From the hardware front, Neo recaps his epic adventures at the GIGABYTE Open Overclocking Championship 2010, we put the ASUS Rampage III Extreme against the GIGABYTE X58A-UD9, test out the impressive Intel Core i7 980X and the gigantic ASUS AREA Limited Edition, and loads more.

The August issue of NAG will be on shelf on Thursday the 29th of July.

Click here for the contents PDF [251KB]

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The July issue of NAG will be on shelves this Thursday, the 1st of July. From this point on, we’ll be returning to our regular release dates of the last Thursday of every month, so expect the August issue to hit stores on the 29th of July, and so on.

Click here for the contents PDF [250KB]

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As with all E3 expos there were highs and lows and lots of awkward moments that left people cringing (this year’s Konami press conference immediately springs to mind). What reveals and announcements rocked our little worlds, and which ones made us want to rock ourselves in the corner instead? Read on as we cram the best and worst of this year’s E3 into no more than 1000 words. Deep breath!

Arguably the biggest reveal was Nintendo’s new 3DS handheld, and ironically it wasn’t even a true reveal seeing as they announced the unit in a boring press release a few weeks prior to E3. Regardless, we now know what the unit looks like and what it’s capable of. You can head over to Geoff’s news post for more details on the full specs, but for now we can say it’s a stunning little piece of technology that is only going to cement Nintendo’s already colossal dominance of the handheld gaming market. Apple better watch out. Now all we are waiting for is an expected release date and information on whether or not the unit will ship with a hot woman strapped to it.

Microsoft’s largest hype-creator was obviously its detailing of Kinect, the camera input peripheral they announced at last year’s E3 for the Xbox 360 (you know, in case you’ve been off the planet for the last year or so). Other than the unit’s new name, there wasn’t much else. Possibly the juiciest part of Microsoft’s presser was a 4-player co-op demo of Gears of War 3 presented by the man himself Cliff “Dude-Huge” Bleszinski. Female gamers the world over swooned, we’re certain of it. Now whether that was because of the impending return of the burly Delta Squad, or the fact that Bleszinski himself was playing, men will probably never know.

No other Microsoft reveal could have had as big an impact for us in South Africa than the announcement that Xbox LIVE will be heading to every country that sells the Xbox 360 – yes we are totally included in that. And to make things even better, Microsoft South Africa has confirmed that migration of our profiles will be possible.

Meanwhile, at Sony’s press conference, nothing that mind-blowing was really announced. The company didn’t make much of an impression and the vast majority of what they showed the masses had been revealed a while ago. Alright, so maybe that isn’t entirely fair: they did finally give Gran Turismo 5 a release date of 02 November 2010, and a new Twisted Metal and Sly Cooper collection was announced. Sadly, there was no mention of Team ICO’s much anticipated The Last Guardian and fans holding their breath for an announcement of a re-mastered Shadow of the Colossus and ICO were left to turn blue (I’m one of those, so if this piece ends abruptly it’s because I’ve past out from oxygen deprivation).

The best part of Sony’s participation at this year’s E3? Why, a hilarious five minutes with Kevin Butler. While his tongue-in-cheek inspirational rhetoric was scripted to death and at times a little corny, it at least showed the world that Sony has stopped taking itself so seriously over the years since the PlayStation 3 launched. The best moment of Kevin’s speech was a deliberate downplaying of the console war: “And though we may pledge fanboy allegiances to different flags, deep down inside we all serve one master, one king, and his name is gaming! Forever may he reign!” I love this guy; he should run for President of Everything.

Oddly enough, Valve’s big reveal (which was teased in the weeks leading up to E3) was made public at Sony’s press conference. Yeah you read that correctly; this mere months after Valve boss Gabe Newell went on record to bash the hell out of the PlayStation 3. The much speculated news? That Portal 2 will be coming to the PlayStation 3 and will feature Steamworks functionality through the PSN. Don’t worry, we agree: Valve needs to be lynched for getting our hopes up and then giving us this as a “big surprise announcement”. Where the hell is our Half-Life Episode 3 already? Perhaps Gabe should be called Princess Peach from now on, given what a massive tease the bloke is. Not that we’re bitter or anything.

As far as games are concerned, we have to admit that id’s Rage is looking fantastic. Gameplay was shown off and in general the game is looking stunning. The environments and animations are incredible to look at and it’s clear that id’s new technology is proving to be quite an amazing achievement. Of course, the best part of the whole thing is that the demos were running on Xbox 360 consoles, and the frame rate was solid. This is good news for those who were anticipating having to upgrade PCs in order to run the post-apocalyptic driving shooter.

Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood also looked decidedly delicious, even though the gameplay section demoed the villa from Assassin’s Creed 2 getting completely destroyed – hey, we just spent about 18 hours getting that thing back together and filling it with expensive art and feathers. What the hell Ubisoft?

Brief we know, but that’s all we have room for now. Be sure to pick up the August edition of NAG magazine as there will be an extensive E3 supplement included. Until then, browse around the website and NAG forums to see what else tickled people’s fancy.

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You can expect to find the June issue of NAG on shelf on Thursday the 3rd of June.

Click here for the contents PDF [200KB]

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Here is a plate of cookies for you to snack on in the meantime:

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• Jean Swart
• Gerhard Scheepers
• Neil Roëbert
• Vickus van den Berg
• Graham Bailey

Congratulations to our winners! Now, get downloading and get into MW2, we need some more people playing the Stimulus mode.

Thumbnail image blatantly stolen from this guy’s Flickr page.

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Image courtesy Ophra for PixelPro Photography

Dremel Tools, the definitive source of specialised power tools aimed at hobbyists and trade craftsman the world over, is delighted to announce the sponsorship of Ettienne Venter – a well-known professional in the computer case-modding industry.

