Man am I glad I went onto torrents a few weeks ago and grabbed the ISO for the W7 beta, almost makes the $120 I wasted on Vista Home Premium in a Panic worth it!

But Before you read this, I’m going to make an OSX plug: There is a new portable technology out there called EFT (Extensable Firmware Tech) that allows you to run OSX on ANY PC build! So seriously, after reading this, check out this link before you start planning on renewing your subscription to the Windows Colossus.

First and foremost, this OS is w/o doubt a nice improvement over XP. The sad and depressing (and all too typical of Microsoft) thing is that it took ALMOST TEN YEARS and Billions of dollars to accomplish. This is a pathetic failure, and although this OS is usable, ie not like Vista, it is a sad day in the history of this company that they are only now just barely beginning to approach the shadow of competition with apple’s awesome port of BSD Unix (OSX).

W7 64B has clean support for non-64B programs, very well done. So far, very very little will not run on this machine. I have recently taken a shining to Aptana Studio, which doesn’t seem to work right (yet), but other than that, I have plenty of other IDE’s I use and enjoy, so this certainly doesn’t hold me up. There are two folders, one for X86, and one for 64Bit. So far, the only 64B install I have is Photoshop, and honestly, I dont see a huge improvement in speed over 32B. But I think having an OS that takes advantage of hardware that’s been available for years can’t hurt, and the boys at redmond seem to be finally getting the memory and resource thing figured out; I have encountered far less hangups on this machine in the time I’ve been using W7.

One thing I really like about W7 is the windowing system. Here’s a nice shot of the neat rollover previews you now get when your shortcut icons have an active item or items open:

This also works well with multiple folders open as well:

Even cooler, rolling over the rollover previews shows you a quick view of the window w/o having to go into it! On a sidenote, I’ve been told Vista Does this already, but it’s either not available in home premium, or I just never enabled it, etc. W7 came out of the box like this, although I do have ultimate.

Another feature I really like is libraries, which allow you to keep track of directories or groups of directories and files, which I use quite a bit for projects. Let’s say you have your code files, your legal documents, spreadsheets, etc, all in distinct places, but want quick views by project to those files. Libraries helps you get that done very easy by adding library folders with references to each top level directory or file you want to have in that particular group. Good stuff.

For drivers, I haven’t really had any trouble with any devices I’ve installed, and you’re talking about a whizzbang tecchie Uubernerd with serious gadgetItis, so that’s saying something If you’re holding back on XP b/c of this, I would say jump right in, the waters fine; however, some older programs and hardware might have a little trouble.

All in all, honestly I do feel W7 is worth the purchase this coming fall, however, I would really love to check out OSX w/o having to get locked into a Steve Jobs nightmare box I can’t tweak the hardware on! (yes i know about the G5, i dont have 3 grand or whatever ridiculous amount they charge to get a PC-like box, lame!)

If you haven’t upgraded from XP yet b/c of the bad Vista news, I would say 7 is the one for you. If you already have Vista like my sorry arse, and feel ripped off like I do, download Release Candidate 7 and enjoy it free for a year!

If you’re curious to know if the work at Infinity Ward is paying off and looks to be on target for the November 5th release date, let us put your mind at ease. This title is going to rock your boat.

The Multiplayer Beta in its current form seems to have an issue the first time when loaded. When clicking “Find Game” in the navigation screen, a poorly designed screen appears stating “Downloading Game Settings”. This is only corrected by clearing your consoles cache from the hard drive.

Once we managed to clear the cache, we reloaded the game and were in a match in no time. The first thing we noticed is that the Beta is very quick with loading mechanisms and allows you to hop into any joinable room at anytime of a match. This is a huge one-up on the current shooters like Rainbow Six: Vegas and GRAW 2. We hope this function will remain in the final release.

In the match, the quality of design is breathtaking. The foliage & textures in the three included maps are very detailed and interact with the conditions of the environment perfectly. When we threw a smoke grenade an embellished, very realistic fluffy cloud of smoke appeared that made our jaws drop in awe.

When using a sniper rifle we found it was very difficult to hit our opponent from a distance without some genuine skill. While looking through the scope, the environment gets extra crisp and resembles a live photograph.

The gameplay is very smooth, the sprite tracking is incredible, and the bullets are very quick (not all that accurate though). One nifty feature is the ability for the bullets to penetrate the walls when using an assault rifle. This helps eliminate those pesky squatters. Those who like running around dodging bullets at close range will have some difficulty, since there are now various “perks” each character can enable to prevent such rampages.

Speaking of perks, this game is loaded with them. In between matches you are given the ability to modify your gear and create custom save sets called “classes”. In each class you get a primary weapon, secondary weapon, special grenade, and 3 perks. One perk that users will come to have a love/hate relationship with is the “Last Stand” perk. This perk allows a player who is essentially wounded beyond all repair get in a couple shots with their pistol before bleeding out. This is very frustrating when you had an upper hand on a player and is a great pawning tool when you want revenge on someone else. The good news is head shots eliminate this perk from ever occurring, which adds a needed balance.

Overall we recommend checking out Call of Duty 4 Multiplayer Beta when it becomes available in stores, as it promises the best in gaming. This is one of very few Xbox 360 titles that may actually deserves the $59.99 price tag that comes with it. Call of Duty 4 is scheduled for release on November 5th.