thirdworldgamer

Smart Communications recently announced that they will be bringing the Huawei Ideos (U8150) phone here in the Philippines. According to the news reports, "Smart is expected to offer Ideos within a price range of P5,000 and P6,000 for prepaid units . It will also bundle a monthly plan of as low as P500 for postpaid subscribers ." (From Inquirer.Net) Now that's certainly a much better postpaid deal compared to what I'm getting for my Globe telecom postpaid! Hmmm...perhaps its about time I seriously consider switching networks? Hopefully, Smart does keep the price range on that level but chances are the phone price itself is subsidized by Smart. By the time this phone will be out there will be people screaming this... "It's slow! It's laggy! I'm just going to buy a Galaxy S." And it is slow. Just look at the Angry Birds video playback there. If you're a tech freak then this phone is not for you. If you have money to burn, by all means ...

So our old Globe Aztech Modem broke and had to be replaced with a new one. The Globe technicians changed it with a Prolink Modem Hurricane 5200 which does not offer and wi-fi support and only has a single lan port. This meant that we needed to attach a router to it so we can share the internet in the house. We have a Linksys WRT120N router and the default answer of just plugging in the Globe Modem to the Internet port via lan cable would not work. So after some googling, I came across this blog that had the instructions on how to do it. The instructions are for Linksys LWRT54G2 but I can confirm that it also works for Linksys WRT120N. http://conradmiguel.com/globe-broadband-setting-up-prolink-hurricane-5200-with-linksys-wrt54g2 For posterity and in case there are others like us who have a problem with configuring their modem with Globe, just check out that link.

THE BOX When I saw the box, I was thinking..."This is probably a mistake." I should probably just spend a little extra and get an HTC Desire. This phone was nearly 13,000 pesos at the store when I was about to buy it. Regretfully, I should have bought it from a different store I was in a few weeks ago where it was available for about 11,990 pesos. But it was difficult to make a decision on this. All the [online] research was basically saying, "Go big when buying an Android phone. Spending any less would be a mistake." Or, "Go buy an Iphone because it has all the nice games." (As a gamer, this part of the decision mattered a lot). Or, "Go buy an Ipad, it looks really cool." [Admittedly, it still does.] So why was I going to buy this? The box didn't really enchant me in any way. But I wasn't buying it for the box. I've done even more research on Android, and all the signs point to it being a major breakthrough that points to our digital...

This is for the ones out there with a a misplaced, romantic notion of what Japanese game development is like. Shamelessly stolen from NEOGAF, before it disappears completely: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=411847 I've taken the liberty of translating the 4Gamer interview with Keiji Inafune , originally published on Friday, October 29th and discussed in this thread . Hopefully this will help folks understand the motivations behind his departure from Capcom as well as his future plans. As I can't claim that the translation is perfect, any feedback is welcomed. Thanks to Mandoric for spot-checking a couple of trouble spots with the translation. --- 4Gamer (4G): Thank you for your time today. Recently, you've made some rather extreme remarks and taken on many projects, so today's interview is to follow up with what you meant and how you're doing. Keiji Inafune (KI): Thank you. But I've already decided to leave Capcom. 4G: What? KI: I'm quitting. Th...

For more info, check here: http://playground.ph/2010/10/23/blizzard-to-offer-prepaid-game-cards-for-starcraft-2/ I just heard this news today out of Blizzcon 2010, Blizzard is offering prepaid cards for Starcraft 2! Honestly, the price point of 3,500 PHP was a little ridiculous for the game (considering other PC games here cost about 1,200++ PHP) so even if I wanted to buy another copy to play with other gamers here in the house, I just couldn't justify the price. But with this new pricing plan in place, I think there will be more players who will get to try Starcraft II. It seems really affordable (a 3 day pass only costs about as much as a short taxi ride).

If you can afford the Limited Edition: BUY IT This console shooter is still unmatched. Sad to hear it's Bungie's last Halo, but I suppose it really has to end sometime. When Halo starts again (likely with a new developer), hopefully the story will move forward from the plot vs. the Covenant forces....there's a huge universe of ideas that MS can eventually explore.