Considered as a specialised art, case modding is relatively new to South Africans, and, to the wider population, case modding is a sub culture that not many are aware of. “In a nutshell, I customise computers and consoles,” explains Venter. “I take a standard computer, spend some time on it and modify it to look exactly how I want. I do my best to make the machines look as if they were manufactured this way and not like a project that a kid did in his garage.”

As case modding is not a trade taught by institutions, Venter got his first taste for case modding from the international arena. “Believe it or not, a single magazine article got me interested. When I was 17, I was reading a magazine from the UK called CustomPC, in which there was an article about a ‘mod’ project called Orac³ – that mod sparked my passion. Once I saw what could be accomplished, I just wanted to start modding everything I could.”

Though his first experiments at case modding left much to be desired, Venter persevered and in six short years he has earned himself a reputation in the industry as a specialist in case modding. “I started modding with absolutely no training whatsoever. I could barely drill a hole or use a jigsaw. Everything I know today about tools and materials is knowledge I gained from actually working with tools and trying different things. I am glad for this start though – it forced me to figure it all out by myself. However, if I could offer advice to would-be case modders, it would be to learn how certain materials react to certain tools.”

The relationship between Dremel and Venter is a natural fit. “Dremel tools are a case modder’s dream,” enthuses Venter. “Because most of the work I do is fairly small and incredibly precise, Dremel tools are perfect for the job. The precision given to you by Dremel tools is unparalleled.”

Central to Dremel’s product offering is the emphasis on tool versatility. “The problem of many other tools, is that they are very expensive and they only serve one single purpose,” says Venter. “A Dremel tool, on the other hand, can do a million different things.” Take for example the Dremel 300 and 4000 series multitool, Venter’s firm favourites. Capable of practically any detail-orientated project, the 300 and 4000 series are suitable for cutting, grinding, polishing, buffing and sanding on practically any material. All that is required is a simple change in the attachment and an adjustment of the torque settings. “I have two versions of the Dremel multitool and I absolutely love them both. The new SpeedClic system is also fantastic – I enjoy being able to change cutting wheels quickly. I also love the Diamond cutting wheels. It’s actually quite ridiculous how strong those are – I feel like I could demolish a building with just one of those wheels,” says Venter.

Operating from home, Venter is currently working on a large-scale project for computer magazine, NAG. “A big milestone for me was being asked by NAG to mod a machine that the publication will give away at rAge. They’ve basically given me free range to do whatever I like, and they’re funding all of it. This gives me the chance to do something really, really good, and not be limited by a budget.” Look out for Ettienne Venter and Dremel at the NAG stand at the annual rAge Expo, Coca-Cola Dome, Northgate from 1-3 October.

Since the early days, a lot has changed for Venter who is currently being supported by various sponsors, including; NAG Magazine, Dremel Tools, Prophecy.co.za, VIA Technologies, Logic Supply, Performance-PCs.com and MNPCTech.com. In addition, Venter was published in the very magazine that inspired him in the first place to get into case modding. “CustomPC sent me an email after I finished my first mod and asked me if they could interview me and publish my mod in their mag. That article spanned four pages! It has been an amazing trip and I want to thank my girlfriend for all her support as well as the studio she works for, PixelPro Photography, for the amazing photographs that she has taken of my work. Lastly, I really want to push thanks to Jesus; the skills and opportunities I have are because of His love and grace over my life.”

For additional information on Ettienne Venter and his case modding, please visit www.daejavoo.com. Or email info@daejavoo.com.

For more info, visit the Dremel website: http://www.dremel.com and go to our Virtual Press Office. Subscribe to the Dremel newsletter and receive regular product updates and news.

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When it comes to Modern Warfare 2, we’re about as obsessed as one could possibly get. As a result, all of us here at the NAG offices pre-ordered the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package, but it seems that too few other PC players did the same thing. To combat this, we’re giving away five download codes for the Stimulus Package, courtesy of Megarom Interactive, so that we’ve got a few more people to tube shoot.

Here’s the deal: To qualify for this competition, you need to already own Modern Warfare 2 on PC, you need a valid Steam account and you’ll need about 500MB of available bandwidth to download the DLC. This is a digital prize only; no boxed copies or DVDs or anything else will be sent to the winners. Because we’re nice guys, we’re not going to have you jump through too many hoops to stand a chance to win, just send an email to comps@nag.co.za with the subject line NAG Online – I need to be stimulated! with your name and Steam ID (not your in-game name). Good luck and good fragging!

Here are the rules:

• The competition is open to anyone from anywhere in the world, as long as you meet the criteria for entry.
• The prize is for PC only. We don’t have codes for Xbox 360 or PS3, so don’t ask.
• The competition closes at 24:00 CAT on the 17th of May 2010.
• Winners will be randomly selected and no correspondence or promises of cookies will entered into.
• Obsessive campers and tubers, and rampant whiners are not eligible for the prize.

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The May issue of NAG will be on shelf on Thursday the 29th of April.

Click here for the contents PDF [318KB]

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Our winners are:

• William Good
• Mark Hartman
• Jeremy Forsyth
• Tales of Lumin
• James Fagan
• Colin Thornton
• Gordon Bailey-McEwan

Again, congratulations to our winners. We hope you enjoy your experience with the beta, and don’t be shy to hit us up for a game or two.

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Here’s what you need to do: send an email to [Update, the competition is now closed] detailing why you deserve this prize more than anyone else on the whole planet. It could be anything from a simple sentence to a 20-page essay. Points will be awarded for creativity, humour, drama or anything else that stands out from the crowd, so don’t be shy. To get you in on the action as soon as possible, we’re going to run this competition for two weeks only.

