Gaming Video Tutorial (fraps)

Hi, in this tutorial you will learn how to create a screen recording of you playing a game and then compress it so it’s a reasonable size to upload to the internet or carry around on a USB dirve to show your friends.
Ok, we are going to use a program called fraps which can be downloaded for free (limiting to a recording of only 30 seconds and also a small watermark appears up the top of all recorded videos) or you can buy it for only AUD$47 which is a reasonable price for this great piece of software which also displays framerates of your games. If you don't want to buy the full version you don't need it for this tutorial. To get fraps go to http://www.fraps.com/download.php or if you want to buy it go to http://www.fraps.com/buy.php.
Step 1. Setting up Fraps.
To start out where going to set up fraps before the recording. So in the general tab tick "Fraps window always on top" and then go to the "Movies" tab and make sure the "Folder to save movies in" is something like "C:\Fraps". Then change your "Video Capture Hotkey" to whatever you want or just leave it as "F9". Next to that there is an option where you can select "Half-size" or "Full-size" we are going to choose "Half-size" for this tutorial. And on the right there is a frame rate selection just leave it on 30 FPS.
.Step 2. Recording your games

Get in to one of your favorite games (for this tutorial we have used Unreal Tournament 3). You should notice that there is a number at the top left corner of your screen (default). This indicates framerate but will not be recorded. Start a bot match or join an online game. Press your screen capture hotkey (F9 default) you should notice that the number at the top left of your screen turns red and says at a constant "30". Play the game through until the end of a match and press F9.
Step 3. Finding/Editing your video
You video will be saved in whatever you set the save folder to. When you find the video files it is around 3GB and might be split into 2 parts. To lower the size and to merge the two parts open windows movie maker. Start/All Programs/Accesories/Windows Movie Maker (deafult). Drag your video’s to the clip area.
Drag the two parts into the storyboard. Then add a title, some credits and some music (www.newgrounds.com has the best legal royalty free music).
Step 3. Saving
When you are done editing you can now save your video. Under Edit Movie there is an option to save to computer. Click this and save to a Folder of your choise and name it what you want. Click next then next again.
Your video is now ready to upload to any video hosting site.

Monthly Hardware Bang For Your Buck

I think I am going to start up a monthly (maybe weekly eventually) post where I put up a graphics card, motherboard, PSU etc. that is cheap and good at the same time. Before I put up this months "hardware bang for you buck" I would just like to say that my favorite place to buy hardware is Umart Online www.umart.com.au (i'm Australian hence the Australian pricing and websites)
Ok so Novembers hardware "bang for your buck" is the MSI Geforce 9600GT (512MB DDR3)
Just to get an idea on how good this card is it can run Crysis on full at a resolution of 1680x1050 (22" screen) at a playable framerate. It can also run Call of Duty 4 an Full Graphics at the same resolution with an average of 35 FPS. On Unreal Tournament III with graphics set on full at the same resolution it got an average of 45 FPS.


Features:

• NVIDIA unified architecture
• Full Microsoft DirectX 10 Support
• NVIDIA SLI Technology
• PCI Express 2.0 Support
• Giga Thread Technology
• 128-bit floating point High Dynamic-Range (HDR) Lighting
• NVIDIA Quantum Effects Technology
• NVIDIA ForceWare unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
• OpenGL 2.1 Optimizations and Support
• Dual Stream Decode Acceleration
• 16x Anti-aliasing Technology
• Edge Enhancement
• Dual 400MHz RAMDACs
• Dual Dual-link DVI Support
• NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology
• Discrete, Programmable Video Processor
• HDCP Capable
• High-Quality Scaling
• Integrated SD and HD TV Output
  

Price: AU$138.00 (http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=82&bid=2&sid=32786) This is the cheapest I have seen this card but if you have seen it for cheaper please post a comment with a link (remember all prices are Australian and are in Australian dollars)

Halo Wars, The Xbox 360 only RTS...

Ensemble Studios (Creator of the Age of empires series including Age of Mythology) & Microsoft are going to release the new game in the Halo franchise "Halo Wars" in February 2009. Halo Wars is basically an RTS (Real Time Strategy) where you take control of the UNSC. But come on! It's an RTS How is that going to work on the Xbox 360? I mean it won't be bad, I have seen the gameplay videos and it seems as though they have done a good job making Halo Wars work well with the X360 controller. But how can Microsoft make an RTS Xbox 360 exclusive when the Real Time Strategy's native platform is PC? You can't beat the keyboard & mouse combo for RTS gaming especially with a controller. Even if they only put it out for Windows Vista (I personally still use Windows XP because I dislike Vista) it would still be better than making it 360 only. What will probably happen is like what happened with halo 1 & 2 it will be released as a PC game 6 months later and unfourtunetly by that time the game is "old" and there is a better one on the shelves. I really wan't this game to come out for PC (it would probably incline me to dual boot XP/Linux/Vista) because it is a really well done RTS and the graphics are great and so is the story. Have a look at some of the screenies below thanks to IGN.

See More Halo Wars Screenshot at IGN.com

The graphics are nice the gameplay should be good (knowing Ensemble Studios record of creating fun RTS's) all it needs now it to be available on PC!

Call of Duty World at War Released!

Call of Duty World at War has now been officially released today (11 November 2008) on all platforms in the US. The multiplayer BETA has been closed so you cant play it anymore. Call of Duty WW will be released in Australia on the 12 of November (tomorrow). It is about AU$68.00 for the normal PC version.
Call of Duty World at War uses the popular COD 4 engine but includes many awesome features like draw dropping visuals, A lot of weaponry and perks and a destructible environment (You can burn away stuff like grass to reveal camouflaged enemies)
The single player portion of COD WW has introduced co-op mode to the COD series enabling players to play the campaign with each other over the internet or via LAN
Set in World War 2 you play as the US or Russia through the "climatic battles of WW2"
Didn't have a chance to experience the beta? Here are some videos from IGN.com

COD WW PC GAMEPLAY:


COD WW PC GAMEPLAY 2:

First Post

Hi everyone who decides to read this blog that WILL soon be awesome (once I get more posts up). I just wanted to start by introducing myself, I am known as Firehawk in the gaming world and I like PC games particularly the call of duty series, the Battlefield series, counterstrike source and I also like the need for speed series and a lot of newer games that have come out recently. I would just like to ad in this first post that I think the new call of duty title call of duty: World at War is very awesome. I played the beta and it is definitely going to be one of the WW2 games on the market. Yes I know we are all a bit disappointed they went back to WW2 but Treyarch has done an excellent job unlike their attempt at call of duty 3 which I did not particularly like. So if you don't want to wait till the full version is out or don't want to buy it head down to www.callofduty.com and get the beta which includes 3 multiplayer maps and allows you to level up until level 40 (i think) with the total amount of levels being 65.

So I just wanted to start of the blog by saying Hi and telling you all about cod:ww.

-Firehawk