First of Everything.

It’s had been a while since I’ve updated my blog. There were a few reasons that I can’t blog smoothly.

Reason #1
My brand new Sapphire HD4850 GPU is making my Pentium 4 look ridiculous. In other words, my Pentium 4 is bottlenecking my performance. I have the urge to upgrade my computer once again but it’s still too early, it’s been three years I guess, I’ll stick with it for a while more. No ICore7.

Reason #2
Stupid Adobe “Fun pack” screwed up my computer really hard. I cannot even watch .mkv files smoothly now. Still, this is not the main reason.

Reason #3
The equation is,
Poor CPU + New Graphic card = New games running on less than 7 fps.
I’ve bought Cryostasis and tried the game. Unfortunately, It has come to a time that even the low graphical game settings were deemed useless for my CPU to keep up. I could hear my CPU wailing/begging for his master to stop torturing himself in the 10 fps mayhem.I give in.

*End of whining*

*Beginning of the actual content*

The sensation of surfing and trolling around the Internet made me realize that It’s time to share some of my game titles. It’s not that much don’t expect a whole bundle of them.
If you are bored you can always list down the games I have.

*caution* not all game are enjoyable.

Do you still remember what’s your first FPS game? or maybe RPG?
If your first timer were Minesweeper, Solitaire. Freecell or any other Windows component’s game I respect that but it’s not worth mentioning cause everybody touches them back on those days.

First Strategy Game.
Command and Conquer Red Alert. 1996
Windows 1995 version.

I had a difficult time remembering which come first, I thought it was either Starcraft or Red Alert or a very old game called Dark Colony. But I am dead sure it’s not Starcraft because I remembered Tanya’s hysteric laugh way more clearer than Infested Keriggan hatching out from the chrysalis.

I was 10 when my bro bought back a game and found out that it’s an expansion which is called, C&C Red Alert:Aftermath. Since RA is a hit during that time(even now) it was easy to get the original. I do not remember how I played the game, I think I sucked big time.

First First-Person-Shooter ( a pun? That was a coincidence.)
DOOM. (1993)
DOS

I was 9 if I am not wrong and I have no freaking idea how to load the game since it is a DOS version. It means you have to go to Run, type CMD then load..bla bla bla. (frankly, I have no idea even how to do it now.)

You can say that I don’t really enjoy the game, all I knew was I never grow tired of watching my chainsaw grinds through the zombie while watching their red angry blood that spills all over the place like an exploded bottle of jam…strawberries jam…emm…

First Role Playing Game.
Final Fantasy 7 (1997)
Windows 98.

I was 11 when I played this game since it is a RPG all I have to do is to learn the game system and voila. I don’t manage to finish the game until I was 14 due to my computer that runs on a Pentium 2 233mhz of RAM and a TWO GB worth of space. It somehow stop running at one stage of the game and I can’t seem to get through.

And at soon last my Uncle bought a PlayStation Hell yeah. I finished it in 2 days.

Ps. I have no idea what happen to the Dungeons and Dragons system I never really embrace games like Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gates. Anyone mind to borrow?

First Survival Horror.
Resident Evil/Biohazard
Sega Saturn

Before my uncle owns a Playstation, he has a Sega Saturn. Before he owns a Sega Saturn, he has the 3D0. Before all of that he has the FAMICOM (NES).

Here is the link for the video. Click here.
Just scroll to 3.00 of the video and watch the cheeky video. I can’t help but to laugh at the bloody effects following by a horrific voice that says the title.I used to be scared by that. Damn.
*Watch the cast, Jill Valentine looks so much nicer than the current resident evil movie.*

I spend most of the time dying in the game and playing it on the day. At night I would watch my uncle explores and scavenges through the hallways with Jill or Chris. I miss those days…

First Action RPG.
Diablo (don’t remember the year)
Windows 98

I was 12 when I first become a Warrior and slain King Leoric with my holy sword. I bashed and hacked my way through the dark and eerie bloody hallways that filled with the stench of the demonic minions.

The sight of deformed and mutilated corpses that were left around the dark hallways were always filled with precious loots or traps. I hope it moves so i could hacked my sword to their throat sending them back to hell for the second time.

At last on the bottom floor of the Cathedral lies one of the Prime Evils, Lord of Terror, Diablo. He was my goal, my ambition, my glory, the time I spent on the quest, mazes, dungeons and all of this demon slash hacking monstrosity will finally end… until

After all the potions spamming, opening countless of town portals and enduring the painful walloping from one of the rulers from Hell, my hero deals the final blow by slashing his neck and sending back his demonic minions back to the fiery hellhole. It leads to a cutscene showing….

Our hero held the soulstone and plunged it to his forehead hoping that he could withstand the corruption from the demon itself . He failed miserably of course but good attempt, that’s why there is Diablo 2.

PS. I was shocked when he plunged the soulstone into his head. And I have no idea that Diablo 2 will be released.

First Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
Ragnarok Online (2003)

Before I got my broadband which is the ever unreliable blood puking Streamyx, I used TMNet Dial-up to venture the cute cartoonish 2D world of Ragnarok Online. Since Malaysia connectivity has always been unstable, I suffered a huge lag time for about 2 -3 second until Streamyx is available at my area. It really didn't help much though because the servers were just drastically overpopulated.