Please pay attention to the following:

• You will need to be able to download the client which weighs in at around 1.8GB. You also need permanent internet access to use the beta, as it’s multiplayer and online-only. If you ask very nicely, we may burn a disc for you with the client, but you’ll have to come to our offices in JHB to fetch it.
• Entries are open to anyone from anywhere in the world.
• Entries close on the 14th of April at 24:00 GMT+2.
• Winners will be selected shortly after the due date and announced on the website. You will receive an email with the details if you’re selected as a winner.

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The April issue will be on shelf on the 25th of March.

Click here for the contents PDF [218KB]

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As soon as we’re up and running, the regular content will make a return and we’re going to run a killer competition with a truly awesome prize (a few, actually). Here’s a hint:

Stay tuned for more updates!

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The March issue will be on shelves this Thursday, the 25th of February. Guaranteed to be 100% sand-free.

Click here for the contents PDF [240KB]

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The issue should be on shelf this Thursday, the 28th of January.

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To stand a chance to win one of these fantastic prizes, all you need to do is SMS the keyword killstreak to 36560. Here’s the usual legal stuff that you need to pay attention to:

• The competition closes on the 31st of January, 2010.
• The competition is open to South African residents only.
• Winners will be randomly selected, so don’t bother sending us bribes of delicious cookies.

That’s it; good luck!

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The January issue should be on shelves on the 24th of December, just in time to save you from that boring Christmas lunch.

Update: Due to some unforseen delays with the distribution of the DVD, the January issue will only be on shelves in Cape Town on the 7th of January. Subscribers will not be affected.

Click here for the contents page in PDF [247 KB]

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The December issue goes on sale this Thursday, on the 26th of November.

Click here for the contents page in PDF [171KB]

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Not to forget our hardware junkies, we examine the ASUS EAH5870, Biostar Tpower X58, DFI LANParty BloodIron G41-T33 and Gigabyte’s GA-MA790FXT-UD5P. On top of all of that, we’re running a huge Windows 7 feature to keep you up to date with the latest operating system from Microsoft.

The issue will be on shelves this Thursday (the 29th of October). And if you can’t figure out which issue deserves its place in your NAG shrine, just buy both!

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It’s competition time again! This time, we’ll give you a little longer than 24 hours to enter (although some unobservant people didn’t seem to pick up on that with the last comp ). Courtesy of Blowfish Entertainment, we’re giving away two starter sets for the World of Warcraft Miniatures game.

First prize is the WoW Miniatures Deluxe starter set, which includes six random miniatures, six corresponding character cards, a hard card game board, dice, rule book and all the other bits and pieces you need to get a two-player game going.

Second prize (or last, if you’re a “glass half empty” kind of person) is the WoW Miniatures regular starter set, which includes four specific miniatures and their character cards, a paper game board, dice, rulebook and all the other stuff for a quick two-player game.

If you’d like to win one of these fantastic prizes, here’s what you need to do: Send an email to comps@tidemedia.co.za with the subject line NAG Online – WoW! What a competition! and your favourite screenshot from any videogame. Sending in something funny will earn you bonus points. Try to keep them small: 800×600 is fine, as long as we can see what’s going on. If you have the need to send in multiple screenshots, put them all into a single email. Include your full name, daytime contact number and physical address in your email, or else we won’t know where to send your prize.

Here’s the legal stuff:

• The competition is open until the 19th of November 2009.
• The competition is open to South African residents only.
• The judge’s decision is final.
• Failure to comply with anything mentioned in this post will result in humiliation, castration and/or disqualification.

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It was truly wonderful to have guys visiting from international game developers Ubisoft and 2K. It’s easy to anonymise the hard-working folks behind the games we play – but seeing them speak about their products with endless passion and enthusiasm really drives home how much time and effort they put in. Next time you’re sitting in the afterglow of a freshly-completed title, give a thought to the team of men and women who were responsible. Thank you to Brent George and Dave Halse for travelling the “1000 hour flight” to our fair country! (PS, don’t feed the lions.) It will be hard to forget the enormous 103” television at the NAG stand – every person who played on it no doubt has a new item at the top of Santa’s list (or possibly a scar where their kidney used to be). At the very least, many will be considering a second mortgage to finance one of the damn things. The Quake 3 tournament was fascinating to witness – seeing those guys play was inspiring, and one can take comfort from the fact that it is actually possible to make a living playing games despite what your teachers said.

rAge set an unofficial record for LAN attendees in SA – a total of 2162 players plugged in to 30km of cable for 54 hours of non-stop multiplayer madness. The tickets sold out in a matter of days, no doubt leaving a lot of disappointed people, but those who were able to nab one had an excellent (if hand-cramping, butt-numbing) time.

Thanks go out to all the suppliers (especially MSI and Incredible Connection) who provided the awesome prizes that were awarded throughout the weekend. Because of you, there are a lot of happy gamers out there with fresh hardware to cuddle up to at night!

What about next year? More of the same please! All tournaments should be local entry only though – sure, it would be great to have international players on hand for exhibition matches, but actual competition should be kept to homegrown players to keep things on a level field. And maybe open up the main stage to more speakers – the local game dev guys would no doubt be happy to share their experiences, and the cosplay competition should be visible to all.

To those who couldn’t make it this year – bribe, threaten, whine or cajole* your way here next year! You really missed out. To those who travelled from far and wide to be with us, a special thank you for your effort. And to everyone who attended (be they from Earth, Middle Earth or Mars) thank you for your support!

*Neither NAG nor its employees condone or recommend the use of violence to obtain gaming satisfaction, no matter how righteously awesome it is.

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The Quake 3 tournament was completed today, with some very close matches featuring plenty of riveting gameplay. The final round was between the two players from international team Fnatic – spartie (Sweden) and l1nk (France). After 3 matches (6 – 11, 14 – 9, 27 – 16) spartie emerged as the overall winner. 3rd place was taken by South African ph4ntom after a tense and very entertaining battle against Shase (10 -8, 22 – 12). ph4ntom will be travelling to Dreamhack to take part in the contest there. Being a local tournament it was unfortunate that entrants were not exclusively South African, but our guys aquitted themselves really well against the foreign professionals. There were tons of great prizes for the top 15 places.

