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AMD today reduced the prices on processor models across the board from its Turion 64 notebook processors all the way to its flagship X2 dual core product line, with the steepest price drops in the aforementioned Turion line. Notable price drops include the Athlon 64 X2 4800+, dropping 11% to $803 and X2 3800+ down 7% to $328, offering a cheap dual core solution. No price drops were seen in the value oriented 3000+ through 3500+ Socket 939 market. In fact, the 2800+ and 3000+ models will be phased out and were dropped from price charts.

View: All Charts @ DigiTimes

Day 1, Part 1 (continued)

"Today I will be covering many topics, one including the Xbox 360. I had the chance to get my hands on a console today with the latest Need for Speed game, and I can tell you it will be the first game I purchase with my 360 in November.

So stay tuned for updates posted throughout the weekend."

Day 1, Part 2

"Once I picked up my pass and getting past a few snags (fire alarm going off, no WiFi access), the event finally kicked off.

After browsing the floor and reviewing some games (which I will be posting later on today), I decided to head up to one of the first conferences ran by the Game Developers Conference with speakers from THQ, Climax, and the Game Developer Magazine (I the first one was about girls in gaming and decided to skip it mainly due to the fact that I'm sure there would have been no girls there). I honestly haven't been listening to the conference as I have been typing this entry, but the jist is information on how to get your foot into the game developing world. I've heard many conferences about this topic, but let me outline the basic idea on getting into the game industry:

• Keep your portfolio short and simple
  
• Build rapport inside the gaming industry with game developers
  
• Educational degrees are good, but proof of concept (game mods, etc.) is better
  
• Never lie about your background or degrees you have (obvious, but they really stressed this)
  
• Be passionate about what you do

I'll report back later from the field on some other interesting topics such as next generation gameplay and my quick reviews on some new Xbox 360 games."

Day 1, Part 3

"Well I’m honestly dead tired. There was so much stuff there and so many people hindering me from getting my hands on some of the latest games.

Before I continue, I just want to say I had this entire portion of the article already written up, but it was lost when my fingers slipped and hit Apple+Q (close the program on a Mac). So if I miss anything, don’t be coming to me and giving me a hard time.

The first item up on the block is an interesting, unique game: Guitar Hero [PS2, November] [Image of controller] [Image of game]
Now you may have played a game similar to this in your friendly neighborhood arcade. You’ve got your basic guitar controller (which is actually a decent sized guitar) with five multi-colored buttons located on the top of the guitar. At the bottom you have a switch and a lever.

The game acts a lot like DDR (certain arrow gets to bottom of screen, you act) with the exception that you wait for the certain color to arrive at the bottom of the screen and then act by holding down the button that corresponds with the color and push the switch (which moves like a guitar pick giving you a brushing of the strings feeling) when the color arrives at the bottom. Eventually when you gain enough “rock points”, you can tilt the guitar vertically and enter “star mode” where all points are doubled.

This game is great for casual gamers. You can go on easy mode and relax by playing your favorite songs, or enter hard mode and master the guitar. I can easily recommend this game.
--Game URL: http://www.redoctane.com/

Next up on the block is a game I had high hopes for: America’s Army – Rise of a Soldier [Xbox/PS2, Fall]

Now for fans of the PC version, you may be a little disappointed. According to the America’s Army representative I spoke to, Rise of a Soldier features a brand new engine, single player campaign, and a clever A.I. system. One thing that was lost in this partial-port was the pretty decent Unreal 2 engine. During the training mission I was pretty familiar with, I noticed that the soldier who was speaking didn’t open his mouth once. It was plastered shut. Now I know that’s not a big deal, but it shows you what was cut in this “new engine”. Honestly, this game is aimed for console-only gamers who have never played America’s Army on a PC.

