thirdworldgamer

Sony can take the risk and release the Playstation 3 here. What about Microsoft? With all the rumors on Natal and the new 'Slim' Xbox 360, it would actually be good timing for them to unveil a new marketing strategy for Asia, and include more countries for Xbox Live. So, is Microsoft going to let the opportunity in Asia slip by their fingers? Sony really does rule this territory; their mindshare with the Playstation brand remains very strong, and perhaps Xbox's failings in Japan even make this more evident. Is Microsoft just focused on the western markets? Will they let possibly millions of dollars in potential profit just go to waste by continuing to ignore the Asian market? You've really got to hand it to Sony; they've got guts to release high-end electronics like the Playstation 3 in places like the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. As income levels in these places rise, Sony is establishing their foothold as *the* console brand of choice for the main...

More craziness abounds regarding official support for console gaming in the Philippines: http://asia.playstation.com now lists the Philippines as an officially supported country for the Playstation brand!

I was in Glorietta this evening; lo and behold...! It begins tomorrow! From the Facebook group page , here's the schedule of events for the PLAYSTATION 3 PHILIPPINE LAUNCH this weekend, March 27 to 28 at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati! DAY 1: March 27, 2010 2:00pm: Official Opening of PlayStation Exhibit plus Onsite Registration for competitions (COSPLAY Fashion, COSPLAY Battlefield Competition and PlayStation Race) 3:30pm - 4:00pm: Band Performance by EEVEE 4:00 pm- 5:30 pm: COSPLAY Fashion followed by COSPLAY Battlefield 5:30pm - 6:00pm: PlayStation Race 6:00pm - 6:25: Awarding of Winners 6:00pm - 7:00pm: Band Performance by PUPIL DAY 2: March 28, 2010 10:00am – Exhibit Opens 12:00pm – Physical Registration of contestants for PSP and PS3 Games (PS3 Ridge Racer 7 / PSP Tekken : Dark Resurrection) 2:00pm – Simultaneous Elimination Games 4:30pm – Band Performance by LETTER DAY STORY 5:00pm – Celebrity Showdown 5:30pm - Finals game for PSP 6:00pm – Finals game for PS3 6:30pm...

1. Warranty Details - are units bought before the launch date covered? Or, at least, is there a repair option available? 2. Playstation Network - Will there be a 'Philippines' region? Will there be locally available PSN cards in peso denominations? I guess the major question here is, how much of a launch will this be? Is it a... a. Full blown launch - all features available in other countries will be available here b. Hardware launch - The PS3, PSP and its hardware and software will be sold, and not much else. Either of the two is possible---and to be honest, I'm keeping my expectations in check. It is still good to know this is really happening. 3. Games - will games get cheaper? Or at least, will games stay at the same prices you could get them in grey market retail shops? What region will the games be? Personally, I hope it's Region 3, so they're the same price as the games sold in neighboring Asian countries. 4. Marketing - Is Sony going all the way with this? W...

UPDATE: I wrote this post a few days before Sony officially announced their local launch. Sony Philippines is launching the Playstation 3 in the Philippines on March 27-28, with a launch event at the Glorietta Activity Center. It's great news for Filipino gamers everywhere! For more information, check out this page. For a few years, me and my wife have learned a lot about gaming here in the Philippines. With the birth of our son recently, our priorities have changed. We do still love gaming but we no longer can devote that much time to promoting it as a hobby. That said, all that wealth of experience that we learned as Xbox MVPs would just go to waste if I didn't write this post. I write this not as an Xbox fan, but as a gamer, and personally if it really does come to pass that Sony is launching a game console here, it's nothing short of a miracle, and to have it happen after we did all those things before feels like one of those 'you get what you wished for, but not ex...

It's official - Sony is releasing the Playstation 3 officially in the Philippines! This marks an important milestone for console gaming and for gamers in our country. Finally - some official support! http://www.sony.com.ph/microsite/PS2010/PlayStation_Mar2010_Newsletter.html Sony Philippines, Inc. invites you to the first PlayStation Event in Philippines on March 27 and 28 at the Glorietta Activity Center. Enjoy the extensive display of the full PlayStation line-up, try out the newest game offerings and watch the hottest bands perform onstage. Up for grabs are brand new PlayStation 3 , ( PSP ) PlayStation Portable and limited edition PlayStation premium items by simply joining any of the following activities: * COSPLAY Fashion - Come in your best Anime /PS game character COSPLAY attire and strut your stuff to win a brand new PlayStation 3 * COSPLAY Battlefield - Create a 2 minute Battle/Fight Scene Simulation with 2 other friends and win 1 PSP each * PlayStation Amazing Race ...

Note that the date is based on an Internet rumor, and what used to be on the asia.playstation.com/ph/en site (which got pulled)

Picked up the '2010 Bravia/Summer Fever 2010' local catalog from the Sony store in Park Square. It had an ad for the Playstation 3 in there.... Looks like this PS3 launch thing is really happening. (Why no picture? I've got an important day job and I've only five minutes to blog about gaming stuff....Take my word for it, this is real. Or you can just visit the Sony store in Park Square and see for yourself....)

