Mind of UPSLynx for the week of January 10th

Bobby Miller 15 Jan, 2010 at 10:59am ET Article published in Tech

Icrontic blood is once again being shed on the battle field. When you’re down to 10 health and a Heavy rounds the corner with chaingun spinning to spew a hail of lead, will you know whose team you’re on? If you’re not with the League of Extraordinary Icrontians, then you may as well kiss your rear goodbye. Icrontic is getting back into TF2 on Wednesday nights at 10PM. Join us, or perish.

Next, CES is over, and we’ve spent a little time recounting the biggest disappointments of the show. Another hot list on the front page right now is the top 11 gaming fails of 2009.

We’ve also launched a new round of workstation GPU reviews! We recently test drove the ATI FirePro V7750, and we were astonished by the price/performance ratio for this solution. But, more importantly, the V7750’s performance has called the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800 into a good ol’ fashion showdown. To properly help everyone understand this struggle, I put the situation in terms that everyone should be able to understand… Star Wars.

And finally, not content to stand on the precipice of change and silently accept the evolution of television, Robert “Thrax” Hallock tells us how he really feels about 3D TV.

Comments

15 Jan 2010 ~ 11:01am Thrax The Y-Wing isn't fast. #nerdfail

Also
15 Jan 2010 ~ 11:48am UPSLynx Sure, but it's faster than the B-wing, and the X-wing is only slightly faster than the Y-wing. And I was talking about the HD 5770. If I were talking about the 5970, I probably would have equated it to something like a tie fighter. Much faster than the main rebel starfighters.

No nerdfail, I knew what I was doing with it.

In my opinion, the Y-wing has the best looks of them all. Badda bing.
15 Jan 2010 ~ 12:03pm Koreish My biggest problem with what George Lucas did with the series other than create the prequel trilogy is that the technology in the prequels were superior to that of any of the technology (possible exception Deathstar) in the original. Now someone nerdier than I can prove me wrong.
15 Jan 2010 ~ 12:18pm Chip-Dapper I believe the reasoning behind that is found in the fact that from Episode I through III the galaxies are still ruled by a central authority. By the time Episode IV through VI occur the clone wars have been waged and there are multiple sources of authority clamoring for supremacy. Just as in Asimov's Foundation, once that central authority begins to crumble the fringe worlds begin to lose more and more of the technology for which they were dependant upon the Empire.
15 Jan 2010 ~ 12:26pm Thrax The precursors to the Star Destroyers (<i>Venator</i>-class) were small (1137m) and lightly-armed in comparison to the Imperial and Imperial II-class Star Destroyers which came in at 1600m. Even the spritely (900m) Victory-class Star Destroyer was faster, had better shields and a heavier armament than the Venator.

Snub fighters in the prequels were a joke compared to what came later. The Aethersprite (Jedi craft), for example, was slower than the A-Wing which succeeded it, had no Hyperdrive (the A-Wing does), has inferior shields to the A-Wing, and has less firepower than any interceptor or superiority fighter the Republic or Rebellion designed after it.

TL;DR: The vehicles in the prequels <i>looked</i> superior, but they were not technologically superior.
15 Jan 2010 ~ 12:31pm AlexDeGruven Your copyright stamp is out of date, Bobby.
15 Jan 2010 ~ 12:39pm Winfrey Take a view it's in a GPU it's the Rendering Rainbow!
15 Jan 2010 ~ 6:05pm QuadWhore

Loved the review bobby.
16 Jan 2010 ~ 12:04am Myrmidon NERD RAGE GO Bobby, you HURT me. Didn't you ever play the DOS-based game "X-wing?" B-wings are newer and faster than Y-wings, with more firepower and better shields! /nerd

Also you are getting AMAZING at these!
16 Jan 2010 ~ 12:18am UPSLynx Thanks!

I played X-wing Vs. Tie Fighter quite a bit back in the day, but never X-wing on DOS.

I do believe that to be inacurrate though. The Y-wing is listed in the encyclopedia as being faster by about 50 km/h, thought higher speeds are possible with deflector shields up.

WHAT IS THE TRUTH.

Winfrey.... that is SO awesome. I was trying to think up such a tagline myself. Love it.
16 Jan 2010 ~ 12:18am UPSLynx Oh, and thanks for pointing that out, Alex. I'll try and remember to fix by next episode.
16 Jan 2010 ~ 1:32am UPSHitman THE BEST ONE YET!
16 Jan 2010 ~ 3:13am Nemikan Everytime I think about Y-wings, all I can think is SLOWWWWWW. A-wings / interceptors are the "fast" ships. They are bomber after all...
17 Jan 2010 ~ 9:24pm bindlestick

Thrax wrote:

the prequels looked superior, but they were not superior.

And yes, B-wings are newer than Y-Wings, however it's tough to outright claim one is better than the other. The Y-wing had better speed, agility and armor, but the B-wing was much more heavily armed and shielded. Ultimately it's more likely that the steep learning curve of flying a B-wing with it's gyroscopic cockpit was more of a detriment to its proliferation within the Rebellion than its other merits.

Still, only the Y-wings get referred to as a "wallowing pigs" by the x-wing pilots.
18 Jan 2010 ~ 8:26am Grimnoc What prequels?
18 Jan 2010 ~ 7:33pm ardichoke I used to read the Star Wars books.... a lot.... (I know, I'm a nerd). All of them that I read were of the consensus that the Y-Wing, as it was primarily a bombing platform, was slower and less maneuverable than anything else the Alliance had. It did have superior firepower though (packing lasers, ion cannons and an array of missiles or bombs depending on the loadout needed). The B-Wing was a newer ship, quick, pretty beefy, decent weapons platform but lacking in maneuverability. The A-Wing was meant to be the answer to the TIE fighter, fast, maneuverable but lightly armored and couldn't take much punishment. The X-Wing was supposed to be the best balanced of the Alliance small ships, and all around performer that could do some bombing and a lot of dogfighting, thus why it was generally the go-to ship for Rogue squadron.

If you will excuse me now, I need to go do something manly to offset this nerdfest I just unleashed.
18 Jan 2010 ~ 8:06pm Winfrey I gotta give props to those poor imperial tie-fighter pilots who braved space battles without shields and only limited life support. Those dudes were fast as hell, but if you ever got hit it was game over.
18 Jan 2010 ~ 8:13pm ardichoke Indeed it was.
/me pours one out for my TIE fighter homies
18 Jan 2010 ~ 11:54pm primesuspect I'm not as versed in the lore of the expanded universe as you guys are, but I will say as platinum-medal ranked pilot in Rogue Squadron II and III that the B-wing is far more maneuverable than the Y-wing, and they are best used for very different types of missions. The B-Wing is not really a terrestrial bomber, per se. The B-Wing IS good for strafing large imperial craft, but on a planetary surface bombing run with anti-aircraft fire? Give me a Y-Wing every time, please.
19 Jan 2010 ~ 4:27am UPSLynx This is exactly why I love this community so much.

You guys are the best.