The Zone

That’s right: the final chapter of Solid Snake’s last stand will also be launched in Malaysia this coming June. I’ve been informed by Play Interactive Software Sdn Bhd, the official distributor for Konami titles in Malaysia, that Malaysians will get to enjoy the game a day early with the launch taking place at TecAsia, Plaza Lowyat Level 4 on 11th June 2008 from 7:30 p.m. to 12 midnight. There will be a midnight pre-order sale with activities planned from noon to evening, until the official launch of the game.

Anyone going? I’m going to bring and wear a cardboard box for yucks.

Mr. Taku Taguchi from Sony Malaysia launched the Deep Red PSP-2006

Over the weekend, Sony Malaysia had organized the first PSP Gameshow which confirmed the rising popularity of the reborn handheld console! In conjunction with the launching of the Deep Red PSP Slim and Lite, they also had a gaming tournament with great prizes and fun activities for everyone!

Check out more pictures after the jump!

Check out our Elite Gaming Rig that's to be unveiled VERY soon! Boasting a Phenom, high-speed memory, a Terabyte of hard drive space and two graphic cores in a sweet water-cooled chassis, it will definitely make an impact!

With the recent release of the Crysis patch, many issues such as bad performance and loading time from a single Pre-CrossFired X2 were solved. Gone were the slow downs and the flickering clouds or foliage in the background. However, after recent testing with two crossfired X2 cards, we found that performance is just plain laggy in Crysis even without any anti-aliasing on. Although older games such as Quake 4 and Company of Heroes literally flew using the double CrossFired X2 cards, there are still issues with some of the newer games apparantly, like Crysis's super slowdown.

So to early adopters of the double crossfired X2 config, be patient and wait for the next Crysis patch, but for people waiting on the fence or just about to blow that big wad of cash caveat emptor.

When two game companies collide, they result in awesome. Especially on April Fool's Day! Stay on to the end for a surprise message!

Hot on the heels of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and other RSI (Repetiitive Stress Injury) cases we're now seeing the emergence of Wii related RSI which some have dubbed Wiiitis. Many complainers are saying they've hurt, strained or sprained their shoulders through the use of the Wiimote, mainly cause its not the same as swinging an actual golf club, baseball or bowling ball.

No official word from Nintendo or from the courts just yet, but if you're going to play the Wii for 5 hours straight, 7 days a week all we can say is .... serves you right.

The PC Fair official launch included a real cannon full of confetti! 

It was a tiring weekend but it was totally worth it with the response that HWM and GameAxis recieved from the crowd at PC Fari (I) 2008. Although there were several issues regarding the unfair abuse of PIKOM tag-holders such as exhibitors and visitors who sneaked in, we will implement a system that is fair and just to both our readers who deserve that all-important free gift and to exhibitors who love the mags. Here are some shots that were taken during the fair by both FatCatLim and myself, enjoy and we welcome any feedback from you guys! More pics after the jump!

With the latest NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 dual GPU graphic out to flex its gaming muscle we managed to snag two cards as well as an nForce 790i motherboard for a Quad SLI setup. Installation is easy as long as you use the latest drivers but performance across the board isn't as good as expected. Its all good however if you're a big fan of Crysis, but if you're not then you may be better off waiting a while longer.

Our personal bet is on a 3-way SLI for three 9800 GTX OC cards, which we will try out as soon as we can get our hands on three of the monsters. Till then read up more about our Quad SLI adventures in our May issue.

For the boxing game fans of Fight Night who sighed despondently when original developer EA Chicago folded, rejoice! Fight Night Round 4 has been picked up again, this time by EA Canada. With a release date slated around 2009, the new addition to the hyper realistic boxing game is said to feature a whole new physics engine which will allow among others, missed punches, glancing blows and more realistic bobbing and weaving. Hopefully this doesn't slow down the action too much or make the game too realistic as to be boring or unnecessarily complex. EA will also supposedly include Iron Mike Tyson into the round 4 rumble, hopefully back when he was in his prime and not his current state of affairs, although many fans are secretly hoping for an ear-biting illegal blow to be added as well. All we can say is, watch out (holyfield).

nd because of this; I lost the match 2-1, thanks to my useless goalie. Although its just a video, the game has this added level of realism whereby players from the opposing team actually actively hunts for the ball, even when you're in possession and standing still; it happened in a match where I was preoccupied and the AI simply took over the game, making a mockery of my own footie skills. Anyways, watch out for the review in next month's GameAxis!

PC Gaming seems to be heading down the path of the Elitist if the economic decisions made by today's game developers are any indication. Just recently, Lucasarts, developers of the up and coming Star Wars : The Force Unleashed game have stated that there is not going to be any PC version. The rather obscure reason for this decision was that not many people would be able to afford a machine or gaming rig capable of playing the game to its full potential and has thus focused efforts on console development only. According to Lucasarts this means that most gamers can afford a next gen game console compared to a top of the line gaming rig which can churn out even higher resolutions. Unfortunately this is actually true.

Crytek, makers of the gaming rig pushing Crysis have actually had to dumb down their CryEngine so that it can be run off consoles like the Xbox 360 or the PS3 and thus make Crysis viable for the console market. So far there hasn't been any statement from Crytek on whether they will or will not make Crysis 2 for the PC but for the most part it doesn't look good for most PC Gamers out there.

For now, we can't really blame developers for going the console way as in the end, they need to make money. However, this development does not bode well for many players in the industry such as graphic card makers and processor makers as most of the really hardcore (and expensive) stuff have generally been bought by gamers. But with many game devs abandoning the platform, things definitely don't look good for PC gamers unless we can get official console emulators to run off of our superior hardware. Until then, only time will tell.