Category: For the Geeks

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For the Geeks

Use My Coupon and Get a Telltale Games Episode for US$5 Each (44% Discount)!

Get your game today!

You may recall in 2007 I was passionately writing the reviews for the Sam & Max Season One episodes that were released monthly.  Undeniably one of the best adventure games ever made and the episodes have consistently received positive rating from PC Gamer magazine and others.  In celebrating the 5th anniversary, Telltale Games is giving me a coupon to share with you all!  Use my coupon below and you can get any of their games for $5 per episode at their store.  That is a 44% discount.

COUPON CODE: GCP-AQE-RN3-TS6

To remind you how great Sam & Max is, below is one video I have contributed to YouTube.  A user rated 5-star video with a humble 15,873 views to date.  This genre of adventure games often involve solving puzzles by point-and-click in a 2D world of beautiful cartoon art.  In between the game, there are cut-scenes.

As you can see from the video, the game is hilarious.  For every title, Telltale Games releases the game by episodes.  That way, gamers get to receive a more frequent release and the developer gets to fine tune the game based on online feedback.  My personal experience with Telltale Games has been very positive.  The payment and delivery is seamless.  The download of each monthly episode has been fast.  And the collector’s edition in DVD format available at the end of the season was delivered to my home address as promised.  I did have a slight problem with the discount and they responded to my query posted at their forum almost instantaneously.

To start browsing for your favorite title, click on this link.  You shouldn’t need to type in the coupon code (see below).  All the episodes should come with a discounted price of US$5.  Depending on your appetite, you may wish to try out Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit, Bone, Strong Bad, and more.  Feel free to download a trial version and see if it’s your cup of tea – free.

Shopping chart for Telltale Games

My coupon only works for per episode download and not for the bundle.  Spread the word!  Every time someone uses my coupon, I get a $1 credit to fund my future purchases.  Thanks!  You won’t regret it.  It’s fun.

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For the Geeks

Dell Swarm – The More People Buying It, The Most Discount You Get!

Dell Swarm Website

So I was at what appears as the world first preview of Dell Swarm.  Of all the countries in the world, Dell has decided to choose Singapore as the pilot for this new and innovative way of product sales.  Maybe that says something about how we Singaporeans love … discounts?  Or more so for group discounts.  To cut a long story short, Dell Singapore is selling some of their products at a promotional price.  But there is more to it.  The more people swarmed together and buy the same product, the more discount the entire group gets.

That makes perfect sense.  I bought my Nikon dSLR camera together with my buddy Darkspore; and then we bought the white balance card together at Amazon.com.  I bought my NAS together with my buddy TK; and then we bought the digital jukebox together at Amazon.com.  So if the air travel industry has the 2-to-go or 4-to-go concept all this while, why doesn’t the e-Commerce retail business follow suit?

Apparently, that is what Dell Swarm has in mind.  The idea is so new that the Dell and Intel folks at the blogger event are as excited as me on how this will turn out.  So what exactly is Dell Swarm?  Here is a quick run down.

  • A Swarm is a group that forms to buy selected Dell laptops powered by the latest Intel® processors for less, within Singapore.
  • Every Tuesday (at 00:00:01), two swarms will be opened for two selected products eligible for group discount.
  • Any product put on swarm will have a discount from the original price as advertised in Dell.com.sg regardless on how many buyers are in the swarm.  So I guess if you already want to buy that Dell product powered by Intel®, you already have a good deal when you join the swarm.
  • And now, here is the fun part.  The more people join the swarm (in Singapore) and buy, the lower the price will drop!
  • The swarm has a lifetime of 72 hours or it will close when a limit of 15 buyers is hit.
  • So how much do you pay?  Everyone in the swarm will pay one final price – the lowest one.

Since I am given an access to their yet-to-go-live website, here are some screenshots on how it works.  I was told that all prices shown are not official so don’t get too excited if it is too … low … ha ha ha.

