Tech Olive

Nvidia has recommended that all users that have the 196.75 drivers installed revert back to the previous 196.21 version due to reports of overheating video cards during intense gameplay. StarCraft II beta testers were the first to spot this problem when they detected temps as high as 104C. After finding out about this heated issue (pun intended), Nvidia has released an official statement:

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.

So folks, it might be best for you to revert back to 196.21 if you do any GPU-intense gaming.

via [IncGamers]

After the first installment and its exclusive debut on the Xbox 360, EA DICE has deemed PC gamers worthy of receiving the second installment of the Bad Company series. It’s still a bit confusing as to why there was never a PC port of Bad Company, but we’ll take what we can get. With its sights firmly set on Modern Warfare 2, let’s see if Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is even worth our time.

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Starting now and running until Monday, March 8th, Steam is offering Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising for $7.49 — a whopping 75% off! So, head over to Steam and grab yourself a cheap game!

Weighing in at 1.2GB, Just Cause 2’s demo has officially hit Steam, as promised. So, head over there and start downloading your own little slice of heaven. Remember: You must be running Windows Vista or Windows 7 to play.

Crystal Dynamics detailed their next big-breasted, action-adventure platforming game. It seems they are moving away from the Tomb Raider title prefix and opting for this new one. Perhaps this will be a branch-off from the series or a new direction that the developers are experimenting with and they want fans to know that it won’t be affecting the Tomb Raider series of games?

“This is a really exciting project for Crystal Dynamics, we have created something completely new and very different to what people might be expecting,” said Darrell Gallagher, General Manager of Crystal Dynamics. “Lara Croft is such an iconic character in videogames, with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light we have created what we believe is a truly original digital experience.”

Make of it what you will, but you shouldn’t expect another Tomb Raider game. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is planned to release as a digital download sometime this year.

[Press Release]

The netbook market is a very unique one. It’s is still so young that the devices are lacking in speed, but the trade-off is portability and long battery life. So, as it stands, there’s a mad dash for hardware developers to try and find the best balance of performance, portability and most importantly, battery life. All while trying to keep the devices in an affordable and competitive pricing bracket. So, let’s find out how one of Asus’ latest revisions of their wildly popular Eee PC line holds up in the ever-evolving netbook market.

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On top of the two O!Play media players that Asus has, they’ve now discreetly uncovered their third model, dubbed the O!Play HD2. The only specs that we know of so far is that — from the photo — it will have eSATA, USB, and memory card support, but if it’s anything like the other two players, it’ll sport HDMI that will output 1080p HD video and either ethernet, 802.11n, or a combination of both. Stay tuned for more info as it comes in.

UPDATE: We’ve found out that the player will have HDMI 1.3, Composite, Component, Optical outputs, USB 2.0, eSATA, CF/SD/Memory Stick card readers, and a USB 3.0 PC link. I’m sure more info will come at us later in the day so stick around.

via [SlashGear]

There are times when people do something completely unnecessary just to get people’s attention. This is very well one of those times. Using five LSI Mega RAID SAS/SATA raid cards, Patriot was able to cram in a whopping forty 256GB solid state drives into one PC. The rig, which was unveiled at CeBIT, also sports two 1000W Thermaltake power supplies, a server motherboard with dual Intel Xeon 5550 CPUs, and 48GB of DDR3 RAM. It’s said that the system is able to make a copy of a Blu-ray rip in just under a second. We’re talkin’ speeds of around 8GB per second. Yes, please.


via [Tom's Hardware]

After getting an update that “changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations,” Portal was given another update today with the following changelog:

“Added valuable asset retrieval.”

There is still no concrete information on what this update has really brought to the game. Perhaps the first one offered directions and this one unlocks the function? At this point, we can only speculate, but it’s clear to see that Valve loves watching their fans squirm.

UPDATE: Follow the break for a newly added (cliffhanger) ending to Portal.

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In honor of Supreme Commander 2’s release, Razer has planned a huge giveaway. All you need to do to enter is whore yourself out on Facebook, but it’s totally worth it. Follow the break to see what we mean.

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