With Intel’s Core i7 line of CPUs completely owning the high-end performance CPU space, AMD’s chosen instead to focus on delivering compelling value with their latest processors. More specifically, AMD’s strategy has been to give consumers more processing cores per dollar than the competition.

Take the $100 price point for instance. Here AMD offers two quad-core Athlon II CPUs, the Athlon II X4 620 and the X4 630. Right now Newegg offers the 620 for $98, and the 630 for $99, both with free shipping.

In comparison Intel’s cheapest quad-core part is the Core 2 Quad Q8400. This is a CPU that’s 1-year old and is based on an outdated LGA-775 platform that’s been replaced, and sells for $163.

Valve is known for making quality first-person shooters: The Half-Life series redefined how players think about the FPS genre, while titles like Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead took team-oriented multiplayer action to a whole new level. But among Valve's stable of popular shooters, one game stands alone: the mind-bending puzzler, Portal.

A small-scale experiment that was squeezed into 2007's The Orange Box alongside some powerful heavyweights, the love Portal received from fans was beyond anything Valve could have imagined, winning it a full-fledged, standalone sequel.

Our 12-page cover story gives you the first details on Portal 2's new gameplay mechanics, storyline, and some surprising new twists.

Rockstar North has been the driving force behind the hugely popular Grand Theft Auto series for more than a decade. It achieved its first mainstream success in 2001 when GTA III made the transition to 3D on the Playstation 2.

Due to the game’s ability to push units for Sony, Rockstar/Take Two was paid to delay its porting to other platforms. Thus, a tradition of “exclusivity” has been established, which boils down to the PC version of each game coming out approximately 6-8 months after it debuts on consoles.

The newest to follow this trend is Episodes from Liberty City, a 2-in-1 standalone expansion to GTA IV that includes both full-size DLCs that were released on Xbox 360 last year.

The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony follow the misadventures of Johnny Klebitz and Luis Lopez, respectively. These two intrepid businessmen each have a knack for violent crime and struggle to make it big in Liberty City, with their stories taking place in parallel to the events of GTA IV.