Dell Swarm - Demo 1

In this example (above), the Inspiron Mini 12 at the original price of S$899 is selling at a discounted price of S$854 if you are the first buyer (I tried the new netbook by the way and it looks awesome!).  So what happens when more buyers are joining the swarm?

Dell Swarm - Demo 2

With just 3 buyers, the price has dropped from S$899 to S$820.  And with 8, the illustrated price has dropped to the lowest you can get, S$809.

If you are not sure about buying, you can choose the follow option and will be informed as and when the price changes.  Maybe you have a target price in mind?

What is interesting about this innovative sales model is that it encourages word-of-mouth through both traditional means as well as the social media network.  Simply put, the more people join your swarm, the deeper discount you will get.  And which products do Dell Singapore plan to promote via Dell Swarm?  Reliable source tells me the followings: Inspiron Mini 12, Dell Studio 14, Dell Studio XPS M1340, and Dell Studio 14.

Dellswarm.com will be launched on May 5, 2009.  Keep a look out if you plan to get a Dell.  I for one am shopping for a netbook for our upcoming Spanish trip (mainly for the back-up of my digital photos just in case you think I am a workaholic or blogaholic).  I know someone in office who is buying a netbook for her business trip to UK.  And another friend is buying a laptop for his daughter.  Happy swarming guys! 

PS. This is not a sponsored post and all details are subjected to change.

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For the Geeks

Norton Internet Security – Protection That You Won’t Feel Like You’re Having One!

Norton Insight

These days, everything seem to be on steroid.  Like the F1 on TV, that very fast very furious movie, and like the new Norton Internet Security I have been using for the past 30 days.  In the beginning of this year, I wrote an entry on the Norton Gaming Edition.  I’m still running that in one of my machines at home.  Friends of mine know how much I value the speed of my quad core monster.  Right after my Norton subscription on that machine was expired, I installed this 2009 version.

I timed it.  The installation was indeed less than a minute as advertised.  That’s pretty fast.  From the moment I’ve installed Norton Internet Security till now, everything works in the background.  That is, from live update (or now they call it pulse update as it happens every 5 to 15 minutes on its own) to quick scan to incremental full system scan.  What is really cool about the latest version of this software suite is that scanning happens whenever my computer is in idle, automatically (see screenshot below).  The moment I wake up my computer, the scanning stops.

Norton Security History

So how quick is a quick scan?  I just did one.  Less than 30 seconds.  How can that be?  That has to do with the new Norton Insight.  It is a community intelligence-driven technology that drastically cut down the need to scan common files.  As you can see from the screenshot at the top of this entry, 87% of my files are in the trusted zone.

Just how resource intensive Norton Internet Security then?  In terms of working memory usage, it’s less than 7MB.  That’s pretty light.  Norton Internet Security offers a higher level of protection than Norton Gaming Edition, for those who need it.  And if you are into actively monitoring your security, there are tons of reports on security risks and scan, firewall activities, errors, Norton community watch, and more.

Idle time scan

If you need a more comprehensive protection than just an anti-virus and if you work with the Internet a lot, Norton Internet Security is a good product to consider.  Its small memory footprint, fast scan, and hassle free security management makes it certainly one attractive product to own.  If not for the little pop-up that appears every now and then (see right), I wouldn’t even feel that Norton has been working hard for me.

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For the Geeks

Beyond Saving My Life And Into The World Of ReadyNAS!

My New Netgear ReadyNAS!

A Vision at the IT Show

I had a vision last Sunday.

As I inched my way through a huge crowd inside the air-conditioned subterranean shopping mall connecting the IT Show to where I had parked my car, I could see the grey sky and heavy rain through the large glass windows. We were travelling at point zero zero zero zero one kilometer per hour, breathing in the humidity of sweat and rain.

At one vantage point—on top of an escalator, about four meters above the crowd—I saw faces.

Lots of faces.

So many faces looking in my direction.

At that moment, I had a vision.

I want to be a rock star. And these are my audience, their faces full of anticipation.

My friends and I looked at each other, shook our heads, and said: They have no idea what they are getting themselves into.

But such is the price of attending an IT Show.