We had plenty of hands-on time with a variety of titles. Avatar presented some truly gorgeous visuals while exploring the lush jungle, and there was plenty of satisfying gunplay. Some slowdown was noticed, but this will no doubt be remedied for the final release. Red Steel 2 is coming soon to the Wii, and the excellent feel of swinging a sword really made an impression. Assassin’s Creed 2 (in which you play a different ancestor’s memories) looks great – the play is very similar to its predecessor but with a more open-ended approach. Forza 3 is a blast – from a body-hugging race seat with a wheel in your hands the sense of immersion is fantastic. Brutal Legend is heavy metal personified – everything about the characters and world comes straight from the most epic music video imaginable. Slaughtering demon nuns with guitar and axe rocks! Splinter Cell: Conviction sees the return of Sam Fisher who now has some new toys to aid him, such as the portable EMP which makes short work of lights. It also adds a “Last known position” indicator, which tells you where your foes believe you to be. We got to grips with DJ Hero – gameplay is a little more complex than Guitar Hero, but doesn’t require quite the same insane finger dexterity. Lastly, we indulged in some co-op Borderlands - multiplayer is excellent, with some really nice team dynamics and integration. This gets our vote for most anticipated title.

The SA premiere of Microsoft’s Lips took place on the main stage – a karaoke simulator which features polished graphics and original music videos from many well-known hits. Some of the guys from SA Idols were on hand to demonstrate the game for us – Monroe (2007) and Graham (2009) performed renditions of Coldplay, Timbaland and Nickelback tracks without looking tooo silly. An excellent feature of Lips is the option to play songs from an external storage device. You lose out on the music video feature, but this will surely appeal to those who find little of the game’s included music to their taste.

Telkom’s DO Gaming tournament took place in the well-appointed lower LAN area. Teams from all over the country took part, representing every walk of gamer life. First In Battle team Terra took top honours in Battlefield 2, Arcasian Persuasion (sp?)  prevailed in CS: Source, and Brazen won the COD4 contest. Hit the gallery for pics of all the teams that placed. Numerous prizes were awarded from medals to Logitech goodies to big heaps of cash. Thanks go out to all the great guys and gals that competed!

We spent a while watching Craig from Rigworx apply his airbrush magic to a unique PC case. They had all kinds of custom hardware on display, including paint, vinyl and sandblasting. If you’re after a special keyboard, mouse, case or whatever, check www.rigworx.co.za.

Those who aspire to create animated content for games or movies were able to attend free lessons in Maya and 3DS Max, presented by Learn 3D over the course of the weekend. Some valuable advice was given to all who attended, even those with just mild curiosity. It is easy to forget how much work goes into a slick 3D animation.

Be sure to check out the gallery – there is a lot of stuff that hasn’t been mentioned here. Our coverage of this outstanding event draws to a close. Whether you came for the hardware, software, free stuff, booth babes or just to get out of your cage for a while, thank you to all those who attended. And thanks also go out to all the hard-working people who helped make rAge happen. For those who couldn’t make it to the show, you missed out on a lot but there is always next year!

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The wonderful guys from Game.Dev held a talk where a full array of local developers spoke about their projects. There was a lot of wisdom to be found as they talked about the pleasure and pain of creating your own game. The lessons learned, fun had, potential stumbling blocks, skills needed and a ton of other useful advice were all covered. But the most obvious fact in evidence was that it is phenomenally rewarding. Game development is also really accessible – you don’t need to be a coding god to make a good product. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable it can be – so visit the site, have a look around, chat with the community, and start playing with the dev tools that are easily available there.

Dave from 2K Games in the UK was on hand to show a large crowd through a demo level of Borderlands. This game has generated a lot of interest, and with good reason. It is a futuristic RPG / FPS set on a distant barren planet which has descended to lawlessness where banditry is rife. There is a strong central story but like any good RPG there are plenty of side quests to undertake. Game levels are generated procedurally, so while the quests are the same no 2 players will have the same experience. While things take place in a dark and gritty setting, there is a huge amount of quirky tongue-in-cheek humour throughout and the title just oozes character. A special mention goes to the items in the game – much of the enjoyment comes from collecting ever-more-powerful items and exploiting the human desire to collect as much Awesome Stuff as possible. Take into account that there are something like 16 million weapon possibilities, and you’ll constantly be salivating for the next big item drop. Co-op play is a primary focus, with up to 4 people playing online or on a local network. The art style is polished and unique, presenting a clean and detailed cel-shaded world created using the Unreal engine.

Magic: The Gathering was represented today by the pre-release tournament for the new Zendikar expansion which features plenty of great new cards. As is becoming common with Wizards of the Coast, some of these are very powerful indeed making a lot of older cards obsolete. Tomorrow will see casual play take place, so if you’re a fan come through and check it out.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow we’ll have a whole lot of hands-on impressions for you, the results of the Quake 3 tournament, and plenty more.

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The local aspect of the Dreamhack Quake 3 tournament kicked off on the game stage this morning, with 64 players competing for a coveted position at the finals in Sweden. Dreamhack is the world’s biggest gaming event which also boasts the planet’s largest LAN. We’ll keep you posted on rankings and results once the early stages are complete. Two players from MSI’s international Fnatic team were also on hand to show off their skills. Pierre (France) and Sebastain (Sweden) gave us a demonstration of what 18 years of combined Quake 3 experience look like – needless to say, their prowess is humbling!

