Tech Olive

The Bargain Bin is a weekly feature that helps out gamers in this tough economy. How does it help? Once a week, it offers a great and cheap game ($10 or less) to keep you going until your next paycheck.

Since the classic days of coin-operated machines at your local arcade, 2D side-scrolling shoot-em-ups have been struggling to find their place in mainstream gaming. As such, it’s been even harder for fans of the genre to get their fix. Today, the Bargain Bin aims to help ease some of that laborious searching.

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We see a lot of computer case mods nowadays. Aquariums, robots, you name ‘em. They’re nothing new by any means, but this one is quite creative to say the least. A New Zealand resident took an old Apple G4 tower, gutted its internals and used the case to turn it into his very own mailbox, complete with the little vented door and address numbers.

My only question: how weather-proof are Apple G4 cases? I guess we’ll wait and see.

[WeLoveApple]

We knew the movie was amazing, but what did the Golden Globes think? The Social Network was nominated for six Globes and won four:

• Best Original Score (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross)
• Best Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin)
• Best Director (David Fincher)
• Best Picture, Drama

Have you seen the movie? What did you think?

The past week’s best news and featured content that you might have missed…

Sniper: Ghost Warrior Sequel Confirmed, Built on CryEngine 3
- According to EuroGamer, developer City Interactive has confirmed that they’re working on a sequel to Sniper: Ghost Warrior. The sequel will be built on Crytek’s Crysis 2-powering CryEngine 3. This sequel is reported to be one of two upcoming CryEngine 3-based City Interactive titles, with the second being a World War II FPS. More >>

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This week in Steam sales numbers, DC Universe Online makes it to the number one spot while Never Winter Nights 2 Platinum drops to number 10. Counter-Strike: Source makes it in the top ten at number 7 and both Battlefields and Civilization V continue to sell well after being on the list for several weeks already. Hit the break for the complete top ten list.

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If this isn’t bad luck, I don’t know what is. An Oklahoma couple, both leading cancer researchers at Oklahoma University, had their 13-inch white MacBook stolen out of their car in a Panera Bread parking lot. The couple said that the MacBook contains several years of valuable cancer research data that possibly provides a cure for prostate cancer. Of course, the couple didn’t have their valuable data backed up and are offering a $1,000 reward for anyone that can return the laptop with all of the data intact. The couple even said the thief who stole the laptop could return it for the $1,000 reward.

Let this be yet another lesson why backing up isn’t for chumps.

via [CNET]

For a game that’s over two years old and only costs a little over $32 on Amazon, it sure doesn’t make sense why the Mac App Store priced Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at a rough $49.99 (same price when it first released). In any case, it’s nice that Mac users can now get a plethora of video games from some place other than Steam, especially since Steam doesn’t offer CoD4 on Mac just yet.

via [TechCrunch]

That’s right, folks. That right there is the world’s first wireless graphics cards. It doesn’t have any DVI or HDMI ports on it, just five antennas meant to push out full 1080p video to your HDTV or monitor. This KFA2 Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 has a range of about 100 feet (30m) and works with pretty much any display thanks to its included 5GHz WHDI receiver. Other than its crazy wireless capabilities, it’s still the same old GTX 460 video card that we all know.

It’s said the card will go on sale in Europe, but it’s not known exactly when or how much it’ll cost.

[KFA2 via Bit-Tech]

In what is probably the first game delay of the new year, Warner Bros. sent out word that F.E.A.R. 3 will be missing its March 22nd, 2011 release date, and will be pushed back into obscurity with only a “May 2011″ release window. Perhaps this will give the developer enough time to make trailers that feature more actual game footage, rather than cheesy full-motion actors doing the work.

via [Industry Gamers]

Back in September of last year, GameStop updated their Portal 2 store page with pre-order bonuses: $5 off and “Custom Bots” for the game’s co-op gameplay, but what exactly that meant was unclear.

GameStop has finally updated the game’s page in their online store to offer an image of what these custom bots will be (see above, or click here for larger). Hopefully this little nugget of content will keep our Portal 2 cravings at bay until the game’s April 19th release date.