PC-exclusive gamers have been left behind in all the sledgehammering fun of Red Faction: Guerrilla, but that's change in a couple of months as THQ has finally announced a release date for the game's PC version. Hit the full article for the date as well as the game's minimum and recommended specs.

Ubisoft has announced the minimal and recommended hardware requirements for the PC version of Far Cry 2. It's no Crysis, don't worry. Anyhow, check out the full article for the enumerated specs.

And it's the good type of penny-pinching goodness you'll probably get this early into fall. Word has it in the hardware enthusiast community that Intel has ordained new pricings on the market's most popular processors, including those of Xeons and Celeron. Core 2 Duos and Quads have been seen with much lower tags, meaning there's hope for a visit to the local hardware retail shop this fall. Price changes await at the full story.

This month will be the launch of the Creature Creator for Will Wright's Spore, and the evolution simulator is set to touch two thirds of the PC population: Windows and Mac. What we have here are for gamers on both segments, though several Linux players might be interested as well. Are your Windows (emulation or non-emulation) and Mac rigs ready? The system requirements to run EA Maxis' masterpiece follows at the full story.

Blizzard has sent out word debunking the rumored tech specs for StarCraft 2 that were first seen in Spanish gaming mag Micromania. More details in the full article.

Capcom's modern remake for the 1988 classic Bionic Commando is in no way coming short for PC gamers around the globe, although it will require a good machine to run the technology and content the game packs. Just to set the record straight, Capcom's Gearoid Reidy divulged the minimum specifications to keep GRIN's Bionic Commando Rearmed (not the Bionic Commando sequel, mind you) playable. This story and more when you hit the full story.

 

In today's E For All show, popular printer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard showed off its first extreme gaming PC called the Blackbird 002. This rig comes equipped with some of the best tools in the industry, which should make even the highest-end titles (e.g. Crysis) a piece of cake to run.

The brains of this extreme gaming PC is an Intel Core 2 Duo/Extreme/Extreme Quad-core (whichever you can afford) processor complemented by 4GB of DDR2 RAM and two Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics cards in SLI-mode. It packs a proprietary 1.1 kilowatt power supply, a proprietary 3x PCI-E n680i motherboard, on-board Creative Xi-Fi Extreme 7.1 audio (Fatal1ty or Xtreme Gaming), and like all hobbyist PCs, it will cost you your body, your mind and your soul to own one. The beast is currently housed at HP's E For All booth - number 2023.

If you were impressed with this monster from HP, there's more still to come. VoodooPC was recently acquired by HP, and some of the gaming PC maker's gear will be on display in later times during the inaugural E For All. We'll keep you posted for more PC gaming news.

  

For those itching to take CD Projekt's The Witcher for a spin, heads up: here are the game's minimum and recommended system requirements, as unveiled by none other than the game's official website. You might want to take a closer look and see if your gaming rig is up to scratch for what could be one of the darker RPG experiences to date.

Minimum requirements:

• Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, Vista (Operating System must be up to date with the latest fixes)
• Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz or AMD Athlon 64 +2800
• 1 GB RAM for Microsoft Windows XP / 1536 MB for Microsoft Windows Vista
• 128 MB Video RAM or greater with DirectX9 Vertex Shader/ Pixel Shader 2.0 support (NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon 9800 or better)
• 8.5 GB available hard drive space
• DirectX 9.0c compliant soundcard, plus speakers or headphones
• DVD-Rom

Recommended requirements:

• Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, Vista (Operating System must be up to date with the latest fixes)
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz or AMD X2 5600+
• 2 GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or ATI Radeon X1950 PRO
• 8.5 GB available hard drive space
• DirectX 9.0c compliant soundcard, plus speakers or headphones
• DVD-Rom

Not that painful a list to look at, in terms of the gap between the minimum and recommended requirements. Besides the rather hefty space you need to free up on your hard drive, everything looks reasonable and within reach. And going by how good The Witcher currently looks, we're certainly glad you don't need something like a Cray hooked up to your PC to play it.

If you've always wanted the raw, unadulterated power of a hardcore gaming PC on the go but can't stand the thought of dragging along your clunky tower cased computer, Voodoo has something for you. Introducing the Voodoo Envy H:171 gaming laptop. It packs almost the same punch and features that you'll need to run the most high-requirement apps out there.

The cornerstone of the unit is its Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X6800 processor that powers up the gaming experience as efficiently as most desktops can. The CPU is partnered with the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 and 200GB of hard drive space to accommodate the content that you want in the laptop.

The Envy is also armed with a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and a 17-inch screen. The only downside would be the default RAM which comes in at 512MB. That's not a number you'd want if you expect to run games like Call of Duty 4. The RAM can be upgraded to 1GB but you'll have to pay extra.

At the suggested retail price of US$ 2,600 this is not the machine for the PC gamer on a tight budget. If you have the hots for it and the cash to spare, then go right ahead and get one now.

Alienware has announced that they have once again broken new ground with the shipment of the new Area-51 m9750 17-inch notebook.

The Area-51 m9750 is the first 17-inch notebook in the world that fuses the graphics capabilities of dual 512MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX graphics cards with NVIDIA SLI technology and Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors. Other features of the Area-51 m9750 include the following:

• Lightning-quick frame rates and standout image quality with dual NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX 512MB graphics cards with NVIDIA SLI technology.
• Multitasking to the max, thanks to the latest Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors, which deliver 20 percent higher performance than previous-generation Intel Core Duo processors.
• The ability to store massive amounts of content, including games, TV programming, movies and music on dual hard drives packing up to 500GB of storage space.
• An abundance of multimedia features, including an ultra-sharp 17" widescreen display with Clearview technology, an integrated webcam and an integrated TV tuner with full DVR functionality.
• Vivid Blu-ray Disc movie playback using NVIDIA PureVideo™ HD technology for 6x the detail of standard DVD movies.

The Area-51 m9750 17-inch notebook is now available for prices starting at US$ 2,099 at the Alienware website.