Brent George, a developer from Ubisoft Montreal, spent some time demonstrating the new Avatar game based on James Cameron’s movie of the same name. It still has some time to release (Dec 2009), but looks great for dev code. Players will take the role of either a human soldier or one of the native warriors. As a human, you are an invader on the Avatar’s planet, and everything from plants to wildlife to enemy combatants is trying to wipe you out. The game style is primarily ranged combat, with several different vehicles to pilot as you battle your way through lush jungles. Playing as a member of the Avatar race is more melee focused, and instead of vehicles you get to ride giant beasts of war. An added bonus is that the planet’s wildlife will aid raid rather than hinder you. Fortunately, the storyline runs parallel to that of the movie, so you won’t be rehashing the same scenes ad nauseam.

We spent some time talking to the guys from Legion Ink, a brand new site dedicated to local artists with a specific focus on the comic book community. It was created by South African artists who have had international success in a difficult industry, and the site will allow others to benefit from their experience and knowledge. The forum is a great place for inkers, pencillers, writers, or pretty much anyone with a related interest to get together. Check it out at www.legionink.com.

The NAG stand now boasts a colossal 103″ screen with playable Batman Arkham Asylum. The thing is huge! Licking the whole thing would no doubt create severe friction burns to one’s tongue, but would be worth the effort. This gets our vote for most desirable item at the show.

Plenty of prizes have been won including t-shirts, Sapphire graphics cards, power supplies and goodie bags. There were also a ton of giveaways from manga/anime shop Kult Fusion, who also also sponsored this year’s cosplay competition. Turnout was great, and featured some excellent costumes. Check out the gallery post later today for pictures.

That’s it for now, check back later for more!

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Running from Friday til Sunday evening, the main floor is open til 18h00, but the LAN madness doesn’t stop to even sleep. Add in the largest number of exhibitors and the most LAN junkies (over 2000) ever at the event, and the ensuing result is nothing short of gaming nirvana.

The weekend holds a vast number of attractions – game launches, competitions, hardware and software workshops, local dev, an anime cinema, tournaments, llama shaving, the works! NAG has a badass gaming rig worth R70 000 up for grabs, and this monster is on display behind the requsite safety glass.

For those of you sadly unable to attend this year, we’ll be updating throughout the expo’s duration. Nothing like being here, but at least you’ll know what you’re missing out on.

Doors opened at 10h00 this morning, but some brave souls had been waiting since 06h00 – a morning sacrificed for the sake of being amongst the first to enter the Coca Cola Dome. The size of entry line is a testament to gamer pervasiveness in our fine country, and even the most jaded person would have been heartened by the turnout.

Once inside, a veritable playground of gaming goodness awaits. Every facet of the industry is represented – PC, Xbox, PS3, Wii, CCGs, Anime, etc. No matter which of these appeals to you, there is something for you at the expo in an array of different sizes and flavours

Forthcoming games on show include Assassin’s Creed 2, Borderlands, the latest Forza, Halo ODST, DJ Hero and the highly anticipated Brutal Legend, all of which are hands-on giving you a tantalising taste of what to expect when they are released. This morning saw the well-attended official release of Fifa 10 which looks to be the best in the series yet.

On the hardware side, Sony’s sexy new PS3 Slim has a lot of floor space to itself. – having sold over a million units in the month or so since its release overseas, local interest has been high. The ATi 5870 has also just arrived, and two of them in Crossfire created a significant pool of bystander drool. The great guys from MSI gave a lecture on their latest hardware, offering 1-second overclocking and simple yet powerful system contol.

Stay tuned for ongoing updates as events unfold over the weekend. Tomorrow we’ll chat to come local and international developers, check out some LAN action, give some hands-on impressions and more. We’ll have cover of everything you can shake a joystick at – don’t touch that dial!

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This year’s rAge really is set to be the best yet, and even though I’ve had the privilege to be behind the scenes, I’m still incredibly excited to see it finally come together tomorrow. The doors open at 10:00AM tomorrow. Tickets are R50 a person or R80 for a weekend pass (for tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday). Remember, we’ll be keeping you updated daily with what’s happening and what you’re missing out on if you won’ t be attending all weekend, so be sure to check in during the weekend for an inside scoop on this incredible event. Otherwise, we’ll see you there!

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Everything else looks like its coming together nicely, and we’re happily on track for this massive event. During the show, we’ll be providing updates multiple times per day on the Website. If you’re unlucky enough to be missing out on the show this year, or won’t be attending for any other reason, NAG Online is going to be the site to visit to get the inside scoop of what’s been going on each day.

We’ll return tomorrow for a final update on the build-up. Until then, enjoy the pics!

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Okay, now that the marketing speech is over, we can get to the good stuff. It’s officially Day 2 of the build-up to rAge 2009, which means that the Dome is ours until Monday, when everything comes down after the event. Each day, we’ll update this page with a new daily gallery of what’s going on behind the scenes, so you can get a feel for just how much effort is required to put this event together. In case you’re wondering what’s happened to coverage of Day 1: there wouldn’t really be much you show you aside from an empty hall and a few security guards, so we figured this is a better place to start.

Day 2

Walking into the Dome on Day 2, you wouldn’t think that there’s going to be an event going up in two and a half days. The floors tiles have been laid out, and a few of the stands are beginning to be assembled, but for the most part, it’s pretty quiet. At least the team organising the LAN seems to be on top of things. All of the tables, cables and switches are already in place.

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The issue should be on shelves tomorrow, on the 24th of September. With regards to the postal strike that caused so many delays (or complete no-shows) for subscribers last month, everything should be back to normal this month.

