The Zone

I'm now at the Games Convention Asia 2007 in Singapore, where this morning AsiaSoft Online announced that they will be publishing Ragnarok Online 2 for Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam in the region. RO2 is expected to be released in the region in Q1 2008. Other games also launched included GrandChase and Cabal Online.

More updates to come soon!

http://www.ro2sea.com

By golly! two new gadgets to drool about today! First off, like what hoobs mentioned yesterday, Apple has launched three new iPods that mostly have the same functions, only in different skins.

On the left, you have your lonely shuffle, followed by the new Video nano, 'classic' iPod and iPod Touch. In comparision to the iPod Touch, the iPhone sits placidly beside it. We still want the phone instead as the Touch only touts 16GB of flash-based memory and WiFi. 

In other news, HP, in conjunction with Voodoo has launched its (or rather, their) astoundingly beatiful sclupture, the Blackbird 002. Check out the pics after the jump!

Looks like tons of users had fun with the Bioshock demo that they downloaded over Xbox Live. Here are some glitches you can do in the game, and there are even more and more videos that are being uploaded to the videosphere as you watch this. There's even a NSFW glitch which involves a Big Daddy too!

Today was pretty hectic as I kept running between the Game Developer Conference on the 2nd floor of the convention centre and the 6th floor, which housed the main showroom floor. Now that the Game Developer Conferences are over, I can now mainly concentrate on the showroom floor though I already have a fairly good impression of most of the games so far.

I managed to talk to the producers of EA's upcoming titles Burnout paradise and Battlefield: Bad Company earlier today, and was walked through the titles. Being a big fan of the Burnout series, I was a little concerned when I heard the news that they were planning to make it an 'open world' map and that most of the standard user interfaces and menu bar were gone.

After the demo, I'm happy to report that Burnout Paradise is shaping up to be a solid Burnout title in the series. The producer demonstrated how seamless it was to connect wirelessly to multiplayer without having to go out of the game, and how even when both players are at different locations in the city, they're still able to compete with each other through other performing a series of mini achievements (longest drift, racing traffic, etc). The graphics look sharp and crisp on the PS3 and the game runs at a smooth 60fps. Definitely a title to look out for when it comes out sometime later this year.  

The other EA title that I got to watch in action was Battlefield: Bad Company. Built on an entirely new engine called Frostbite, I wasn't so much impressed with Bad Company's graphics (looks amazing by the way) but more by its physics engine, especially with explosions and blast. In the demo, we were able to blast a hole in the wall of a house and enter through there and use it as cover. It's unscripted and totally dynamic, so it's quite possible to destroy an entire house if you have the ammo and weaponry. The same goes for the trees in the game, and anything that looks destructible. 

Bad Company also takes a cue from the Battlefield games in that how you want to complete a mission or map is entirely up to you as you may start off with your basic kit of weapons or enemy soldiers may carry useful weaponry that can aid you in your task. Speaking of enemy soldiers, while the demo didn't show that they had capable AI (the build is still very early in the works), they are able to destroy buildings as well, so if you're taking cover in a house and the enemy is using a tank, then your cover can easily be blown to bits in a matter of seconds.

Our demo tester willingly acknowledged the weaknesses of the previous Battlefield games on consoles since they were direct ports from PCs, which is why they decided to go with an entirely new engine from the ground up with Bad Company. With the game optimized for console controls, this should hopefully address the previous qualms that Battlefield fans had. He also didn't rule out a PC port of Bad Company in the future.

I don't normally pay much attention to the Battlefield series but now that Bad Company appears to have a decent single-player storyline, I'm willing to check it out. Plus I want to blow some stuff up too. 

Hurrah! It was a fine day for Malaysian gamers yesterday as the 2007 chapter of the World Cyber Games closed. For some, it was an eye-opener and a place to learn more skills. For others, it was a place to reunite with old friends and rivals. Like our CELgames this year, the competition in WCG '07 made us grit our teeth in anticipation, especially during the final matches on the stage. No matter what, congratulations to all the winners and may our flag fly high in Seattle!

More pics after the break!! 

More shots from the World Cyber Games 2007! We could only present it in two parts, and here you've got the second part! Onwards to the pictures!

Paul Yan's super fast hands - more pictures after the break!

Perfect for the mobile gamer who is short on travelling space but relish the performance of gaming mice, Razer's Pro|Click Mobile range of mice are definitely cheeky, as you can see in the image above. Another bonus to cord-weary travellers - they are Bluetooth 2.0 compatible, hence no more tangles in your laptop bag!