I have never seen that many people in our convention and exhibition center. Not even during the Motor Show, when there are usually plenty of hot babes around. I was actually scared coming down the escalators. What if there was—touch wood—a pile-up at the bottom? Sardines heading into cans on a non-stop production line.

Where is that bloody emergency stop button?

None.

When Hard Disks Attack

Sunday morning I woke up relatively early, planning to pay Azeroth a visit.

Bam!

My hard disk crashed.

And of course it crashed on the last day of the IT Show.

Panic.

I called my friends at the last minute to see who could accompany me. Phew. Those Maxtor hot backup devices really did save my life, just as advertised. All my data was safe.

I only wish Bill Gates had the brain size of Steve Jobs and gave PC users a Time Machine like Apple did.

Now it was time to replace my crashed 500GB hard disk and reinstall the operating system.

Fun time.

Not.

The NAS Idea

Maybe this was a sign.

Maybe I should go beyond merely saving my life. Maybe I needed my own home network storage—with industrial-grade reliability—so I could pull out or jam in any hard disk anytime and my data would still be intact.

Fortunately for me, TK and my photography buddy Mat could make it.

Time for shopping.

Except it wasn’t really shopping for them. They knew exactly what they wanted, knew the strike price, and only needed to locate the right booth, buy the item, and leave.

I, on the other hand, had no idea what exactly to buy.

Exactly.

I only had a concept—like most things in my life.

That’s all.

Mat has been using the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ for years and loves it. TK was planning to get the smaller version. He told me, “Since you have tons of CDs like me, you’ll need a Squeezebox and this.”

OK, sold.

If I got stuck figuring out how to use the device, at least I had a few numbers to call.

Wait…

What the heck is a Squeezebox?!

Digitising 800 CDs

Imagine this: all 800 of my CDs digitized into the free lossless audio codec format (a.k.a. FLAC), ready to be streamed into a Squeezebox that connects directly to my hi-fi.

Any song from my CD collection available with a touch of the remote control.

Hi-fi sound quality.

My new toy (pictured above) can hold up to four hard disks. Right now I have installed three 1TB Western Digital GreenPower drives. With the built-in data redundancy, I have about 1.8TB of space accessible from within my home network.

Gadgets these days are going green.

So is the new D-Link switch I bought that day.

The Price of ReadyNAS

I could have bought two of the latest Nikon 50mm lenses with the money I spent.

Oh well.

There is a price to pay for entering the world of ReadyNAS.

TK and Mat told me I could do a lot more with it.

We shall see.

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For the Geeks

The New Linksys by Cisco Media Hub – One Is Enough?

Linksys by Cisco Media Hub

As I was shaking the hands of Jaimohan, Head of Product Management (Cisco), thanking him and his team’s time in answering my (rather dumb) questions raised during the blogger event of the new product’s launch, he smiled at me and asked, “So how many are you getting?”.  OK, that’s a private joke.  Throughout the event I kept saying that I need a farm of Media Hub to organize my media files and he kept reassuring me that if one is not enough, I can add more!  Very well.  Right now, as you read this blog entry, I am writing a proposal to Jaimohan to make my dream of Media Hub farm comes true, sponsored by Cisco.  I am not asking a lot.  Perhaps 8 to start with (with hard disk please, thank you!).  That will be a 16 TB of space on top of the 4 TB I am currently having at home split between two computers.  It’s not a lot to ask for, is it?

Who reads paragraphs of words these days?  So here is what you need to know about Linksys by Cisco Media Hub in point form.

What is it?

  • It knows where all the media contents are stored in your home network.
  • It acts as a single point of media access within your home.
  • It enables you to access your home media contents securely via the Internet.
  • It can be used as a storage device and can hold up to 2 hard disks.
  • It is small and beautiful.

Uh-huh.  Tell me more.