Click here for the contents page in PDF

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Megarom Interactive, together with NAG Online, wants to give you stuff. PS3 stuff I’ve been told. After much torture and begging, we managed to extract this little tidbit of information from them:

“The hamper will consist of a few of the titles that have come out this year plus some great goodies.  The complete contents of the hamper are secret though. ”

How exciting! To win this (presumably) fantastic prize, all you need to do is send an email to comps@tidemedia.co.za with the subject line NAG Online – what the heck is this?, together with your full name, physical address and day-time contact number. We’ll randomly draw a winner and notify you as soon as it’s been done. Here’s the catch though: you’ve only got 24 hours to get your email in. That’s right, this is a 24-hour competition, which means we’ll only accept entries that arrive in our mailbox between 00:00 and 24:00 (CAT) on the 18th of September (that’s today, in case you’re struggling).

Please pay attention to the following legal stuff:

• All titles in the hamper are white labels.  These white labels cannot be sold.
• No employees, or families of employees, of Megarom Interactive or Tide Media are eligible to win this prize.
• The competition is open to South African residents only.
• The winner will be randomly drawn and notified by email or telephone.
• One email per entrant only. If you send multiple emails, you will be disqualified from the competition.

That’s it! What are you waiting for? Send off that email right away!

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“Imitation,” goes the reliably quotable aphorism, “is the sincerest form of flattery.” It’s also the surest form of instant cash if you’re cloning the good stuff, so when the concept guys over at Chair Entertainment HQ first sat down to design a game that would basically print money, someone suggested, “Metroidvania” and everyone else squealed, “Brilliant!” A Metroidvania, for those of you who don’t know these top secret industry code words, is any game that takes everything Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night did, and does it all over again, more or less exactly the same but with different weapon names. So it’s a linear-but-not-linear side-scrolling platform action adventure with a bunch of gadgets and a zillion bits of collectible junk.

For all that it’s about as original as a photocopy, however, Shadow Complex manages to be pretty much every bit as superb as its predecessors. And maybe then some. For starters, it’s the Blue Steel of its genre – powered by the Unreal Engine 3 in high definition 2.5D, it’s really really ridiculously good looking. Sure, Samus Aran had boobs, but Jason Flemming has bidirectional subsurface reflectance distribution mapping or something. Put in enough some time, and he’ll also have an outrageously overpowered shotgun with a 700m range and a jetpack. That’s the game just getting started.

See, while there’s a really vapid, drearily predictable story motivating all of this, it’s kind of entirely irrelevant. The real game is in getting at all the items hidden around the complex, and to do that, you’ve got to get all the right tools for the job. Who cares if some evil insurrectionist paramilitary organisation is plotting to take over the world or eat biscuits or whatever, when there’s a missile upgrade in the middle of a room filled with death lasers and you’ve not yet managed to locate the hook shot? The Completionist achievement for Shadow Complex is truly a thing of consummate awe.

Which brings me around to my only real gripe about the game. Unless you’re going for a minimalist speed run (there are achievements for both, obviously), you’re going to be spending a lot – a lot – of time moving around an immense facility. Although there are shortcuts if you poke around, they’re really inadequate given the overall size of the place. Since each sub-section typically has only one or two entrances, it can take anything up to fifteen or twenty minutes to get from one side of the map to the other. When you’re down to the last couple of collectibles, this quickly starts to feel tedious. Come on, if these guys can invent supersonic hi tops, they can invent a teleporter. Or an express elevator.

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Subscribers, take note: Due to the South African Post Office strike, there will be huge delays in the delivery of your issue this month. The industrial action is set to continue until Friday the 28th, which could see you only receiving your magazine up to two weeks later. Please contact our subs department or the Communication Workers Union for more information.

[Grab the contents here]

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We’ve also extended the post list and added the “News” category to the navigational bar above. If things look funny or out-of-place, please force a full refresh of your browser by pressing Ctrl+F5.

And that’s it. If you like what you see (or even if you don’t), feel free to comment on each news article or right underneath this post. The more feedback we get from you, the better we can make this site.

Enjoy!

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First – the numbers: This year we’ll be running the same format as last year, with a total of 1800 gamers sprawled between the mezzanine level and the animal cage on the main floor, but with a twist. AGASA and Telkom have taken control over a secret basement level of the dome and reserved 500 additional seats for their own nefarious purposes. There they will run a series of tournaments and competitions for SA’s gaming l33t.

Right, so you want in but keep asking yourself “But Geoff, how do I get in?” What you need is a ticket. These mystical pieces of paper go on sale this Saturday (August the 1^st) at Computicket for the price of R250 – which includes entrance to the main expo event. I won’t harp on too much about what you need to bring, or all the rules and regulations, but please make sure that your power cables have a red plug attached to them. No red plug means no power, and a powerless PC is about as exciting as dry toast. Just to be safe, don’t bank on there being any cables for sale at the venue: make sure you’ve sorted yourself out first by grabbing one from any decent hardware or department store. If you’ve got any other concerns, please read the FAQ on our forums. Last year, the tickets sold out in the first two weeks, so make sure you’re on the ball this year. If you somehow manage to miss out, however, you might still be able to snag a spot in the AGASA LAN if you or your clan are deemed worthy enough.

“Thanks Geoff, you’re so handsome and clever, but what can I expect to find at the LAN?” I hear you ask. As always, Vaalhooligan Crew (VC) will be in charge of the whole process, with hardware sponsored by D-Link and Intel, but that’s not what you’re asking, is it? No, you’re interested in the hundreds, if not thousands, of games that will be played during this 54 hour marathon, and that’s perfectly reasonable. The short answer is, we don’t know exactly what will be played, but you can expect pretty much every mainstream title to at least make an appearance. Call of Duty 4 and 5, Crysis, Team Fortress 2, Unreal Tournament 3, Quake 3, Counter-Strike and Half-Life 2, Demigod, Warcraft III and DotA, Red Alert 3, Command and Conquer 3, Starcraft and tons more. There will also be chill areas, food available for purchase and, of course, 1799 other gamers to chat to. Servers will be a mix of official, VC-hosted machines and private games between players, to ensure there’s a game to play even deep into the wee morning hours. There will also be a number of semi-official competitions running during the event. Keep an eye on the rAge section of the NAG forums, or look out for further information at the event.

