Tech Jawa > Reviews

My first game review for Techjawa.com is on the new Splinter Cell: Conviction.

The game follows the story of Sam Fisher as he tries to learn the truth behind the death of his daughter, among other things. Having not played a Splinter Cell title for quite some time, due to the fact that I’m not a very “stealthy” player, SC:C brings a lot to the table. The game no longer revolves around having to be 100% stealthy, now allowing players to “run and gun”. That doesn’t mean that you no longer need to use the shadows to aid Fisher. The game has added a new feature known as “Mark and Execute” where a player may target a certain number of enemies (varies by weapon) and execute them with a button press. The good thing about the mark and execute is that it can not be used for every take down, which would make the game a bit easier and more redundant. The execute ability must be recharged by using hand to hand moves on the enemies, which requires you to use your good old stealthy tricks if you wish to live. There is also the “Last known position” in the game. When spotted by an enemy, Fisher can duck back behind cover which automatically activates the last known position. Enemies will attack where they last saw Fisher giving you the opportunity to sneak into the shadows and flank them. There are instances in the game where you get to interrogate different people for information. During this time you receive information from the given character, and when they no longer wish to talk you can press the “interrogate” button to persuade them. The way in which you persuade depends on where you decide to stand in the room, using pianos, tables and even urinals to get the job done. You may also upgrade your weapons as well as change which pistol and secondary weapon you are carrying by using the various weapon stashes placed along the route of the game. If you can’t find a weapons stash and are looking for a gun with a little more “kick”, you can always pick up one of the enemy’s weapons. No Splinter Cell game would be complete without the gadgets either! So far I have only unlocked a limited amount of these gadgets, some of which include EMP grenades and remote mines. I hope to get my hands on the sonar goggles that were available in the game’s demo soon.

Overall the game seems to be well put together and has a good story line thus far. The game does play smoothly and the controls are simple enough to get comfortable with in just a few minutes. The game does hold a bit of difficulty in the single player campaign, where I have died numerous times already. This personally makes me want to play the game more as I love the challenge, especially since I’m currently playing on the normal difficulty.

A warning to parents: Almost every sentence that comes from the enemies of the game seem to contain cursing, and they talk quite a bit.

My next review coming soon will cover the multiplayer aspects of the game, so stay tuned!

During this past summer I was searching for a new storage solution to replace my Dell PowerEdge 1800 server. I had this system loaded up with 6x Western Digital 1TB hard drives in 2x RAID 5 arrays which gave me about 3.6 TB of usable storage between the 2 arrays. I used to backup the various PCs in my home as well as to stream files across my home network. This system had been working rock-solid for about a year and 1/2, but sadly I began to run out of space.

I was faced with a dilemma of how to increase my storage capacity in the easiest and safest way possible, in the hopes of not losing any of my files. I thought about buying 3x 1.5 TB hard drives, backing up the data on the array to multiple external hard drives, re-creating the array with the new hard drives, and finally copying all of the data to the new array from the external hard drives. I saw two issues with doing this:

1) This process would be very time consuming

2) I would have to copy my data back and forth which would increase my chance of missing files and/or corrupting my data.

Aside from that, I was faced with the option of purchasing a new storage solution. The more I considered my options, the more I realized how much better of an idea this was. By getting some sort of storage array I could eliminate a power-hungry server from the electrical bill! So I began investigating…

All the solutions I kept coming across would, technically, do the trick. I had one major gripe about all the ones I was reading into, all were RAID 5. This would pretty much put me back into the same situation I started in. I would have to purchase all of my hard drives up front, they would all have to be the same size, speed, etc. which added to the cost substantially. I was then tipped off to the DroboPro by Data Robotics, Inc.