Nevertheless, it was fun, dungeon exploring, decapitating monsters, dying an honourable death, teasing noob players, piss off the Pro players and then got owned, hell it was fun.

But all the fun ended when the beta closed and the game started charging money. My life came back to me and I was force to study like every the other two goody shoes students... until I found out that were things such as private servers, which is exactly 3 days after the beta closed.

So what is your first time? Do you remember? Adios, until next time, game on.

What's next?

*Depicted from IGN.*
The games industry keeps evolving- but how far has it go? Being honest, I have no idea what infinite possibilities will the creators create and what they can think of anymore.
While you are sitting in front of the TV playing your future-proof video game consoles, you have no idea when it will be replaced or it's outdated again.

In this post, I will be telling you what is going on the games industry and share some of my opinions on them. *You will find my post more Malaysia oriented.*

3D gaming.

Yes, put on the Rayband 3D glasses by Nvidia and you will see bullets flying out of your tv screens.

Other than movies, you will now experience 3D at your own monitor, it's easy all they have to do is to shrink the size of the cinema screen into a size of an average monitor right? Ok, back to the topic.

Nvdia developed their GeForce 3D Vision which is a 3D solution cost around 200USD$ which is aprox around RM 800. Instead of using the usual polarised glasses of other systems, it uses powered active shutter glasses and a transmitter for the glasses, which results in a very convincing impression of depth. You can also adjust the level of depth on the fly. Nuff readin'. Images talk.

I don't think you are interested on how it works.

In case your are interested, other than getting the 3D vision pack, you will still need a display that can handle this monster- this means a display that can refresth up to 120Hz and can be dual link DVI or a DLP HDTV. Not to mention, a GeForce Graphic Card that supports this tech. Here is a list of the supported GPU.

Once you are done, you can go gaming straight away- You will be amazed by the numbers of games that will work with the system, including the zombie shooting Left 4 Dead, the never ending MMO WoW: WoTLK, building hopping Mirror's Edge and the epic world war 2 shooter Call of Duty World at War. Click here for the list games.

How bout the PC?- Most monitors like iZ3D also has 3D-ready LCDs
What about ATI? - Yes, it can be paired with ATI Radeon cards.

In my opinion, I am not a fan of 3D although it look nice, wearing glasses while playing is abit odd, what about for people who have high power glasses? Do they have to take out their glasses and play like Illidan?I hope not...

Conclusion, 3D is really a hit for gamers, it still needs time to mature and newer models to be release. A very innovative concept.

Scale of Amazement: WOW.

Blu-Ray Super Disc.

I think they should come up with a new name? Who cares? All you want to know is the capacity this baby can hold. Thanks to Pioneer's new golden-bluish circle technology, which packs 16 layers into one disc, and each of them can hold 25 GB. 25x16 layers... 400 GB storage capacity in total. The best news is you don't need a new type of Blu Ray writer to read this baby. The advantages are so clear- more 1080p content can be packed into film/tv releases.

More space equals to more gameplay's duration on a video game. I can imagine the developers fitting their sweat and effort into this DVD.


The girl....*cough* sorry...I mean the disc looks quite transparent.

The girl *cough*.. Damn it....

Really there is no point of debating since the price is not out yet and most of us were still using DVD writers. Still, 400 GB is fascinating but do we really need that kind of memory? Like money, it is never ever enough.

Pirates will be happy as they can compile movies, games into one DVD and sell it dirt cheap. Well, at least you don't need a huge collection of DVDs anymore...or is it?

Scale of Amazement: Expected.

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screens.

I bet you can't bend your display.

The super ultra thin display that produces greater colour reproduction, excellent viewing angle (bye bye flare) and helluva refresh rate. SONY released the first commercial model, although 11 inch screen seems small and the price is definitely not cheap, which cost around USD 2500 but at least the technology is there.

Perhaps in the near future, larger screens would follow, and when the technology matures, the price will gradually drops. It is just a prediction but certainly not in 2009.

I see no flare...notice her two things near the screen? Look how small it is...the gap between the fingers. How thin can it get? It's from Samsung btw.

Explain the tech you say? Unlike LCD screens, OLED do not require a backlight to function. Resulting, a lower consumption rate and making the display much more thinner than a LCD.
Since OLED do not require any backlight, the display can still be seen even at a 90 degrees angle.

But, it is still an organic material, which means it has a limited lifespan, nevermind that they will soon figure out a way to prolong the lifespans for this Gizmo.

Scale of Amazement: I can fit this display through my door ledge.

Upgrades!?? AGAIN??

It's a scene, and it's a goddamn arms race by both Nvidia and AMD, who will rise as the new supreme ruler this year? You decide.

Intel's Larrabee: Intel's decide to join the AMD and Nvidia market with itis new GPU/CPU hybrid. Will this darkhorse win? Or will it ever see the light of day in 2009? I wonder...

DX 11: DX 10 dissapoint us......but this time they promise us (once again) that the new DX 11 proves to be far more superior than it's predecessor. The first tier of video cards will be released at the end of 2009, look forward to it.

New PhysX Comes Of Age: CUDA based GPU with PhsyX technology in one package.... we shall see.

New CPUs from AMD and Intel:....Yes, perhaps your CPU is outdated again.