Friday, July 20, 2007

Some took my Turkey; and left me Pie

Hehe, right! Someone took my Turkey emblem and replaced it with a Pie!

I know pies and cakes were being handed over but I didn't know they came at a price of one turkey. If I knew that I would never have traded it in! I mean the turkey was an exclusive emblem handed only to those who used Gamespot on Thanksgiving 2006. I really hope that I get my turkey back and its not gone for good. But do tell me, did anyone else reported the same crime?

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Dragon Ball Online!!!

How come I never found out? It turns out that there is an Online MMORPG based on the Dragon Ball franchise being developed by NTL in Japan and Korea. It's going to be published by Namco Bandai, and it would be out on the PC and XBOX 360 in 2008. Since being an MMORPG on the PC and X360, it is speculated that it would benefit from LIVE Anywhere, and allow cross-platform gaming between the two systems. Currently only being developed for Japan and Korea, it is expected to hit the western market too sometime in the future. Akira Toriyama has great deal of control over the creative aspects of the project, both contributing to and supervising the story and art design, including character and location designs, so we can expect a lot of anime like action from the game.

Dragon Ball Online is set in Age 1000, exactly 216 years after Goku left the 28th World Tournament to train Uub in Age 784. The player takes the role of one of the many warriors living in the Dragon Ball World, which are searching for the Dragon Balls, training to compete in the World Martial Arts Tournament, or aspiring to become like the warriors of legend. While training, the player senses a disaster strike the world. The Earth is divided into pieces by a villainous organization known as the Dark Eye, which is lead by a mysterious individual. Receiving guidance from Time Cop Trunks, the player sets out on a journey to defeat the mastermind and save the world, meeting other players along the way, and interacting with the denizens of the Dragon World, including characters from the original series.

Currently, there are three playable races confirmed; Earthling, Nameks and the Saiyans. Players will be able to further customize their avatars with a variety of options, including hairstyles, colors, and clothing. Human and Saiyan players will begin their journey on Earth, recruited by Time Patrol Trunks to help save the world, while Nameks will begin on New Namek, guided by Saichoro to help those on Earth. Players also have the option to start their journey as a child, allowing their character to age and grow into adulthood as they play the game, much like the main characters of the original series. There is a lot of open ended gameplay as the player has the choice to hunt for the dragon balls, train and compete in the World Martial Arts Tournament with other players, or just head out on the quest to become the greatest warrior in the universe.

Expect free roaming environments on both Planet Earth and New Namek and a lot of downloadable add-on content released later. Either released in the English version or not, this is the one to look out for, if you are a Dragon Ball/Z/GT fan. In the mean time I leave you with some screen shots of the game!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

So What’s New

Well, even with all the fuss going around these days, I am still pretty much bored! I can't think of anything to do, even though a lot has happened in the past week. Some important events include that my 4th semester results were out and there was the trimmed down E3 Media and Business Summit 2007, which quite frankly the name puts me to sleep for a couple of hours. Sure its E3 and a lot of news came around but there was nothing revealed that intrigued me, other than the fact that this may be a boring year for gaming if Grand Theft Auto IV fails to deliver on its promise. Plus it turns out the Resident Evil 5 will also not be available this year so its another bummer to the summer event.

There may be a $100 price cut to the PS3 but there is still no strong reason to go out and buy one, and from all the rumors I have heard, it turns out that Microsoft may unveil the 3rd Generation XBOX in two years placing the life expectancy of the X360 in question. The increase to a full 3 year after sales warranty tells a different story however that, Microsoft believe the X360 could go on for another 3 to 4 years. What would really bring a revolution now would be a an announcement from Microsoft in one or two months regarding the price of the X360, like a $100 price cut for all the three SKUs. The new Zapper from Mario factory looked good, but I don't quite fancy the Wii Fit idea. I think it would not make a big impact. Who ever would want a video game that would require them to 'work-out'?

In terms of next generation, I think the PC is easily comparable to the consoles now and if equally supported by the developers, would be overtaking them by the end of the year. The Intel Core 2 line is looking more promising with the new chips that would soon join the block. And who knows, maybe AMD do pump out a true Quad-Core solution to challenge Intel's Core 2 line. As for the graphics chips, the GeForce 8 series is far superior to the RSX in the PlayStation 3, with capabilities like Full Screen 16x Anti Aliasing and High Dynamic Range Lighting simultaneously. On top of that we may get triple or quad SLI out of the 8800 chips to really boost the amount of juice we get from them. And Vista backed by DirectX 10, Games For Windows and LIVE Anywhere seem to be the real future, which is pretty much going to dominate the gaming industry in the coming years, so I wouldn't bet on the consoles right now. The only advantage they have left is the fact that they get exclusive game titles, like Grand Theft Auto IV and Halo 3 for the XBOX 360 and Metal Gear Solid 4 and Killzone 2 for the PlayStation 3. And since now, at least for 2007, PlayStation 3 has stole Unreal Tournament 3 from the PC, which was going to be a DirectX 10 title. But we still have a Crysis to prepare for and I think it would be a tough competition between Grand Theft Auto IV, Halo 3 and Crysis for 2007 Game of the Year.

Saturday, July 7, 2007

OMG I Am Level 20!

Yeah, its true. I have just hit level 20 here on Gamespot. Finally a major milestone after all these years, blogging and gaming and stuff; all that hard work finally paid off. It was a tough road on from level 10 to here, it took me over an year to achieve this level. When at level 19, I thought it would never pass, actually as far as I can remember it took me about 1 month and 24 days to complete it where most other people could do it just under 3 weeks. And from what I have heard, level 20 also known as the Dead Level or the Danger Level takes eternity, for the regular speeders, so I am assuming it would take about 3 months for me. I hope the road ahead of level 20 is easier but I have to get over this hurdle first.

Back in 2000 when I first joined Gamespot, I never knew I would make it this far. In fact after loosing my original account, I was going to give up. But then something inside me compelled me to start over, and after an absence of 3 months I rejoined on January 2004. After that it was easy gaining level 12, which I actually got under 2 years compared to about 3 from the previous account. I also got a lot more emblems, probably because my understanding of the site grew too. Now, I have achieved level 20 now, and plan to go a lot further. With this achievement, I'm going to add new blog header for my profile.

And just for a quick review, here is a snapshot of my Gamespot status:


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