The DroboPro is an 8-bay storage solution that has redundancy built in and manages itself, and if that wasn’t great enough, it uses Data Robotics “BeyondRAID” technology. Put simply, you can use any size/ speed/ brand SATA drive in the unit and it will automatically handle the redundancy and setup of the disk. Another great feature of the BeyondRAID technology is that you can add a disk at any time, not so with traditional RAID setups. The unit has several options as far as connections: USB 2.0, FireWire 800, and Ethernet for iSCSI. All of this is packed neatly into an esthetically pleasing 1ft x 1ft x 6in case.

After much debate and online price comparison, I purchased a DroboPro in October 2009.

I salvaged a WD 2TB hard drive from an external enclosure, purchased a second one, and also used a 1TB drive that I got back as part of an RMA. Setting up the DroboPro could not have been simpler, all I had to do was pop the front (magnetic) cover off and insert the drives into the hot swap bays. Power the unit up, it ran it’s initial startup and configuration then a healthy approx. 2.5TB drive showed under My Computer.

Since then I have added 2 more 1TB hard drives (thank you black friday) as well as a 250gb I had lying around bringing my storage capacity up to 4.7TB. Sadly, Christmas Eve one of my 2TB hard drives was reported as failed in the DroboPro, no worries however. Once the DroboPro detected the failed drive it automatically removed it from the pool of drives and began making sure that all the data was safe and redundant once again. I replaced the bad drive with a new one and RMA’d the failed drive, the DroboPro automatically recognized the new drive and began to rebuild the array instantly. All the while, there was zero downtime where the DroboPro was inaccessible, I was still able to access my files as I would if everything was running as normal.

In this one event the DroboPro proved to me that I had made a wise investment. I consider that, had that drive just been installed in my desktop, it would have not been properly backed up and if I had an up-to-date backup I would have had an hour or two of downtime when I would have had to power down my PC, crack open the case and reconfigure the hardware and then proceeded with getting all my files back in order. Not to mention having to do it all over again to reinstall the new hardware once the RMA came back.

My DroboPro gives me piece of mind knowing that all my data is safe and backed up and easily accessible. All in all, I feel that I have made a great purchase on a rock-solid unit that will last me for years to come.

Overall Rating:

Gunnar Optiks claims to have developed technology that reduces fatigue on the eyes during long hours in front of a computer screen, gaming, ect. I must say, they do not disappoint. The pair I recently purchased are the MLG Phantom’s. They use what Gunnar calls i-AMP technology which reduces glare, makes the important colors pop, and tones down the violent ones which cause headache, eye fatigue, and overall pain. As a very avid competitive gamer, I found these a pretty necessary purchase. I found myself using them in game and out of game. As a full time Graphic Designer, wearing the Gunnar’s helps me focus for extended periods of times without having to constantly look from the screen to let my eyes readjust and rest.

At first, I really debated and wondered how well something of this nature could work. I will say I was most certainly surprised when they worked as expected. I will honestly say I thought it to be one large gimmick to up sales and rake in a fortune. This is not the case in the slightest.

In terms of gaming will they increase your performance? Well I will say this, if you suck, you’re still going to suck. What the Gunnar’s will allow you to do is suck no worse than you already do over an extended period of time in front of the screen. After a period of time with the joysticks pushed forward and the triggers down, your eyes will not be able to react to situations quite as fast due to the simple idea of fatigue. No one really understands it, no one really understood how to correct it until Gunnar released this fabulous line of products. When your eyes get tired, your game gets worse. You miss that clutch snipe or that blur on your screen was an opponent you couldn’t call out to a teammate because you simply thought your 2nd bag of Pizza Rolls was having an adverse effect on your skills.

You will have to get used to the glasses before you begin to notice a difference, things will seem a bit weird and your eyes will have to focus through a new lens. Though it is well worth the $80 dollars I paid. I highly recommend and suggest the Gunnar Optiks even if you just want to reduce fatigue on your eyes in front of the computer.

You can find the full line of glasses and more information at Gunnar Optiks

Stay tuned next week for my review of KontrolFreek’s FPS sticks.