So recently I've been hearing a lot of rumors about the Playstation 3 launching officially in my corner of the globe. I'm really happy to hear this news and it's great news for all gamers here in my country, whether you prefer Xbox, Nintendo or Windows/PC -based gaming. Why? It's a bit of recognition that games are a big deal, and the industry is here to stay. The rumors I've read say that: The PS3 will be 18,000 pesos It will come with a 2 year warranty The site http://asia.playstation.com/ph/en now says it is launching on MARCH 26 - an actual date!

http://asia.playstation.com/ph/en Great news for Pinoy gamers!

Here's my review: Wow! :D (Sorry, I'm speechless!)

I called it...the gaming industry doesn't need this kind of attention. It's unfortunate because Modern Warfare 2 is really a great game. But for non-gamers, they can easily misinterpret that one level, and then if another violent attack occurs in the United States or elsewhere, this game is going to be the scapegoat. Regardless of what you think about Fox News' reporting and whether you agree with it, they're out there, and they're influencing minds. Activision/Infinity Ward should really have done the level in a different way to avoid all that negative publicity.

I've never thought I'd say this, but the violence in the Airport level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 easily aims for controversy and is totally unnecessary. They could have just portrayed the same scene with a non-interactive cutscene, or they could have put you in the moment as a different character. It's something else completely when they put you in there as a terrorist, mowing down innocent civilians as you please. If Columbine or all those other 'gunman gone amok' scenarios never happened in the United States and other countries, I would never think this way about it. The fact is, if another student or psychologically distressed person goes crazy and blames this CODMW2 level for his insanity, video games will take the blame for real-world violence once again.

I saw this picture on the Turn 10 Studios blog: That's Dan Greenawalt (left) from Turn 10 Studios (Forza Motorsport 3), posing with Kazunori Yamauchi (right), CEO of Polyphony Digital (Gran Turismo 5). Here's the blog post where I found the picture: http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/blogs/post.aspx?App=turn_10s_forza_motorsport_blog&y=2009&m=11&d=06&PostName=forza-motorsport-3-week-in-review-11-6 So to the console-exclusivity fanboys, yes, apparently it is possible to respect your competition. Kudos to both developers for making the best racing games ever made.

It’s been around 4 years since the initial launch of the XBOX 360 and at that time, I felt that Microsoft was the underdog in the console race. Everyone was prattling about how ‘awwwwzommmm!!’ the Sony Playstation 3 was and laughing that Nintendo named their console after a male appendage. When the XBOX 360 came out, I believed that Microsoft hit jackpot. They had the right vision, they had the right games and I was fully on board. But the last 4 years of the XBOX 360 was marred by the horrendous 3 red lights of death and Microsoft’s insistent denial that they had absolutely nothing to do with it; like Pilate washing his hands clean. But the truth eventually came out and Microsoft really did rush the console to market in order to beat the PS3. While that strategy may have worked for the last 3 years since they gained a good portion of the North American market share, the stigma of faulty hardware plagues Microsoft to this day. Sure the Jasper doesn’t break as much as the ...

I'm currently playing Forza Motorsport 3; the one thing that really sticks out if you've played the previous game is how much more detail is on the car models this time. The cars are really pleasant to look at now, and sometimes I find myself just watching the menu screen [where they display your current vehicle in a variety of nice camera angles]. I also like the lighting on many of the tracks; though it's really noticeable that the newer tracks look way better than the older ones which are included in the game. Recently I got to race on Fujimi Kaido, an old track from Forza 1 which they revamped for this game...I think it has the best scenery for a racing game thus far. It's also a great track to hone your driving and drifting skills on. I must have spent an incredible amount of time tuning and racing online on Forza Motorsport 2. A few years ago, there was a thread on Pinoyxbox.com where most of my exploits (both online and offline) for FM2 are completely chronicled...

I also posted this on pinoyxbox.com ************* Finished downloading Forza 3 at 1:45AM. Finished playing the demo at around 2:40AM. Unbelievable, completely lives up to the hype; everything they've said about this game is true. I'm shocked at how much fun it was to play for a 'simulator'! The other day I was trying out Need for Speed Shift, which, at the end of the day, really reminded me of Grid/PGR. This one....this is an animal all its own, it just FEELS so different in terms of driving model, and that's what seems to make it special. The 60FPS really does help enhance the 'feel' of the driving, and the way the cars move and behave is like no other driving game I've ever played before. Perhaps Forza 2 is the only game that comes close. I'm surprised they were able to even surpass that! When I first bought my PS3 one of the games I purchased with high hopes was Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which had those dazzling cutscenes playing back on most websi...

Only downloadable (at this time) by using the website marketplace.xbox.com to forward your download to your console. Perhaps later on it can be downloaded directly via the 360. Here's the link! http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8024d53084d/

Absolutely spectacular even for a game trailer - it is quite difficult to drive like the way they demonstrated there. Even more amazing that they used in-game footage; which means it can be done by players in the game itself, if they spent enough time with it.