanks to Edward Cabarles for the link.

"They’re not doing it because they want it; they’re doing it because they’re paid to do it. So we have a rather artificial situation at the moment where you see PhysX in games, but it isn’t because the game developer wants it in there." In fact, Huddy reckons that no developers outside Epic genuinely wanted to implement GPU-accelerated PhysX in their game.

nVIDIA Drivers Flawed - Overheating

A rather serious bug has been discovered in the recently released Nvidia 196.75 GPU drivers. So serious in fact, that it could cause your graphics card to be permanently damaged. As such, I'll put the warning in bold:downgrade immediately to the 196.21 drivers unless you want your GPU fans to slow to a crawl or stop altogether, causing your shiny, expensive video card to overheat and possibly suffer a permanent hardware failure.
Here's Nvidia's official statement, along with an extra warning from Blizzard:

We are aware that some customers have reported fan speed issues with the latest 196.75 WHQL drivers on NVIDIA.com. Until we can verify and root cause this issue, we recommend that customers stay with, or return to 196.21 WHQL drivers. Release 196.75 drivers have been temporarily removed from our Web site in the meantime.-Nvidia PR
We're getting reports where users are getting intermittent low FPS after installing these drivers. It seems that it is related to the fan control included in these drivers not working correctly and is causing the video card to overheat on 3D applications. This will affect Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2 Beta. Please uninstall the drivers and revert back to the older ones.
-Blizzard PR

Just Cause 2 Demo Now Available

Steam has announced the launch of the Just Cause 2 Demo, featuring over 35 square miles of the Lautan Lama Desert. Get it while it's hot!

"The Just Cause 2 demo is simply massive and with so much to do, the replay value is enormous," said Lee Singleton, General Manager of Square Enix London Studios. "It’s easily one of the biggest freeroaming demos of all time and for fans of openworld games, it’s unmissable."

Nvidia 196.75 WHQL GPU Drivers Released

Nvidia's latest set of GPU drivers include numerous performance improvements, Ambient Occlusion support for popular titles, and a whole lot more:

• Adds support for Next Generation ION.
• Adds support for GeForce GT 320, GeForce GT 330, and GeForce GT 340.
• Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0129.
• Upgrades HD Audio driver to version 1.0.9.1 (for supported GPUs).
• Increases performance in several PC games from v196.21 WHQL. The following are examples of measured improvements. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:
  
  • Up to 13% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with a single GPU
  • Up to 30% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with SLI technology
  • Up to 13% performance increase in H.A.W.X with single GPU
  • Up to 15% performance increase in H.A.W.X with SLI technology
  • Up to 30% performance increase in Left 4 Dead with single GPU
  • Up to 28% performance increase in Left 4 Dead with SLI technology
• Adds SLI and multi-GPU support for top new gaming titles including Assassin Creed II, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight, Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City, Mass Effect 2, Napoleon: Total War, and Zombie Driver.
• Enhanced SLI support for World of Warcraft and Unigine.
• Adds Ambient Occlusion support for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Need for Speed: Shift, Resident Evil 5, RUSE, and Street Fighter IV.
• Adds override anti-aliasing support for Mass Effect 2.
• Includes numerous bug fixes.

Download here.