So if you play it on the PC and have no reason to get it for the console, just don’t get it.
--Game URL: http://www.riseofasoldier.com/

Here comes the sequel to a fun game: Far Cry: Instincts [Xbox, Now]

This isn’t the only game they had on show that had already been released (in fact they had some really old games setup for gaming as well), but it gave me a chance to finally check out what the reviews have been featuring, such as the new map editor for multiplayer action. I haven’t had a chance to get a hand on approach to Instincts, but the editor looks great, as well as the game’s user interface and graphics. With a title that has already seen a floor release, there is not much to say that hasn’t already been said. Instincts is a game to grab for sure.
--Game URL: http://www.farcrygame.com/us/farcryinstincts/

That’s all I’m going to cover for Saturday. Tomorrow I will get into topics such as the new 50 Cent: Bulletproof game, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, and information about how to break into video game journalism.

To end on a fun note, lets throw in a picture of some booth babes of IGN Live with one of our very own Neowin members (not me)!

Photos courtesy Kyle "dacracka" Rey"

Day 2, Part 1

"Since I covered a vast majority of information yesterday, there’s only a few items I want to cover today (one reason for this is because I bailed early and spent the rest of the day at Disney Land).

The first thing I want to speak upon is the new 50 Cent: Bulletproof game. They had a special preview of what looked like a scene from the first level in the game, as well as a look at the interface.

Let me get this out first: I really do not like this game at its current production state. My opinion may change when I get the chance to play it after it is released, but it sticks until then. The game is filled with glitches and things that just do not make sense. Lets cover a few of them…

1. Collision System
How cool is it to run right through someone? In this game, you get that chance! Simple run up to your enemy/friend and bam, right through to the other side. The game also features a close combat stabbing system, which once entering the stabbing animation mode, may or may not show the knife actually going into the body of your enemy.

2. Inaccuracies
This is only a small thing, but it stuck out in my mind the most. In the game, 50 Cent hangs with his crew (which is G-Unit from what I remember). One of your crew is a demolitions expert (each member has their own special skill). So during a point in a mission, you give them a command to place a demolition charge on a door to blow it open. Once the charge is placed and detonated, the crowed suddenly started looking at each other with confused faces. Why? Because when you blow something up, the item being exploded usually travels away from the explosives. Place explosive on outside of door, explosion pushes door inside (or shatters). Not in this case. In Bulletproof, the explosion pushed the door towards the outside. Yeah, enough on that strange oddity.

So that’s all I want to cover on Bulletproof. So far the game seems like a rehash of your average shoot ‘em up game, but as I mentioned before: My opinion could very well change after it’s released. The graphics actually looked decent, and controls simple to use. You can also play over one hundred songs through the in-game player, and unlock over a dozen music videos. The game also stars musicians such as Eminem and Dr. Dre.
--Game URL: http://www.50centbulletproof.com

Now another game I’m just going to cover real quickly is: Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. I unfortunately did not have a chance to play it since all of the Modern Combat kiosks were extremely popular. What I will say is that the new maps look great, the console interface was simple to use and easy to pick your spawn locations, and communication through the Xbox Live headsets worked great. Other than that, curse you gamers who didn’t give up a kiosk to me!
--Game URL: http://www.battlefield.ea.com/BF2MC/home/?lang=us

An interesting title up for play was: King Kong. They had consoles setup for both the Xbox and the Xbox 360. Now I’m not sure how far along the game is, but the levels I played looked pretty darn completed.

An interesting thing about this game is that it seems to have no user interface. No health bar, no crosshair, nothing. It’s just you, your gun (or a 3rd person view of King Kong if you’re playing that portion of the game), and the world. This could be a clever move that will work well, or it could be something that cripples the game.

Now I will say that the graphics were very impressive on the Xbox 360. The atmosphere, the rain, the ground, it was all perfect…though I’m sure that’s something we’ll be seeing on all Xbox 360 releases (excluding the new Tony Hawk game). I did notice some loss in the frames per second during some scenes. While it only happened once, it’s not something I really expected on a fresh Xbox 360 release.

Other than some of the issues pointed above, this looks to be a game to watch out for. I watched as one gamer played as King Kong and gave a brutal beating to a T-Rex. Playing as an oversized gorilla and giving a T-Rex the smack down has its perks.
--Game URL: http://www.kingkonggame.com

The event may be over, but I will have one more article, which should be a little shorter than this one about different ways you can improve your chances getting into gaming journalism. I’d include it in this piece, but I have a fifteen-hour drive I need to get started on. You can expect the last piece either Monday or Tuesday night."