ASUS’s delayed launch of their HD 4870 based cards felt like the manufacturer was stringing gamers along with promises of giving NVidia some serious competition at a reasonable price yet failing to deliver.

The HD 4870 is a more budget oriented model that normally would result in lower performance along with a lower price point but the GDDR5 memory and a change from the 4850’s RV770 Pro chips to the less costly RV770 XT architecture puts a card into the sub $300 price range that is built to match NVIDIA’s 9800 GTX+ Line of cards.

There’s a review of the ASUS EAH4870 Radeon HD 4870 graphics card up on TechARP that gives all the spec munching details.

Fortunately, ATI finally delivered what they promised their fans for years – NVIDIA-thumping performance at a competitive price point.

ASUS currently offers three different Radeon HD 4870 models – the basic EAH4870, the EAH4870/G game bundle kit and the top-of-the-line EAH4870 TOP overclocked card. The card we are reviewing is the ASUS EAH4870/G, which essentially consists of the basic EAH4870 card and the “Alone In The Dark” game.

If you compare the specifications of the Radeon HD 4870 with that of the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+, you will see that the NVIDIA card has a 31.2% advantage in texture fillrate. However, the ASUS EAH4870 was still faster than it in every single benchmark we ran.

I know that as gamers we’re used to spending hundreds of dollars for the highest end hardware but it looks like ATI and ASUS might just deliver a piece of hardware worth the cash and reasonable enough that it won’t break my back trying to upgrade everything else to allow it to run.

The newest GameTap Original title, American McGee’s Grimm, consists of 24 individual standalone game episodes, each of which is based on a classic fairy tale such as Little Red Riding Hood or Beauty and the Beast.

The game’s main character, Grimm, is a crude dwarf who believes that the lessons offered in the original tellings of famous fairy tales have been lost over time as the stories have been watered down with talking woodland creatures and Happily Ever After endings for all of the characters – whether they deserve it or not. As Grimm, players transform these toothless interpretations of the tales into dark and twisted versions of the story.

The first Volume of American McGee’s Grimm will consist of eight standalone episodes, which will be released weekly as follows:

• July 31                        A Boy Learns What Fear Is  (currently free to play!)
• August 7                    Little Red Riding Hood  (free to play for the first 24 hours after launch)
• August 14                  The Fisherman and His Wife
• August 21                  Puss In Boots
• August 28                  The Girl Without Hands
• September 4               Godfather Death
• September 11             The Devil and His Three Golden Hairs
• September 18             Beauty and the Beast

For more information on subscription games and the full list of 143 free games available on GameTap, visit the official site.

Happy Mediocrity Day, all! I mean it must be a special day of sorts if we’re getting two demos on Xbox Live for games that were released already and apparently weren’t all that great anyway. Yes, today 360 owners will be able to experience a bit of the new Alone in the Dark game, which apparently features a few shining bits of innovation hampered by awkward control issues. Also you’ll get to check out Wall-E, which is based on a Disney movie (’nuff said). At least they’re starting to crank out some interesting new titles for the XBLA this month.

Via Major Nelson

With all of the excitement around E3, we somehow managed to completely overlook our favorite weekly snarkfest, Zero Punctuation. But never fear, for here is yesterday’s jam-packed edition, which takes on Alone in the Dark.

While Yahtzee did find a few redeeming qualities (like its lovely fire physics and the fact that it comes in a box), he didn’t manage to finish it, refusing to use the game’s feature to skip through chapters. It’s a good idea on paper, but taking into account what it was that caused him to stop playing, you’d probably be better off just moving onto another game rather than trying to see if it can one-up its already intolerably stupid fetch quests.

The File-N-Forget Podcast returns this week as we ramp up for our upcoming E3 coverage. With Metal Gear Solid 4 now established in the market and fans going gaga over it, Ron and Shawn give their quick impressions of it along with Battlefield: Bad Company and Alone in the Dark.

Bigger questions loom however as we discuss the state of E3 and what we think might happen in years to come.

There are also Rants & Raves to make the fanboys happy.

This weeks show is available by direct download here.

As always, you can get past episodes from our podcast page at http://podcast.filefront.com, and you can send your comments, questions, suggestions, or snarky comments to podcast@filefront.com.

File-N-Forget is also available on the iTunes Music Store.

Great lineup of games for this week’s 1UP Show, with three big name games fighting for your attention. You can expect Dan Hsu to get the answers to your questions about Gears 2 directly from the face of the franchise, Cliff Bleszinski.