Even if you’ve never been to rAge, there’s no better way to enjoy the show than from within a pile of like-minded individuals who want nothing more from their weekend than to play computer games.

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At least, that’s the pitch from the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, and if there’s anyone who knows the value of something, it’s these guys.

I, on the other hand, am not a chartered accountant. I’ve failed Accounts 101 three times and took matric maths on standard grade, so believe me when I tell you that I’m a prime candidate for a little “edutainment”. Yes, we’re looking at that wonderful little concept of combining learning with fun; not quite what you’d expect on a website like this, but it is a locally developed product with a positive goal in mind, which we’re all for. And it was either this, or editorial copy pasta, so let’s move on.

If you click on the advertisement to the right of this page or follow this link, you’ll find SAICA’s flash-based game called The Job from Hell. In this game, participants are thrown into the position of a bright-eyed graduate with all the hopes in the world who very quickly discovers the reality of starting from the bottom. Not the type to lose hope, our endearing hero instead puts his/her head down and gets on with some serious mathematics in the hope of working their way up the corporate ladder, and eventually become the big boss. This is where you come in.

The player has access to a number of mathematics minigames that range from those damnable “get 3 litres of water into these two inappropriately-sized jugs” to “my calculator is broken, please help me solve these equations!” When you’ve had enough of that, you get to take a 10-question mini-exam to impress the boss and possibly move up a rank. Complete all four ranks of progressively more challenging exams and you’ll enter into a monthly draw to win R1000. Oh, do I have your attention now?

Look familiar?

The game has attractive visuals but lets itself down a bit when it comes to grammar. I know that it’s aimed at promoting mathematics and accounting, but a little copy-editing never hurt anyone. In terms of the actual content, the questions can be pretty tough (SG maths here, remember that) and should give the lower-end of the target market (grade 8 students) a run for their money. On the upper end, if you’re a student in grade 12, a little time and an exam pad should be enough to see you well on your way to a thousand bucks.

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The magazine should be in store on the 30th of July. Enjoy!

Click here for the contents page in PDF (219KB)

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My question is: where have all the games gone? Why is it usually weeks or sometimes even months between the release dates of games for our modern consoles, when we used to see games hitting the shelves en-masse every month, six years ago? Well, I’ve been looking closely at the games we’ve been getting lately, and I’ve got some ideas of my own as to how this may have come about. This is purely speculation, of course, and I might be talking completely out of my ass, and there are probably more reasons for it than this alone.

Anyway, as far as I can see, the videogame industry is not what it once was. Fifteen years ago, small teams of as little as ten people, including programmers, sound designers, and artists, could easily produce games which pushed the limits of the hardware available at the time. The core team who developed the original Mortal Kombat (excluding the pen-pushers and everyone else on the publishing side of things) was only five people strong – and Mortal Kombat was considered ground-breaking for its time. In this environment, any small team of amateurs could pool together a little venture capital and start their own game studio, and many of them did just that. With so many small studios around trying to outdo one another, we were blessed with more games than even the big, international games magazines could keep up with.

However, as the years went by, advances in technology gifted us with ever more powerful and capable machines on which to play games. Suddenly, a team of two or three programmers just wasn’t enough any more, and the teams grew in size to more than ten programmers, each one specializing in a certain area. For example, they might have had one lot of programmers who handled the coding for the OpenGL side of their game, while another lot handled the Direct 3D side. Sound and music became much more complex, what with the rise of Surround Sound and so on, and suddenly it demanded programmers who specialized only in that.

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[Grab the contents PDF here]

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Our first Retro Review will be up shortly. We invite you to share your experiences with the game, tell us about how much you loved or hated it, and what made it special for you.

I’d like to thank Good Old Games for providing us with a few games to kick off our Retro Reviews. We’ll continue to use GOG as a major source for our classic titles, as they’ve managed to secure a number of high-quality games that would otherwise have dropped off the face of the planet. Whenever you see the “Get it at gog.com” icon on a review, that means the game is available for purchase (or, occasionally, for free) from gog.com – just click on the icon and you’ll go directly to the product page.

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In the old days before the Internet, piracy was perpetrated via the ever-reliable sneakernet. If you wanted to pirate a game, you had to obtain a physical copy. There were various countermeasures to this – user-manual word locations, decoder rings, map co-ordinates, even hardware dongles. And for a while this worked.

With the rise of gaming to a multi-billion-dollar industry, things today are vastly different from the time of huge stacks of 3.5″ discs in a box. The number of game players and titles has increased massively, the availability of entertainment software is extensive, and the amount of money involved as a whole is orders of magnitude greater. Add to this the ubiquity of the Internet, easy access to copyrighted software, and the anonymity of online activity. The result? Spiralling piracy.

The theft rate of some games can exceed 90%, and it’s not unusual for a popular game to be pirated well over a million times. This is a colossal figure, given that few titles can hope to sell a million copies.

Let’s take a brief look at a very small sample of torrent stats. This yields the following number of times Assault on Dark Athena has been illegally downloaded so far

PC: 74 000

Xbox 360: 950

PlayStation 3: 0 (no torrents found)

The PC is by far the leader in piracy. Why is this? By virtue of its very nature, gaming on the PC implies a certain level of technical savvy – anyone able to upgrade the graphics card in their computer will know how to use BitTorrent or Rapidshare. This makes a whole plethora of illegal software available with a minimum of effort. Download a game, install a crack, and you’re set. You risk being unable to play the game online, but that is a small price to pay. Piracy on consoles also occurs, but with a crucial caveat – it requires altering the hardware of the device itself, voiding your warranty in the process. Online gaming is also affected. And with the PS3′s Blu-Ray discs, the sheer size of the data often makes downloading impractical. Consequently, casual piracy is not likely to occur with console titles.