  • You connect one of these sexy and tiny Media Hub into your home network and it will locate all the media files in your entire network.  That includes the wireless phones that are connected to your network and more.  Gasp, right?  I swear when the guys in the suite heard this, they all sat with their backs straight wondering if that picture or that video they took earlier on were being scanned by the Media Hub.  Didn’t mama teach you not to connect to stranger’s wi-fi network just because it is free?
  • Home users these day are all lost in our own digital jungles.  I have two computers, 5 internal hard disks, 3 external hard disks, a total of 4TB worth of capacity.  There are a lot, a lot of media files inside – pictures, music tracks, and video clips.  Imagine, no more prowling through the disk drives, expanding the file directories, just to locate that video clip of … Lust, Caution.
  • Think of it as a media directory of your home network.  And you can even access them when you are miles away from home, through secured Internet connectivity provided by Cisco.

What can you do with Media Hub?

  • If your TV is hooked up with your home network, you can watch the HD content stored within your home network (Community message – Say no to privacy).  Stream up to 3 separate HD signal within your home.  You can watch your family photo collection at your TV with the lovely company of your friends and families too.  Just make sure that the photos are rated PG.
  • If your audio system is hooked up with your home network, you can listen to your music collection without the need to change your CD (Note: I have 700+ CD as of 2007 and this will come in handy).
  • If  you are bored at work, your own personal collection of music and movies is just a click away provided that (1) you have Internet access and (2) your Media Hub at home is switched on.
  • If you go for an overseas holiday and wish to back up your personal photos into your home network, you can upload them to your Media Hub at home.  In fact, you can upload and download any type of files using the Media Hub as the storage device.  Think of it as your very own file server (or remote data storage).  And you can expand this storage capacity by simply adding more hard disks onto your home network.  Neat?

Is one enough?  Does it come in different color?  What’s the damage like?

  • Each Media Hub comes with a 500GB Western Digital (WD) hard disk (take my word, WD is one of the more reliable hard disks out there in the market) as well as an extra slot for an additional hard disk.  1 TB hard disk these days is pretty affordable.  And if you need to access more than 1.5 TB of media data, you can attach another storage device onto your home network and keep it switched on.  For lazy dude like me, I may go for multiple Media Hub.
  • According to the (very attractive) ladies from the Cisco sales and marketing team, Media Hub unlike other storage solution (such as NAS) is very quiet.  As an environment lover, I am happy to hear that Media Hub is designed with lower power consumption in mind too.
  • I asked if there are other colors such as orange, white, and pink.  And the friendly Jaimohan told me that after a global design initiative, all their latest products are designed with the same piano black and silver.  OK, I am starting a new business to design new stickers for these cuties.
  • S$499 for each Media Hub.  If you are willing to pay S$599, you will get a LCD as well as slots to plug in your various memory cards.

Where can I find out more?

  • You could drop me a comment here and I can follow up on your behalf.
  • Or if you are in Singapore, please drop by the new showroom at Funan DigitaLife Mall (5th floor) to experience Linksys by Cisco home networking products.  Do mention to the lovely salesperson that you heard this wonderful product from this infamous blogger who has been making all the headlines for the wrong reasons me.  I don’t have a kick-back from Cisco yet.  Maybe if more of you turn up at the showroom, my dream of a Media Hub farm sponsored by Linksys by Cisco may come true.

You know me, one picture is not enough.  I took this inside the Grand Hyatt Suite where the demo was held.

A Suite in Grand Hyatt

More News Release!

  • In Singapore, the products will be made available from 18 February 2009 onwards from the following authorized Linksys by Cisco retailers: Best Denki – Ngee Ann City and Great World City outlets, Challenger Superstore – Funan DigitaLife Mall and VivoCity outlets, Copernicus Interactive – Sim Lim Square.
  • The products will be officially launched at the IT SHOW 2009 and will thereafter be available at all authorized Linksys by Cisco retailers and value added resellers.
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For the Geeks Photography

Facing Off Sheylara At Symantec Gaming Tournament – Hands-on with Norton AV 2009 Gaming Edition

Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition

Previously, I teamed up with Sheylara on that blogger challenge of … erm … national significance.  This time, I had to team against her at the Symantec Gaming Tournament.  My first time playing a Counter-Strike lookalike network game.  Sheylara had planted so many bullets on my back that it was no longer funny.  And she was physically sitting one row behind me with her virtual gun point right at my real back.  So how did the tournament go?  Hang on for a moment.  Let’s talk about this new Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition first.  And I have more (surreal) photos to share later in this entry.  The one with the classic Sheylara post is probably my favorite.

