MSI Afterburner – Freeware Fraps Alternative

Revisions:
6-18-11: Initial release.

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Recently, I had done a Duke Nukem Forever tutorial video on Youtube, and I had lamented that Fraps was lagging my PC during the recording.

Thanks to Youtube user Warhawksuper, he had recommended that I check out MSI Afterburner. Now granted, I have a 9800GT video card, and although it was not by MSI, I decided to try it out.

After using it for a couple hours with a lot of my PC games, I have come to the conclusion that it is awesome! More specifically, MSI Afterburner can record video and audio just like fraps with less of a performance hit, with the same video results. In addition, it can also do screenshots.

However, when compared to the latest version of Fraps, the MSI Afterburner cannot record Windows 7 audio. This is useful if you are playing a PC game and talking into a microphone at the same time. Still, this is an excellent alternative to Fraps where you have to plunk down at least $30.

To see more about it, please look at my tutorial below! Let me know what you think!

Lockerz.com : The Free Prize Site! Get your Invite Here!!

If anyone is looking for an invite to this great site visit the link at the bottom of this post.  It’ll link you to my google docs , which asks for your email, then I’ll send you an invite immediately.  Join in on the fun at Lockerz to get Free prizes.  See you on Lockerz.com!!

-Hail2King

What exactly is Lockerz all about?

Lockerz is the place to go to buy the coolest stuff , watch exclusive video, discover new music, play the hottest games, hang out with your friends – and get rewarded for just about EVERYTHING you do on the site.  One other thing you’ll love about Lockerz are PTZ (or “points”). PTZ are Lockerz’  currency that you earn whenever you buy, watch, play, share, invite friends, or even just show up on Lockerz. Redeem PTZ at the PTZ Place for great prizes such as computers to video games and all other electronics goodies.

So how exactly do you get points?

Well to get points or “PTZ” as lockerz likes to call them all you need to do is log in everyday for your daily 2 points and answer a “Daily” question.  These questions are usually simple yes or no answers such as do you have a tatoo, or do you like rock and roll or rap music.  It’s really quite simple to build up points quickly.  I’ve been a member for around a month now and already have over 100 points which I can redeem for a video game or something else but more on that below.

Comcastic! Or is it?

As the battle between ISPs and users goes on, Comcast has made a new announcement on bandwidth limits. As of October 1, 2008, every user will have a 250 GB limit on bandwidth. This includes upload and download of any items, even web browsing. Comcast claims that 250 GB is enough to send around 50 million e-mails, download 62, 500 songs, or download 125 movies (not HD!).

The battle between Comcast and its users has been raging for a while. Due to piracy, Comcast tried to throttle users using BitTorrent clients. This led to many unhappy articles all over the nets of users complaining that their BT wasn’t as fast as before.

Comcast was brought to its feet as it finally removed its throttles. Now, it’s imposing a new limit. Is it really fair?

Well, considering that there are other ISPs (Verizon, AT&T, etc.) have no limit on their bandwidth, this still is a pretty good deal. 250 GB is a lot of bandwidth to be using in the first place if you are an honest person who uses the web. If you are a pirate and like to torrent movies, this still is pretty good for more high power users.

To use 250 GB of bandwidth is quite a lot. Playing games, downloading applications, music, and movies, surfing the web, and uploading to ftps, barely brings my neighbor to 50 GB a month, and he’s sharing his connection to the public world!

I believe that unless you are hosting an illegal server or something, using 250 GB is pretty godlike, and you should tell me your secrets. As long as Comcast isn’t throttling connections, a slight limit is appreciable. Besides, other companies limit to 20 – 60 GB bandwidths.

If you aren’t happy, then move to Verizon FiOS… whenever that comes to the area.

Voltaire.

Popularity of Gaming

In our times, games are released onto the torrent tracks within days of official releases. Versatile1 and I thought about this and had a debate. What would happen to popular games in a few years? Will seeding die down to 1 or 2 hardcore people looking for a few ratio points? Or will it continue?

V1’s approach to the matter was: If you want it, get it a few months after torrential release. (WE DON’T ADVOCATE THIS, THIS IS PURELY HYPOTHETICAL). Of course, this is a bit silly, as torrents (which are viewed publicly) show that games from even 10 years ago are still “popular” as ever!

