thirdworldgamer

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...

- Launch it from FULL SCREEN by pressing up + forward after he jumps - Launch it at clutch time; usually its safe - Depending on your distance from your opponent, adding up + forward can make it cross up!

Even more on Super Street Fighter 4: - Okay, Ken didn't get completely screwed after all. His Shoryuken is much better than before, and nothing beats the poking range of his jumping roundhouse kick (for guys without uppercuts/anti-airs). - M.Bison is my new favorite character, and I've picked him as my main now. I love all the options he has and how there's more variety to playing him than the usual shotos. - Ryu and Sagat seem to feel like the same characters but with far less damaging attacks. Then again, the whole cast's damage was decreased, so matches last very long now. - Online is probably 75% good, 25% bad. The 25% being that you will still get those matches that lag horribly, regardless of region select. But yeah, the netcode is still better than vanilla SF4. - What happened to all that storyline stuff they set up in vanilla SF4? It's as if they never happened. Too bad Capcom doesn't want to take too many risks with the storylines for their main charact...

After a few days of play, here's what I thought.... 1. I realized that Ken seems to have gotten screwed again with his new Ultra. It seems useless since you can just sit underneath it and not even get chip damage....poor guy. 2. Ryu's Medium dragon punch prevents trading hits, and hits twice! Yay! 3. Guile's sonic boom does charge faster, but it seems harder to combo for me from low punch - medium punch to sonic boom consistently. It's easier to combo M.Bison's scissor kick from low or medium kicks. 4. Juri is the most interesting new character in this game (in terms of moveset and potential). Too bad her voiceover is horrific! (I should switch it to Japanese --- is it any better?) 5. Is it just me, or has everyone forgotten about the last four 'new' characters, Abel, Rufus, C.Viper and , what's his name again? El Fuerte? I dunno, I just don't feel like using them in SSF4 for no apparent reason....just IMHO 6. Saving replays automatically = win! Bein...

Just got my copy of Super Street Fighter IV from Data Blitz! Here are my impressions so far: 1. Lots of ONLINE features - after playing with my friend I was surprised to see how nearly all of our online match replays were saved automatically in the Player Data -> Battle Log channel! That was a really nice feature, that it automatically saves like that. And you can pick the ones you can save permanently 2. It will feel like Street Fighter IV 'Plus' - Essentially, it still is Street Fighter IV, which explains the lower price tag....but all the new characters and extra features make it worth it. It was nice of Capcom to charge a bit less for it. The game is really not just DLC + SFIV because of all the stuff they crammed in. 3. Netcode - I was on Globe (2 Mbps) and my friend was on Smart bro. Got 3 bars in our match. Lag was occasionally noticeable but mostly manageable. I've yet to try more than just one other player for online play, so I can't tell yet how much of an ...

Played quite a bit of Final Fantasy XIII recently. Here are my first impressions of the game: There are times when I like the game, like when cutscenes play or when in a good boss fight. The cutscenes are really beautifully rendered and are quite enjoyable to watch. The voice acting is okay, generally speaking; it's within the level of most other video games (re: don't expect Oscar-award winning acting, but it's bearable). There are times when I really hate the game, when it gives you these long dungeons with repeating enemies that seemingly have incredible amounts of HP; some regular enemies seem to take 30 minutes or more to take down. I hate how the game overuses the theme song that was in the E3 trailer. The music is very repetitive and Square didn't bother to make music suited for each character or situation. Some boss fights use the exact same music as battles with regular enemies, which reduces the overall impact of some scenes. There are also moments when the mu...

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 ...