Of Norton, AVG, McAfee, and … Norton

Coincidentally, just days before I received the invitation to this blogger event, I was curiously staring at this yellow box of “Gaming Edition” at one computer store one fine afternoon.  As an avid gamer, I am excited to see Norton from Symantec listens to the gamers’ needs.

The concept of computer virus always bugs me, though I am a computer scientist and engineer by training.  I wish I could visit the Norton lab one day and see how it works.  Norton has a business because of the virus makers.  Do they recruit virus makers to kill off the virus?  How do they get into these people’s heads?

My love affair with Norton as such.  Companies use Norton products so as a home user, I too bought Norton products to protect my computers.  That was quite a while ago.  Back then, Norton products were resource intensive, countless updates that required countless machine restarts.  So I ditched Norton and went for free products like AVG.  Didn’t work out so I went for McAfee.  McAfee seemed to work for me but it didn’t.  When a virus did strike (how often right?), it failed to quarantine.  And I have to keep signing on every few days or so to have my account verified.  Enough is enough, so I went back to Norton.

Last year, I was shocked by Norton 2008’s superb performance – both in terms of product installation and the on-going protection.  I was told that 2009 edition is even faster.  Wow!  And since I need to get my hands dirty for this blog entry, I uninstalled my Norton Internet Security 2008 that still has 2 months worth of subscription and give this Gaming Edition a try.

Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition

Norton AV Gaming Edition Skin

The box says that this Gaming Edition will install in less than a minute.  Are you for real?!  Surprisingly it does.  If you come from the dinosaur age like I do some people do, that is just hard to believe.  Even the update did not take long (note: if you notice the CPU usage meter, I was running a full system scan and Norton is transparent enough to let me know how much resource it was using).

Gamer Mode

So, what so special about the gaming edition?

When Norton AV Gaming Edition detects a game launched in full screen mode (or in my case because I run World of Warcraft in Windows mode, I can click onto the system tray and switch on gaming mode), certain protections are turned off, including the suspension of alerts and notifications (see picture on the left).  Underneath the hood, there are options for you to decide if you wish to turn off (1) AntiVirus, (2) Advance Protection, (3) Intrusion Prevention, and (4) Automatic LiveUpdate when the gaming mode is switched on.  Neat!  And if you own an online gaming account like I do, I was told that this product will safeguard you against intrusion too.

Symantec Gaming Tournament

That night was the first time I played what appeared like a 3-on-3 Counter-Strike network game.  All those years of World of Warcraft training seems to have help.  It is quite a fun game to play.  There is a terrorist team to pick and a counter-terrorist team too.  I find it is much easier to play the terrorist.  Go in, plant the bomb, and get out.

The professional gamers were in the house.  Gaming as a profession?!  I thought only gold farmers in MMORPG makes money.  Amazing.

In Closing

You know you need to protect your computers against virus.  The question is which product to use.  There are alternatives out there and it doesn’t take much research to realize that Norton is the way to go in terms of reliability, ease of installation and use, and performance.  The only consideration is pricing.  For the Gaming Edition, Norton from Symantec has taken one step further.  It requires less than 6MB of memory (8 times less compares to competitors), opens only 2 processes, and add less than 3 seconds to boot time.  If you are an avid gamer who is looking for a virus protection tool, you shouldn’t settle for less.

There are much to cover for the Norton 2009 products.  Perhaps another post when I get a hold onto the Internet Security 2009.  Stay tuned.

A big thank you to the Norton folks and Text100 folks in making this event fun. I am happy to have learned so much more and in depth about the Norton products.  Yes, our team has won the tournament and thanks for the prize!