After playing the beta for a bit, I got convinced that SC2 works well on my laptop; well enough for me, at least. Yes, the framerate is not that great, but I can't expect it to be 60FPS given that my laptop only packs an Intel 4500M GMA Integrated Graphics chip, Pentium Dual Core T4300, and 4GB of RAM (Asus K40IJ series). But, miracle of miracles, the thing is playable! And now that I've seen the pre-rendered cutscenes, I'm even more awed. I never thought my laptop could render the cutscenes in this game smoothly. Yes, the graphics have lesser textures, but damn, they're watchable....they're bearable. This is coming from a guy who is used to Xbox 360 / PS3 graphics. Starcraft 2 is a gem, no, a crowning achievement, when it comes to forgiving minimum system requirements :D

I can't believe this, Starcraft II works on my laptop! Laptop specifications: Asus K40IJ-VX092 Intel Core Duo T4300 2.1GHz 800 FSB 1MB Cache 4GB DDR2 320GB HDD Intel GMA X4500 Video Chipset Super DVD Writer Gigabit Lan WiFi 14" LED BackLight Display 6 Cell Battery

INITIAL BRACKET: Losers Bracket: 1st Match: Infiltration (Akuma) vs. Shizza (Chub Li) 2nd Match: Gamer Bee (Adon) vs. Henry Cen (Honda) Winners Bracket: 3rd Match: Vangief (Zangief) vs. Ricky Ortiz (Chun Li) 4th Match: Mike Ross (Honda) vs. Daigo (Ryu) SUCCEEDING BRACKET: 6th Match: Infiltration (Akuma) vs Vangief (Zangief) The winner of the 1st Match Losers bracket vs the loser of the 1st Match Winners Bracket. 7th Match: Gamerbee (Adon) vs. Mike Ross (Honda) The winner of the 2nd Match Losers bracket vs the loser of the 2nd Match Winners Bracket. 8th Match: Infiltration (Akuma) vs. Mike Ross (Honda) The winner of the 6th Match Succeeding Bracket vs the winner of the 7th Match Succeeding Bracket WINNERS FINAL MATCHES: 9th Match: Ricky Ortiz (Rufus) vs Daigo (Ryu) The winner of the 1st Match Winners bracket vs the loser of the 2nd Match Winners Bracket. LOSERS FINAL MATCHES: 10th Match: Ricky Ortiz (Rufus) vs Infiltration (Akuma) Loser of the Winner Final Match vs the winner of the ...

Why not? But for now let's content ourselves with this... No that's not a trailer for a movie...neither is it fan made. It's the OFFICIAL MTV from the Poets of the Fall song 'War' which was also featured in the Alan Wake videogame. You only get to hear the song in the game through a radio but its a very nice song! The interesting thing about the MTV is that it shows the scenes from the game as a live action movie! I love the way the scenes were cut and the direction of the MTV. Poets of the Fall also played the songs from the 'Old Gods of Asgard', the guys in the game. The moment 'Children of the Elder God' plays is in the game perhaps the best part of the game for me!

This is my obsession for the week...MIDs! So how in the world did I get started with this? It's rather simple, I was reviewing for an exam, reading eBooks and tons of websites. Of course this meant I had to review using my laptop and after an hour or two you do get a crick on your neck. At the back of my mind, I was thinking, wouldn't it be great to have an iPad for occasions like this? Sure it would but I certainly won't shell out around PHP 20-40K for something like that. Finally news about the Chinese iPad knockoffs caught my attention. From what I've seen most of these iPad knockoffs or rather MIDs have a similar trait: Cheap looking plastic casings Most are underpowered with around 600-800 Mghz processor speed RAM falls short normally around 128 MB ROM is expandable using SD cards They are mostly using Google's Android with some units running Windows CE or Windows 7 THE PRICE IS DEFINITELY CHEAP COMPARED TO THE IPAD! Let me ...

When Former Senator Richard ‘Dick’ Gordon ran for the recent Philippine Presidential Elections, I clearly remember him flashing an Amazon Kindle during one of his speeches. His idea of having an ebook reader for public schools to address the lack of books was quite appealing. Although at that time, knowing that the Kindle had a hefty price tag, the idea seemed improbable. Apple soon followed suit and developed the iPad but being Apple, you pay for the name more than the actual product, the price was just as hefty as the Amazon Kindle. But Apple started a trend, which seems like they may face a losing battle when it comes to price. As Apple announced that the iPad will soon go global, China finally steps up to the plate and began releasing its ‘fake’ iPads. Sure the Apple fans have began dismissing the product as a cheap knock-off…but hold on for a minute… If you are going to use only certain features to surf the internet, read eBooks, watch an occasional movie or two…the...