So why pay for something if you can obtain it free with little or no risk? Let’s look at some of the ways the industry is adjusting to the rampant rise of PC game piracy.

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All you need to do to receive one of these discs is send an email to comps@tidemedia.co.za with the following details (don’t worry, we won’t send you any spammy emails):

Subject line: NAG Online Red Faction demo

Do you own an Xbox 360? Yes/No

Full name:

Daytime telephone number:

Daytime delivery address:

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[ Click here for the contents in hi-resolution PDF ]

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Gunter Keller of Aston Manor
Robin de Villiers of Nigel
Paul Tree of Brackendowns
Johan Mynhardt of Bedfordview
Laurence da Silva of Somerset West

We hope you enjoy your prizes folks!

Our next competition should please all our flight simulator fans. We have five copies of Digital Combat Simulator: Black Shark to give away, courtesy of publisher The Fighter Collection and local distributor TCM Warehouse.

Simply SMS the word shark to 34110 and you could be one of five lucky winners to take home a copy of Digital Combat Simulator: Black Shark for the PC.

DCS: Black Shark is the latest flight simulator from Eagle Dynamics and The Fighter Collection that puts the player in control of one of the world’s deadliest combat helicopters – the Black Shark. Be sure to check out our review here.

Terms and conditions that entrants should be aware of:

• SMSes are charged at R2.00.
• Winners will be notified by SMS.
• The competition is open to South African residents only.
• Prizes are for PC only and are not transferable for cash.
• The competition closes on the 30th of June 2009.
• The judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

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Click here for the contents page in high resolution PDF [254KB]

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Let’s start with the new multiplayer maps. Nightfire is set in Berlin, which has been ravaged by the evils of war. The map takes place at night and the only light is provided by the fires burning throughout. The map has many buildings to hide (read: camp) in, but the streets of the city provide plenty of room for close-quarter skirmishes and thrilling firefights. Beware of campers hiding in their hidey-holes: the limited light sources in Nightfire make it a haven for those who like to hide in the darkest recesses to get their kills. The second map, Knee Deep, takes place in the Pacific Theatre. Expect to see more of the jungle that is so prominent in the other Japanese maps featured in the game. This map also offers numerous places to hide, but at the same time there is limited visibility thanks to copious amounts of foliage, so sniping is nerfed. The final multiplayer map is Station, which (who would’ve guessed) takes place in a bombed-out subway station. This map is essentially one long firing lane that snipers will appreciate (although the debris can hurt visibility), but it has a lot of potential for some heated CTF matches.

Right, let’s get down to what you’re all here for: Verrückt. Simply put – it’s amazing and greatly expands on what made the original zombie map, Nacht der Untoten, so popular and exciting. For those of you who don’t know, the Nazi Zombie mode in CoD: WaW sees players locked in a building which is being assaulted by horrendous numbers of Undead. Players have to keep the barricades on the windows repaired (along with some walls that the buggers can break through) while taking down the zombies. Players earn cash (or points) for rebuilding barricades that have been torn down, and for killing zombies. The money can be used to buy new weapons, open up new areas of the building, or to play the “magic box”, which essentially randomly picks a weapon that players can either take or leave in the box. The objective is to survive as many waves of zombies as possible, and the game is divided into rounds, with breaks in between during which players can restock their supplies. Players also have the ability to revive fallen teammates, but it takes time, leaving the person performing the heroics at risk. Occasionally, the zombies that are killed will drop power-ups in the form of a nuke (which obliterates any nearby zombies when it goes off), Double Points (players earn twice as much cash), Insta-Kill and Max Ammo (both of which are self-explanatory).

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Bulletstorm: 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 1024 | 1680 x 1050

Dead Rising 2: 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 1024 | 1680 x 1050

Call of Duty: Black Ops: 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 1024 | 1680 x 1050

StarCraft II (2 of 2): 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 1024 | 1680 x 1050

StarCraft II (1 of 2): 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 1024 | 1680 x 1050

God of War III: 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 1024 | 1680 x 1050

Spec Ops: The Line: 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 1024 | 1680 x 1050

Dead Space 2: 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 1024 | 1680 x 1050

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As time moves on, expect content from all forms of entertainment: film and DVD reviews, graphic novels and comic books, anime and manga, trading card and board games, news updates, and even a few sneak peeks inside the sanctity of Castle NAG.

If you follow the ‘Links’ button on the navigation bar above this article, you’ll be able to access additional content such as the NAG cover gallery – a collection of our prized covers, salvaged and scanned from a time long past, from the very first issue in April 1998 to the present day, with new covers added as they hit the shelves. If you’ve not yet had the pleasure, why not pay our forums a visit? For the Facebook users out there, click through to join the official NAG Facebook group and start chatting with other members of the community, as well as writers from our magazine.

Be sure to visit the site often; we’ll have new content on a regular basis, a massive feature article once a week, and plenty of competitions and hidden surprises to keep things interesting. We’ll also be providing a special preview of each new issue of NAG magazine before it’s available in stores. Feel free to sign up to the site so you can keep track of articles, post comments and take advantage of special offers coming at a later date. Please note that even if you have a forum account, you’ll need to re-register on the website in order to post comments.

We hope that you have a fantastic time and always find something of interest here at NAG Online. Building a website has certainly been an interesting experience for us, and is apparently not the exact science all those professional web designers claim it to be. Regardless, this marks the start of an exciting new journey for all of us at the magazine, and we’re proud to have you along for the ride.

-Geoff Burrows
Editor, NAG Online

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