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For the Geeks

In the World of MMORPG, One Game Rules Them All – World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King

God knows how many hours some of the avid gamers have queued for the 1pm launch party.  It wasn’t so much of a party per se and when I was a few blocks away from my destination, minutes before the gate at SAFRA Town Club opened, a random group of lovely ladies right beside me crossing the same street, one of them started, “Look at the queue!  Something free is it?”  Another one replied, “No idea leh.  Maybe free food?”  And they continued speculating the obvious.  I really wanted to turn around and say, “That is for the launch party of the new World of Warcraft expansion”.  But I held my tongue.  Because they would have stared at me as though I was from another planet.

Like the way you stare at me now.

Just how big is this online gaming business?  It is huge.  At minimal, each gamer pays S$20 a month subscription fees to Blizzard, the company that created World of Warcraft.  And at this very moment, there are 11 million active subscribers worldwide.  That is a S$2.64 billion annual revenue.  But that is not all.  Whenever they release an expansion pack, assuming that all who are actively playing the game will get one, that is a S$770 million additional revenue within a very short time.  World of Warcraft enjoys a commercial success unseen of in its gaming domain, not to forget to mention the growth of player base.  On the flip side, it is also featured from time to time in the world news due to its negative social impact.  As for me, I joined the game in 2004 and am now a casual player.  Cynthia has recently joined me in the worldwide phenomenon too.

So tell me, in the world of massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG), which game is king?

Random Observations:

  1. The event organizer needs to get some hot young girls as helpers next year.  Though all geeks love Lara Croft, we do prefer real life beings at times.
  2. Walking up 8 flights of stairs just to get the game is very un-gamer friendly.  The (rather plumb) foreigner in front of us was panting hard and complained to me, “We are gamers.  We don’t exercise.  How can they do this to us?”  Uh-huh.
  3. Maybe it is a little bit of truth that when people see you carrying a huge camera, people immediately think that you are a pro and/or you are from the media.  When I talked to the staff, they were very friendly to me.  Did you know that estimated market size for the new expansion in Singapore is 30,000?
  4. When I told my buddy Mark that the queue was too long, he joked that I should tell them that I am an avid blogger and jump the queue.  Now, that would draw lots of aggro that is more than I could handle (note: aggro means that if you piss off someone in the game, you will get an attack!).  Mark, please come back to the game.  We need you!

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For the Geeks

Nokia N-Gage Games Night – I Was There (How Video Games Have Evolved)

How video games have evolved, how they have not.  After attended several of their press / blogger events, this time I was as close to where their home in Singapore is as I can be – the Nokia HQ.  When I arrived at the lobby, I gasped at the grandeur of modernity, perhaps a bit too quiet after office hour, nevertheless a strong statement of what the 5th most valuable global brand is to be ($36 billion).

There is a little corner of a posh retail store setup, there is another little area of some secret prototyping workshop going on, a booth for the N-Gage mobile gaming station next to the retail booth, and I peeped into the heart of the office through the floor-to-ceiling glass door and saw another beautiful lobby area behind the public reception area.  I joked if I could take a look inside and the friendly Nokia staff told me that it is strictly for staff only.  Judging at some of the funky unmarked Nokia devices that some of them are carrying, I reckon there must be quite a few top secret next-next generation wireless phones inside the restricted zone.

In My Days of the Arcade

Previously, I was with the Nokia N-Gage development team and have checked out some of their upcoming N-Gage hits.  Last evening, I had the opportunity to go hands-on with some of their upcoming titles.  And how video games have evolved, how they have not.  As I was staring at the video screens, looking at how two players battle each other in the fighting game “One”, I had flashbacks of my University days in UK, when I often hang out at the social center, admired at how my best mate flair when he played the “Street Fighter” and the “Mortal Kombat” at the arcade video stations.  He is a physicist, and I often joked that the knowledge of quantum physics must have got him far to the games.  I am a computer scientist, and I couldn’t even beat the computer character in those arcade video stations.