If that’s not your thing, then perhaps a little Battlefield: Bad Company talk will interest you? I think the general consensus is that the game’s trailers have been hilarious — who doesn’t like poking fun at Metal Gear Solid, Rainbow Six and Gears of War, after all? — but that won’t count for much if the game doesn’t live up to the franchise’s name. David Ellis and Shawn Elliott will discuss.

And finally, the newest addition to the lineup of 1UP podcasts, 1UP FM, gets a major plug during the segment featuring Atari’s Alone in the Dark.

Now make with the downloading and check out this week’s 1UP Show in the format of your choice:

QT M4V (Podcast)
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QT 640×360

Alone in the Dark hits stores today folks for the Xbox 360, PC, Wii and PS2.  The PS3 version is currently scheduled for release in autumn 2008.

Developed by Eden Games, Alone in the Dark for Xbox 360 and PC follows paranormal investigator Edward Carnby over the course of one apocalyptic night in which he must fight to survive and uncover the earth-shattering secret behind New York’s Central Park.  With environmental interaction, fire physics as a core gameplay element, and a DVD chapter select feature which lets everyone reach the game’s climax, survival horror and intense action make for great bedfellows.

The Wii and PS2 versions of Alone in the Dark were developed by Hydravision Entertainment in parallel with versions created by Eden Games for Xbox 360 and PC. The PS2 game pushes the hardware to maximize the gameplay experience, while the Wii game has been specially adapted to make use of the unique controllers for gameplay that ranges from driving to real-time manipulation of objects.

I was really looking forward to this game, but with the reviews it has been getting I may just end up renting it instead.

Via: Press Release

Loads of different titles are coming out starting tomorrow, and we have the full list for you right here. Looks like it is going to be an interesting week in gaming, so let us know what you plan on purchasing.

June 22

• Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS)
• Rock Band (Wii)
• Rock Band: Special Edition (Wii)

June 23

• American Girl Kit Mystery Challenge (DS)
• Battlefield: Bad Company (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Battlefield: Bad Company Gold Edition (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath (Xbox 360)
• Supreme Commander(Xbox 360)
• The SimCity Box (PC)
• The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff (PC)
• Top Spin 3 (DS, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)

June 24

• 1 vs. 100 (DS)
• Alone in the Dark (PC, PS2, Xbox 360, Wii)
• Baseball Mogul 09 (PC)
• Big Beach Sports (Wii)
• Cake Mania 2 (DS)
• Elements (PC)
• Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (DS)
• Gears of War: Refresh (Xbox 360)
• Gourmet Chef (DS)
• Hail to the Chimp (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Hellboy: The Science of Evil (PSP, PS3, Xbox 360)
• Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker X Ninja (DS)
• Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker X Saurian (DS)
• Midnight Play Pack (DS)
• My Weight Loss Coach (DS)
• Naruto Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress (PSP)
• Operation Darkness (Xbox 360)
• Overlord: Raising Hell (PS3)
• Purr Pals (Wii)
• Wall-E    (DS, PC,PSP, PS2, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360)

June 26

• Deadliest Catch: Alaskan  Storm (PC)

June 27

• In the Shadow of the Raven 2 (PC)
• Samurai Warriors 2 (PC)

All release dates are subject to availability, so some may be in stores on the day listed, the day before, or the day after so check with wherever you purchase your games because shipping times vary.

It stands to reason that the Wii version of Alone in the Dark is going to have a different control scheme than the other versions, but I didn’t realize just how far they were going with incorporating the motion controls. From the looks of this trailer, just about every other in-game action will involve some clever use of the motion controls from using the Nunchuk to aim your flashlight to replicating the motions to hotwire a car. And of course you can wave the Wii-mote to slash a weapon at enemies, ensuring this will get labeled as a murder simulator by someone. That’s not going to make me get the Wii version necessarily, but it is nice to see a developer incorporating the Wii-mote’s controls a bit differently. Unless they include a leather jacket in the package, that is; then it’s a must-buy.

Atari made me and some other gamers pretty happed today when they announced that development is complete on the action survival game Alone in the Dark, and the game is on track to ship June 24th for North America and June 20th for Europe. Alone in the Dark will be made available for the PC, PS2, Xbox 360 and the Wii – therefore everyone will be able to get in on the scary fun. PS3 users will get their version sometime this Fall.

The Wii and PS2 versions of Alone in the Dark have been developed by Hydravision Entertainment in parallel with the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows games created by Eden Studios. The Wii game has been especially adapted to make use of the unique controllers in a variety of gameplay situations from driving to the real-time manipulation of objects.

So mark the date off on your calenders folks because Alone in the Dark looks like it will close the month of June out on a -hopefully- terrifying note. You can view more of the latest screens for the game by clicking here.

Via: Press Release