It’s been confirmed. 3D Realms, the company behind the Duke Nukem franchise has closed it’s doors. Duke Nukem Forever has been under development for 12 years now, undergoing many engine changes and complete scrapping and restarts along the way.

With companies like EA reporting over a billion dollars in losses, it’s no wonder 3D Realms couldn’t find the necessary financial backing to finish off Duke Nukem Forever. 12 years is a huge amount of time and money to pour into a game.

I loved Duke Nukem when it first came out, spending many hours playing multiple games with my friends over 2400 baud modems. Hopefully, someone else will pick up the rights to the game and get it finished off. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another 12 years to see the final product!

You can read more about it here.

Wow! These scenes were rendered using CryENGINE 2’s Sandbox 2 World editor. Three talented artists came up with the scene from the science fiction classic Blade Runner which won them first prize in the “Scene from a Movie” competition. The detail is amazing.

For more information: Scenes from a Movie competition results
Technorati Profile

Microsoft have made their Release Candidate 1 of Windows 7 available for download. It will be available until the end of July. To download Windows 7 RC 1, you need to join up to the Customer Preview Program.

Release Candidate 1 will expire on June 1, 2010. Hopefully by that time we should all be using the Final release.

Recommended system specs: a 1GHz processor or faster, DirectX 9-enabled graphics processor with WDDM 1.0+, 1 GB RAM and 16GB of storage for a 32-bit installation, or 2 GB RAM and 20GB of storage for 64-bit.

Both the 32- and 64-bit versions of Release Candidate 1 are available in English, German, Japanese, French, and Spanish.

You can grab the 32 bit version here, or the 64 bit version here.

It should be noted that Release Candidate 1 and later versions will not be able to communicate with “pre-RC computers” remotely, because the default HTTP/HTTPS ports for WinRM and PowerShell have been changed.

My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20, then I upgraded to a Commodore 64, and then onto an Amiga 500. So you could say I was a bit of a Commodore fanboy in my younger days. The new incarnation of the Commodore company has released a series of Netbooks ranging from a 7″ up to 10″ displays.

Range

Commodore Kid

• 7”  Color Display
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
• Intel Atom Processor
• N270 Processor
• 1.6 GHz @ 533 MHz FSB
• 1 GB DDR
• 8 GB SD
• Wireless LAN 802.11b/g
• Built-in Wifi
• Battery: 3 cell Optional 6 Cell
• Weight: 1.6 lbs
• Multimedia: 1.3 MP camera, High definition audio speakers, digital array microphone
• Ports: 3 x USB 1.1, 1 x SD card Slot, 1 x Mic Jack
• Parental Control

Cruiser 8010 C

• Intel Atom Processor (1.6GHz @ 533 MHz FSB)
• N270 Processor
• 1 GB RAM
• 160 GB Harddrive
• Wireless LAN 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth
• Battery: 3 cell Optional 6 Cell
• Weight: 3.1 lbs
• Multimedia: 1.3 MP camera, High definition audio speakers, digital array microphone

Freestyle 8020 F

• 10” Color Display
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
• Intel Atom Processor (1.6Ghz @ 533 MHz FSB)
• N270 Processor
• 1 GB RAM
• 160 GB Harddrive
• Wireless LAN 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth
• Battery: 3 cell  Optional 6 Cell
• Weight: 3.1 lbs
• Multimedia: 1.3 MP camera, High definition audio speakers, digital array microphone
• Ports: 1 x 15-pin VGA port, 2 x Jacks (Mic in & Headphone out), 1 x LAN Port (RJ45), 3 x USB 2.0 Ports, 1 x DC-in port
• Light up Commodore logo

TRAVELER 8030J

• 10” Color Display
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
• Intel Atom Processor (1.6GHz @ 533 MHz FSB)
• N270 Processor
• 1 GB RAM
• 160 GB Harddrive
• Wireless LAN 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth
• Battery: 3 cell  Optional 6 Cell
• Weight: 2.6 lbs
• Multimedia: 1.3 MP camera, High definition audio speakers, digital array microphone
• Ports: 1 x 15-pin VGA port, 2 x Jacks (Mic in & Headphone out), 1 x LAN Port (RJ45), 3 x USB 2.0 Ports, 1 x DC-in port, Keystone Lock for system security

It’s nice to see Commodore make a come back and hopefully these new Netbooks are the start of better things to come.

For more information: Commodore

If you are currently testing Windows 7 Release Candidate and have a Nvidia graphics card, then you may want to download the latest Beta drivers (v185.81) for Windows 7 that were just released.

The update includes:

• Adds support for the new GeForce GTX 275 GPU.
• Adds support for Ambient Occlusion – the newest NVIDIA Control Panel feature to offer enhanced 3D gaming realism exclusively to GeForce GPUs.
• Adds support for CUDA 2.2 for improved performance in GPU Computing applications. See CUDA for more details.
• Expands GPU hardware acceleration for the NVIDIA Video Encoding library to GPUs with less than 32 cores. Applications using this library include CyberLink PowerDirector 7, Nero Move it 1.5, Loilo SuperLoiloScope MARS, and CyberLink MediaShow Espresso.
• Accelerates performance in several 3D applications. The following are examples of improvements measured with Release 185 drivers vs. Release 181 drivers (results will vary depending on your GPU, system configuration, and game settings):
  • Up to 25% performance increase in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
  • Up to 22% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with antialiasing enabled
  • Up to 11% performance increase in Fallout 3 with antialiasing enabled
  • Up to 14% performance increase in Far Cry 2
  • Up to 30% performance increase in Half-Life 2 engine games with 3-way and 4-way SLI
  • Up to 45% performance increase in Mirror’s Edge with antialiasing enabled
• Automatically installs the new PhysX System Software version 9.09.0408.
• Supports GeForce Plus Power Pack #3. Download these FREE PhysX and CUDA applications now!
• Numerous bug fixes. Refer to the release documentation notes.
• Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver here.

You can grab the 32 bit drivers here, or the 64 bit drivers here.