Neither could I beat my opponents in the Nokia N-Gage Games Night.  The game play of a fighting game has not evolved that much since the days of the arcade – basic navigation on movements, a set of buttons to execute a combo move, a set of timed counter moves, and a health bar hanging on top of each character’s head.  Yet, gone are the bulky arcade video stations and they are magically shrunk into a tiny device that fits onto our hands – a device that is always switched on in our waking hours and follows us wherever we go.  Finding an opponent is as simple as making an Internet or Bluetooth connection using our mobile devices that in today’s world, it is largely affordable and in many instances, free.  How video games have evolved.

Game with Your Built-in Camera

How video games have evolved that the way we play our game is no longer constrained by what happens inside this tiny mobile device, but we take the environment around us into the game.  “Metal Gear Solid Mobile” for instance enables players to take advantage of the external environment to advance our game progress.  Using the camera that comes with the wireless phone, the game allows you to navigate precisely by how you physically move your phone.  Not only that, you can take a picture of your surrounding area and use that as a pattern to camouflage the suit of your character that helps your stealth mission.  If you need a dark suit, take a picture of a dark object around you.  If you need something light, take a picture of the sky perhaps.

In Love with Racing

One friendly Nokia staff was passionately showcasing the new “DChoc Café Solitaire 12pack” to me and for those who are into solitaire type of games, you would love this one.  As for me, I was literally glued to the upcoming racing title “Asphalt 4 – Elite Racing”.  It is fast pace, taxing on concentration (initially at least), when after a few rounds of virtual racing on the street of Paris, my head was spinning.  I must be experiencing a virtual G force of some sort (too much F1!).  To skip to the end of the story, yes, I did get a rank 1 (I swear I would have kept the entire Nokia and Text100 team locked inside this booth till I get there), with one hand (playing with two hands is not a mandatory), and I could watch the “One” tournament of how the rest of the gamers face off each other live while I raced in my Mini.

How video games have evolved, how they have not.  Kudos to those who are so passionately developing and promoting the next generation of mobile gaming.  The device may be small, the outcome is anything but.

Related Links: Nokia events I have attended

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For the Geeks Game Reviews

EA Sports FIFA Online 2 Closed Beta Test Hosted by IAHGames – First Look

Note: If you still have problem with Hotmail, click here to install a client-based Mail beta – Windows Live.

I have a love hate relationship with IAHGames.  As an avid online gamer, I love the idea of having a game server hosted in Asia.  And that the server maintenance observes the Asia’s off peak hours, unlike the World of Warcraft (WoW) server that goes down almost all the Tuesday evenings here in Asia.  It may be foreign to some of you but believe me when I say this, millions of WoW fans in Asia are lost every Tuesday.  If I had a business, I would have targeted these lost souls and created some ease-your-WoW-withdrawal-syndrome themes to my business.  And I would have earned big bucks, since 2004.

I sort of hated (strong word, sorry, but thanks for the closed beta test invite!) IAHGames because of the way they handled the hosting of Hellgate London (HG:L).  OK, the parent company Infocomm Asia Holdings did the right marketing and financing (how can you miss the signage and the decorated jeep outside Funan IT Mall?) but fell short on technology and management.  Our Asian server went live before IAHGames could apply the crucial patch and from then on, our patch updates were horribly late compared to the American counterparts leading to Asian online gamers having to suffer from the bugs for weeks and months.  In the end, IAHGames found a solution to apply the subsequent patches without wiping the game progress; in the end, I quited HG:L because playing a buggy game is really no fun.

Enough of history.  Is FIFA Online 2 fun to play?  It has some elements of Championship Manager as you play the manager role in managing your team.  Each of your player has a set of stats and as your players level up, you get to customize your players by enhancing their stats the way you want them to be.  And you gain level as you play the matches too – be it as win or lose (wining has more points than losing).  There are football players and items you can trade with other online gamers (I have yet to find out how) so all these elements play like a typical MMORPG.  And unlike Championship Manager, you get to play the match too!

