The Zone

The event has ended, the rivalries has started, now let the games begin! Our ardent shutterbug was at the CELgames 06 Kickoff's final day to capture a compressed look some of the exciting events that was held during the week.

That's right. The September issue of HWM and GameAxis are now out at all good newsstands everywhere. Go get them now!

HWM highlights

• High Definition (HD) myths debunked
• 20.1-inch widescreen LCD display shootout
• Windows Vista Beta 2 review
• And a whole lot of goodies reviewed!

GameAxis highlights

• Massive 12-page Final Fantasy special
• All your favorite zombie games!
• CELgames 06 preview
• Games, hardware and gadget reviews

The CEL Games preliminaries may be over but if you're still infected with soccer fever, PlayWorks arcade down at Sunway Pyramid will be starting their own unofficial Winning Eleven 10 tournament.

The first prelims begin this Saturday (16th September) with the Semis and Finals taking place on the 1st of October. For more details, check out the WinningKaki Project thread down at Lowyat.net here.

Guild Wars may not have the same intricate lush worlds and PvE gameplay that WoW has, but one sector that they have them beat is their PvP gameplay. Last Sunday, e-Club Malaysia held a mini 4-vs-4 PvP tourney to commemorate the upcoming Guild Wars: Nightfall expansion pack. (More)

Hullo, missed me? :D I didn't update the blog last week since I was in Singapore (courtesy of Sendi Mutiara Multimedia) to check out the debut of Hellgate: London and Granado Espada at the IAH Game Conference.

I got to try out both games and they're sweet, especially Hellgate: London. It was really fun hacking and slashing hordes of demon, and the first-person view when using ranged weapons really felt like an FPS even though I was shooting all over the place.

Developers Bill Roper and Kim Hakkyu were like superstars at the event; dozens of people were asking them to autograph their Hellgate/Granado T-shirts and posters (I, too, also asked for their autographs). With so many game journalists circling them constantly, I was lucky enough to get one-on-one interviews with both Bill Roper and Kim Hakkyu, so look forward to their interviews in the upcoming GameAxis issues.

It wasn't all fun and games as upon returning home to Malaysia, a few sample products came in the mail for me to review. Here're a couple of stuff that you can look forward to next month's issue of HWM:

It's only a couple more months to Christmas but we're already in the mood for giving away freebies! Drop by our office (address next to the Editorial page in the magazine) with the latest issue of the October issue of GameAxis Magazine and you get a pair of FREE MOVIE TICKETS to the preview screening of The Guardian this 30th October at Cathy Cineleisure, The Curve, Petaling Jaya!

Alternatively, arrive 1 hour before the screening time at the movie preview venue with the magazine to redeem your free pair of movie tickets. However, tickets are limited and you only get one pair of tickets per IC, so first come first served!

Venue: Cathay Cineleisure, The Curve, Petaling Jaya
Date: 30th October
Time: 9:30 p.m.
Hall: 9

Surprise, surprise! When we thought that were were one of the last countries to recieve cool gadgets, Samsung relieves us of our gadget thirst and launched the K5 just about a week ago. Undoubtedly one of the cooler MP3 players to own, it sports touch-sensitive keys, an OLED display, sizes in 2GB and 4GB, super sound quality, and built-in speakers to boot!

More after the jump

Nope, we ain't dead. We've been busy rushing the articles during the Deeparaya break, and then we had the double whammy of moving to our new office, which really ate into our blogging time.

The good news is that now that we finally got our connection all set up and we've already moved and arranged most of our stuff in the new office, we should be back to blogging on a regular schedule. Plus our new office looks really swell. : ) Look forward to more local IT and gaming updates from The Zone soon!

Last weekend saw Nokia displaying its full N-Series range to the public at MidValley Megamall at its Centre Court. The extravagant booth, which has two themes in one, showcased the capabilities of each N-Series model, be it in their music, video or data communication capabilities. The public could also check out the music playback capabilities of the N91, as specialized booths were set up for visitors to toy around with the phones.

Other than music playback capabilities, the N-Series also have high-speed data features that allow you to upload your media to web pages like Flickr and even use the mobile for podcasting and other online services such LifeLogger and Yahoo! Go.

More pics after the jump

Last week, we attended Logitech's launch of their latest lineup of desktop and gaming peripherals. Lots of drool-worthy stuff for gamers and PC users were on-display for the media to try out. Check out the pics! (More)

We're back at the last PC Fair for this year, and we'll reward you with even more great stuff than before! Subscription gifts include Lexmark printers, USB TV boxes, and high quality photo paper for HWM subscribers, and for GameAxis peeps, you'll recieve a Bagman bag worth RM119 with every subscription of GameAxis. That's a real sweet deal! We will be at booths 504 and 505 @ Hall 5, at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre from the 1st to 3rd December!

*Terms and conditions after the jump

Ever thought of publishing or developing your own ideas for the world to see and enjoy? Are you a budding game developer or comic artist with a great idea pitch but nobody's willing to help finance your budget?

Here's your chance to finally see your dreams come to fruition, as the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) yesterday announced two competitions for Mobile Content and Digital Comic design. Winners of the Mobile Content competition will get a RM50,000 grant while the Digital Comic winners will be awarded a RM15,000 grant each!

More details after the jump. (More)

Wow, hasn't Lenovo been quiet for these past few months, but they're back, and tagging along with them are four new desktops and laptops that have some interesting features. I was there at the launch this morning, and there are a few things that caught my eye:

More after the jump

For those who were wondering where we went for last couple of days, we were actually quite drunk and pretty much wasted, and got stuck in a nudist camp near Dover after waking up. This small misadventure is primarily thanks to our smashing 4th Brand Survey Awards cum Anniversary night last Thursday. Held at one of the ballrooms at the Sheraton Subang, it was a fun filled night, especially with our invited seamstress, who put stitches in every one present! More pictures after the jump!

Does this animal look cute to you? With its beady eyes and slightly snickering smile, it looks a bit scary to me, in fact. Truth is, it (or rather, he) is the new Toshiba mascot for their IT product line, and yes, he's a seal. Like what you have been reading on other technorati blogs, Toshiba has finally launched the new Pala-chan MP3 player in Malaysia, along with their latest notebook range and branding strategy. More after the jump!