It would seem the board wars are heating up as Intel bought Havok (an Irish company known for their physics engine). With NVIDIA announcing that they will begin to make GeForce7 chipsets for Intel boards, and AMD has their 690G chipset, the makers are beginning to battle for the on-board graphics arena.

Maybe Intel will come up with future processors that incorporate physics processing?

Source : Gama Sutra

Okay, time for some really weird gaming news before we enter our Bioshock-induced weekend stupor. First up is a crazy story about a dog swallowing a Wiimote whole - a 3-year-old Labrador retriever started spitting up blood and his owners brought him to a vet to be x-rayed only to find a Wiimote stuck somewhere between his throat and his stomach. Some belly rubs later the wiimote was extracted - in chunks. Too bad for the poor dog and his owner - he had to fork out two weeks' allowance to buy his mom a new Wiimote!

Check out more crazy stuff after the break!

The expansion pack adds new DX 10 effects like rain which will affect gameplay

Relic has been really on a roll innovating real-time strategy (RTS) computer games, beginning with Dawn of War (DoW) and its usage of securing strategic points on the game map to gain resources - instead of the typical approach of harvesting them.

They brought this over in CoH, and now for the expansion pack, they're doing another innovation to the way expansions are made.

Typically, when it comes to playing online, gamers can't join other players who have expansion packs, since they lack the extra data. Relic found a way around it by also releasing the expansion pack as a game update - but the expansion pack will be not available to you unless you buy the expansion pack DVD.  This means you will only be able to see the expansion pack in use when you go online with other players who have bought the expansion pack DVD. Makes sense?

Other than allowing you to play with expansion pack players, this method also gives you a chance to take a look at the expansion pack and decide if you want to buy the DVD as well. This is much better than a typical demo as it's not scripted, or played with the computer - so you can see it being used by real players.

The only downside?

The update is nearly 2GB!

If you found your bank account whining after buying Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II, better start saving now because the Rock Band price and bundle has finally been confirmed. Rock Band will be released for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on November 23 with a premium figure of US$170 (~RM580). PS2 owners will have to wait till December 10 but their bundle will be US$10 cheaper.

So what do you get with the bundle? *deep breath* One Rock Band game, one guitar, one set of wired drums, and one wired microphone. If you have a preferred instrument in mind and don’t want to buy the whole set, there are regular versions of the game which comes bundled with a single accessory. The cheapest version comes with the mike at US$30, followed by the guitar bundle at US$60 (wired for Xbox 360, but a separate wireless version will cost US$80), while the wired drums bundle are maxed out at US$80.

If you do the math, you don’t really save anything if you were to buy the complete Rock Band game bundle. You’ll only just save the hassle of having to own 3 copies of the game (not to mention the separate shipping costs!). With the game now just a month away, it’s time to start penny-pinching and stocking up on Maggi Mee!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought that the new Wii Remote Jacket that will come free with all new Nintendo Wiis, remotes, and Wii Play on October 15 looks extremely...phallic. Never mind the name and design of the Wii remote is already bad enough but when you throw in a ribbed protective silicon sleeve? We are getting the equivalent of a condom for the Wii.

So remember to always put on protection before using your Wii! And don't forget, just because you have protection doesn't mean it's 100% safe to swing your Wii around. ;)

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Think your granny has the ability to kick some alien butt? Wait till you see this Japanese oba-san racking up acheivement points in Halo 3. In Japan. Where the Halo 3 launch was meh. Unusual achivement, though! Gambateneh oba-san!

A quick heads up to competitive gamers, because Intel's mega cyber gaming competition is coming to town! Intel's Rampage Asia cyber-gaming tournament will see 15 countries around the region competing for up to US$70,000 in cash prizes! The games to be played are Warcraft III and Counter-Strike 1.6, which I'm sure many of us players will be well-versed in.

Here's the list of the following 10 cybercafes that will be participating in the tournament. If you register at the selected cybercafes during that period you get a free Intel Unstoppable T-shirt, while the first 20 early birds will get a cap as well.   

Of course if you're too lazy to haul yourself to the cybercafe you can register online at the official webpage at http://intel.wcgzone.com. With just over a week away to the first comp it's time to start breaking out your trash talking dictionary again!

I'm now playing Valve's Orange Box, which comes jam packed with the Half-Life 2 games, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. My favorite game so far is Team Fortress 2 and I'm having a blast playing as the speedy Scout. If you haven't bought the pack, what are you waiting for??? You're practically getting 5 games in one at a low price of RM175. Plus you get a nifty mousepad too! It's seriously one of the best PC game purchases you will make all year.