Follow the Ring

Visions of the Ring is a site I have mentioned before because of its great LOTRO related maps, such as the Interactive Horse Route Map and the LOTRO Expansion Speculation Map.

I had not been by the site lately, but when I poked my nose in last weekend I saw a new map available.

While not directly related to the game, the Hunt for the Ring map uses map assets from the game to plot out the positions in the world of key characters from the point when Gandalf warns Frodo about the true nature of the ring and the need to leave The Shire to Frodo’s arrival in Rivendell.

Using the map you can follow that same path in game, though since distances have been drastically scaled down (I recall reading that the distance from the Brandywine to Bree was 75 miles, while you can walk it in five minutes in game), it won’t take you nearly as long as it did Frodo.

XP vs. Vista vs. Windows 7

Over at Firing Squad they put together a test to see exactly which Windows OS delivers the best gaming performance.

I’ll spoil the results with this quote:

While there were a couple of cases where WinXP outran Windows 7 and Vista, for the most part Windows 7 wins more than it loses, especially when you factor in multi-GPU technologies like SLI and CrossFire.

So Windows 7 looks like the winner.

Of course, that doesn’t tell you how close things were, so you’ll have to go take a look.  The big surprise was 64-bit XP, but I suppose that has to do with the sort of driver support it gets.

Things look good for Windows 7 when it comes out.  Of course, companies ilke Dell won’t be able to charge us $99 for XP “downgrades” any more, but then we shouldn’t need them any more.