Thinking about this, it was logical to assume that seeding on games would die out sometime. But the real question was, when would this happen?

So we came up with a new theory. For console gaming, seeding dies out within years for most games, quicker for less popular games. But for pc gaming, only fad games and low popularity games lose seeds fast. No one wants to seed what won’t be downloaded. For popular games and hot games, seeds will be available for years to come.

Why is this? Is console game less popular than pc gaming? Personally, I don’t think so. The universality of the pc makes it able to compete with the game consoles.

Consoles, on one hand, are popular when they first come out. Lots of hype, ads, lines at stores. As time goes on, it is commonplace to have some sort of console because of the mob mentality, but the name of the console becomes just a name. The next gen consoles start to overshadow the old ones. Take a look at the Wii, Xbox 360, and the PS3.

While the next-gen consoles replace the older ones, game support for the older consoles disappears. Thus, seeds start to disappear and people move onto the new bandwagon. Add onto this the fact that so many console games come out and seeds die fast anyway, finding things for old consoles becomes hard.

Meanwhile, pc games are universally tied to an operating system. That means new games are linked to hardware which can easily be replaced at low costs. Many games work on multiple OSes as well. When a new console comes out, some games might not be compatible.

Thus why our theory seems to stand. What do you think?
Post your word!
Voltaire.

The War on Video Games… Explained!

Take a look at this nifty picture.

Click thumbnail for enlarged picture.

Brawl Tournaments anyone?

Nintendo has announced 4 regional tournaments for those who want an early Brawl experience. The tournaments will be at:
-Los Angeles, CA 90014
-San Francisco, CA 94103
-Worcester, MA 01609
-New York, NY 10012

The grand prize winner will receive a crystal-coated Wii, home theatre system, and a copy of Super Smash Bros Brawl.

For more information, check out the source!

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“Impatient to get your Brawl on? Some of you North American gamers could get a chance to play Nintendo’s all-star fighter as early as this Saturday, when Nintendo kicks off the first of four regional Smash Bros. Brawl tournaments across the United States.

The regional tournaments will take place in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and New York City, with a maximum of 256 participants at each location. The winners from each tournament will meet in New York for the finals, with the grand prize winner walking away with a crystal-coated Wii, home theatre system, and (of course) a copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

The three finalists will win non-crystal-coated Wii consoles, extra Wii remotes, copies of Brawl, and Best Buy gift certificates ranging from $250 to $1,000. Regional tournaments register players on a first-come, first-serve basis, so we’d recommend getting there nice and early to compete. The first tourney is this Saturday, February 16 in Los Angeles. Full regional tournament details after the break.

The regional tournaments will take place on four separate days, in four separate locations:

Saturday, Feb. 16
Doors open at 3 p.m.
Orpheum Theater
842 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Saturday, Feb. 23
Doors open at 2 p.m.
Ten15 Folsom
1015 Folsom St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

Saturday, March 1
Doors open at 3 p.m.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Olden Hall
100 Institute Road
Worcester, MA 01609

Saturday, March 8
Doors open at 5 p.m.
Best Buy (NOHO)
622 Broadway
New York, NY 10012

The finals will also take place in New York on March 8, as part of Best Buy’s Midnight Madness launch event for Smash Bros. Brawl. All tournament participants will receive $10 Best Buy gift certificates.”

How To Get Free Games, Game Consoles, iPods, and Other Things!

Alright, This is Voltaire once again with a “how to get free stuff” report. Those of you that have read my previous get a free iPhone article know what sticklers we are for free things. Well, I have found a really good site. Yes, it has iPods, iTunes cards, Wii games and extra Wii parts, xbox 360’s, HALO 3 (YES FOR FREE), xbox parts, xbox live cards, PS3’s with games and parts, music, DS’s with games, PSP’s with games, and much, much more!

And heres the deal: you dont need a credit card! Most of the offers available do NOT need a credit card. All you have to do is complete a little survey or sign up an account but you wont need a credit card. of course, for those of you that are willing to spend a few bucks, there are credit card and cell phone offers to be completed.

So, how do you get points? complete offers! or tell you friends to help you out.

Want to sign up? well, i didnt mention a link or a set yet.

So there it is! Click above to sign up and start getting free things!

(They have the Touch, so you better hurry!!!)

The site is reliable, and credits add up instantaneously. You will not have any problems!