Despite FireFox having thousands of happy users, I have never been one of them. I am one of those people who will sometimes have more than ten webpages open at any one time and then leave them open on my computer overnight. This meant that FireFox's memory issues always blighted my attempts at using it as my primary browser. So it was with absolute delight that I discovered FireFox 3 (currently Beta 4 with Beta 5 coming soon) has solved all of that.
FireFox 3 Beta 4 is fast and responsive under all conditions. Websites like Google Maps, Digg and IGN that used to be super sluggish under IE and FF2, are now just as fast as any other website. I will even go as far as to say just as fast as a plain text blog.
So if you want to give the beta a go, you can Download A Copy Here. But be warned, I have found that it doesn't work with the new Yahoo Mail (I am using the classic view) and I have had the beta crash twice in the few days I have been using it for no apparent reason. This hasn't been a problem however because it remembers the pages that where open at the time of the crash, but despite all that FF3B4 is my current primary browser over IE7, FF2, Safari and Opera.
Showing posts with label Beta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beta. Show all posts
Monday, March 24, 2008
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Team Fortress 2 Beta First Impressions
TF2 is awesome, the pacing on the combat is slower than most, which I love (isn't twitch based gameplay). The nine classes of characters are all balanced well with advantages and disadvantages to them all, meaning that although the guy with the Minigun can kill lots of people, because of his slow speed he isn't likely to complete any objective before he dies (unless he teams up with a medic).
The graphics look good and surprisingly the game runs well on my system (GeForce6, 2GHz, 1GB) which is great because when I tried the Quake Wars Demo last week, even with all the settings off and on low, the game still ran just above unplayable.
Before the Beta was launched there was some concern as to wither this was a true Beta or just an exclusive demo as there is only a month left before the game is available for purchase from retail. But no, TF2 is most certainly a beta, the game has lots of stability issues and the TF2 Forum is filled with people having issues. I myself haven't finished a whole game yet as it keeps freezing and crashing. I recommend running TF2 in window mode instead of fullscreen so when the game does freeze it is easier to get to the Task Manager.
I wasn't expecting much, and I only bought The Orange Box for Portal, but I have been pleasantly surprised.
The graphics look good and surprisingly the game runs well on my system (GeForce6, 2GHz, 1GB) which is great because when I tried the Quake Wars Demo last week, even with all the settings off and on low, the game still ran just above unplayable.
Before the Beta was launched there was some concern as to wither this was a true Beta or just an exclusive demo as there is only a month left before the game is available for purchase from retail. But no, TF2 is most certainly a beta, the game has lots of stability issues and the TF2 Forum is filled with people having issues. I myself haven't finished a whole game yet as it keeps freezing and crashing. I recommend running TF2 in window mode instead of fullscreen so when the game does freeze it is easier to get to the Task Manager.
I wasn't expecting much, and I only bought The Orange Box for Portal, but I have been pleasantly surprised.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Flight Simulator X Beta
I just got my beta key for Flight Simulator X and the download is 8.2GB!!!
On my download stream of 250KB/s that's nine and a half hours!!!
Additional: Didn't get around to playing any of the beta because the install was just too big.
On my download stream of 250KB/s that's nine and a half hours!!!
Additional: Didn't get around to playing any of the beta because the install was just too big.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
XNA Studio Beta1
I just finished having a play with SpaceWar, the XNA redux version of 1962 original. Seems poinient to use the worlds first direct input video game as the starter kit game (starter kit means that the code has more comments than usual).
Anyway if you are curious to know what XNA looks like, below is a screenshot.
Yes it's just C# Express with a project loaded. If you want to give it a go Here is a link to the beta, but you are also going to need to install C# Express and the DirectX Software Development Kit before you are able to play around with it properly.
Anyway if you are curious to know what XNA looks like, below is a screenshot.
Yes it's just C# Express with a project loaded. If you want to give it a go Here is a link to the beta, but you are also going to need to install C# Express and the DirectX Software Development Kit before you are able to play around with it properly.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Another Reason To Stay Up
I WAS going to go bed, but I just checked my email and got my Battlefield 2142 Beta Key!
Been reading the Licence Agreement (hay it's a 1.2GB download) and the Confidentiality Agreement stops me from posting screenshots:
Been reading the Licence Agreement (hay it's a 1.2GB download) and the Confidentiality Agreement stops me from posting screenshots:
(ii) you will not use the Beta-Test Materials for any purpose other than for EvaluationSo although subsection two alone doesn't say anything about not publicly evaluating the beta by posting details here, subsection four stops me from doing that. And there is another part that says I can only review the beta material for the purposes of evaluating the product as part of the beta program which means I can't say anything about it here either. Darn those lawyers, they think of everything.
(iv) you will carry out the Evaluation personally and will not provide access to the Beta-Test Materials to any other person
Monday, August 14, 2006
XNA Studio Express
On August the 30th Microsoft will be releasing Beta 1 of XNA Studio Express that is a feature cut version of XNA Studio Professional so that anybody can make games for their PC using more centralised tools.
When the product is released later this year users will be able to pay Microsoft $99 to join the "Creators Club" which will probably have documentation and a forum for people who are trying to make games using XNA studio, but will also allow members to run their code directly on the XBox360.
The press release is Here
The language or languages that Microsoft will be supporting or providing documentation for has not yet been said, but to put a slight lid on a lot of the excitement people have been having today about the prospect of making games at home, game development up until now has only been done well by teams of dedicated individuals for a reason and although this centralises all the tools and skills necessary to produce a game I don't think it is going to make the task any smaller.
When the product is released later this year users will be able to pay Microsoft $99 to join the "Creators Club" which will probably have documentation and a forum for people who are trying to make games using XNA studio, but will also allow members to run their code directly on the XBox360.
The press release is Here
The language or languages that Microsoft will be supporting or providing documentation for has not yet been said, but to put a slight lid on a lot of the excitement people have been having today about the prospect of making games at home, game development up until now has only been done well by teams of dedicated individuals for a reason and although this centralises all the tools and skills necessary to produce a game I don't think it is going to make the task any smaller.
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