I have to admit that using the keyboard to play the match is less than ideal.  I failed to use my XBox 360 Controller that works with other PC games.  Anyway, playing with the keyboard does make in-game text chatting a lot easier with other gamers.  I always like the social aspect of the online games.  Because the game pace is usually fast, you can’t really chat that much.  But still, the game is much alive.  And I have to say, the online gamers are a lot tougher to beat than playing against the computer team.  I guess that is where the fun is.

Each online game lasts for a couple of minutes and joining a “World Tour” 1×1 match with another online gamer picked by the server seems fast (“League” is you against the computer), thanks to the Asia timezone.  There is 2×2 match too that you can form a team with your buddy.  But the waiting time was too long so we gave up.

Graphically, it does support wide screen format with the football players look 3D enough from a distance.  The replay is fun to watch too.  The close-up on the players tend to look cartoon-ish but that doesn’t bother me.  The voice commentary does seem to follow the game well, sarcastic at times (maybe I suck badly).  But of course, if you are to play for hours, some of the lines may appear repetitive to you.  The game does feel random in nature, which is good.  One time, one of my players was fouled due to hand ball.  I was like … what?!  Then there was a close-up replay to see how the ball did bounce off my player’s hand as he tackled the ball.  Amazing.  And some of the goals look so random that got me marvelled at my own virtual ingenuity.

FIFA Online 2 seems like a stripped- down version of the established football related games out there.  But if fast pace online game with character progression is your cup of tea, you may wish to give it a try.  I reckon they may give out free trial period like most of the online games out there.  Who knows, FIFA Online 2 may be one of those subscription free games.

PS. Some of the soundtracks are pretty cute.

Categories
For the Geeks Game Reviews

Spore – My 1st 8 Hours

8 years in the making, 3 years of anticipation for the fans, I grabbed a copy of “Spore” in a heartbeat.  Check out these colorful pictures taken from within the game.  All these creatures and objects are created by me – from head to toe, skin color to the extra pair of eyes on the butt.

I am a meat lover so I create a carnivore [1].  In phase 1 of the game (Cell), my goal is to keep eating other creatures while avoid to be eaten by the much bigger ones.  The more it eats, the bigger it gets, and the more DNA it acquires, the more complex it evolves [2] & [3].  At this phase, it is cute, it is fun, it is 2D, and it plays like a good old arcade game.  I absolutely love it.

At the beginning of phase 2 (Creature), my creature leaves the ocean [4].  Given the option of socializing with other groups of creatures through songs and dances (no kidding) versus hunting down each species to extinction, guess which path I take [6]?

OK.  You don’t have to take the path of destruction but I want my creatures to be the blood thirst warriors.  Enter phase 3 (Tribal), my desire to dominate continues [5].  This phase plays like a real time strategy game while the previous one is more like a role playing game.

In phase 4 (Civilization), my creatures build houses, entertainment centers, factories (that I designed) and … weapons of mass destruction [7]!  We tear down rival civilizations one by one converting their economic cities into military ones, their religious ones too into military cities.  Need not to say, the game play is very much like a simplified, accelerated version of Civ.

What comes at the end of world domination?  It is time for my creatures with eyes on their butts to rule the galaxy!  First, I need a spaceship [8].

Then, I need to practice high speed flying in a 3D world [9]!

And, it is time to do some serious space travel [10].  At this phase (Space), the game is initially mission driven and there are enough things to do for the ‘end game’ such as advancing through the ranks, collecting rare items, and learning new abilities.  What is the end of this game like?  It is for you to find out!

For those who are curious, “Spore” is the first multi-genre massively single-player online game.  Before I log off, check out this quote from Will Wright, the game designer for Spore and the Sim franchise.  Some of you may be able to relate and have a good laugh on this (like I did).

We were very focused, if anything, on making a game for more casual players. “Spore” has more depth than, let’s say, “The Sims” did. But we looked at the Metacritic scores for “Sims 2”³, which was around 90, and something like “Half-Life”, which was 97, and we decided – quite a while back – that we would rather have the Metacritic and sales of “Sims 2”³ than the Metacritic and sales of “Half-Life.”