I've finally managed to get a new video card: BFG 8800 GT OC.

Now all I need is a new mobo and CPU

My new Gamespot friend nichavgo wrote in his blog about this topic. I decided to quick blog it too since it seems to have flown under Gamespot's radar.

Brazil, (yes, the large country in South America) has banned Counter Strike and EverQuest. This one should definetely be in "Ripley's Believe It or Not" list.

In less than three months GS has lost three major staff members: Jeff Gerstmann, Alex Navarro, and Ryan Davis. Add to that Rich Gallup's departure last July and you can spell "major problem for On the Spot."

Sure, there are still great guys like Brian Eckberg, Ricardo Torrez and Matt Rorie. However, you would have to be blind (and deaf) to not realize that the magic of "On the Spot" is now gone despite the efforts of new host Ryan McDonald. I haven't seen/heard/read about new members yet but whoever is in charge of HR at GS needs to work fast to get some new talent and get "On the Spot"'s mojo back.

So today I discovered GS performed a "Forums Directory clean-up". But they didn't clean just the directory as you might've inferred from the announcement title. This clean-up involved wiping out completely the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube forums, among others. They replaced these boards with the new "Legacy Platforms" board in which they pretend to lump everything together, from the Atari 2600 to the PS2 and Xbox. There are still lots of big-name games that will be released on the PS2. Just head over to the "Coming Soon" section on the PS2 page. Sure, we still have the game specific boards for PS2 & Xbox games, but now I wonder how long these will last. And even if there are no new games coming out for the Xbox from an organizational point of view
is still a mess to have just one legacy board. Are they really saving that many man-hours or disk space by getting rid of those boards?

I wrote in the Site enhancements & Feedback board that we should have the option to build our own directory. That's right, in this era of Web 2.0 we should decide what boards show up in our forums page. They should keep separate boards like before and let us customize the forum list. I sincerely doubt this will ever happen, but heck, I can always dream.

Now back to Guitar Hero III

Quote from the Boston Globe's Hitman movie review:

There have been plenty of movies adapted from video games before, but "Hitman" may be the first one that actually feels like a computer wrote and directed it.

Ouch. Read the whole review.

I just bought Fight Night Round 3. It's time for HD KOs. I wanted to play this game ever since the first demo (e3 2005??). I played the PS2 version for a while but there were too many PC games I was playing at the time and it just got pushed down my priority list. And it was actually a good thing, kinda, 'cause now I get to enjoy it in HD and a new TV. I'll be posting my impressions soon.

Yes, finally there's some innovation in a multiplayer FPS game. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed countless hours of fragging in Doom, Counter Strike, Quake and Unreal, just to name a few, but it was about time for a fresh idea. I'm talking about the multiplayer game modes in Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Check out the video here. It may not turn out as great as it sounds, but it's nice to see they are trying something new.

Like B.B. King said, the thrill is gone. Maybe it was because this year I had been following news more closely and therefore there were no real surprises, maybe it was because the excitement of the new consoles has worn off, or maybe it was the new E3 format. Whatever the reason, this E3 was not nearly as exciting as the '05 or '06 editions.The one thing I liked is the Wii board concept, although I do not see myself buying one anytime time soon. The new PSP is not really worth it. I really think Sony should have waited more time, like another year or two, and then release a new model with some really cool features.

Also, I was really disappointed Ubisoft did not have the new Splinter Cell present at all. The trailer they released back in May said "Coming Holidays 2007". Now I'm pretty sure it will be delayed.

Other games I wanted to see but they were AWOL: 8 days, The Getaway, Final Fantasy XIII, Spore, Two Days to Vegas.

Let's just cross our fingers and hope E3 '08 is a better one.

The theme in the last Assassin's Creed trailer/teaser was stuck in my head ever since the first time I've listened to it. Thanks to this amazing thing called "the internet", I was able to find the name of the song and the group by typing four words from the lyrics and clicking my mouse twice: The song is called "Lonely Soul" by U.N.K.L.E.  from the album Psyence Fiction.

This line fits right in with the time travel theme of the game: "I'm gonna die in a place that don't know my name"

SCEA Gamer's Day made my day

Two days ago I cleared Opus 2 tour in Ridge Racer (PSP). This is the game's description of this tour:

"The second Max Tour, "Opus 2," is the ultimate 4-car battle of (type) 2 machines. Only 1 in 300 is expected to clear this challenge. There are no prizes, race for your honor!"

These Max tours are really difficult, and I even think the AI cheats sometimes. I still have four more tours to complete. The last one should get me in the 0.05%, if I ever manage to clear it !!!

I've finished playing the story mode in "Filter of the Syphon" I didn't get to unlock all the weapons, but to be honest, as great as I think this game is, I don't have the drive to play every mission over and over until I get the necessary rating to unlock everything.

Instead, I'm now playing Lego Star Wars II. I recommend this game to all Star Wars fans. It's not really difficult or too challenging, but it's lots of fun.

I've also played a little bit of Tekken for the PSP. The "command list", which is the sequence of buttons you're supposed to press to do some moves and combos, is just insane. Every character has a list of 30 or so commands, and some of them involve pressing more than five buttons, and the sequence has to be executed with the right timing and in the right place and ... just insane.

That's it for now. Until next time.

SplinterCellH

 ..... found it on The Fishbowl.

How to (and how not to) sell technology

Found on a 37Signals blog, and accompanying comments. Apple’s Steve Jobs describing what he thinks is wrong with Microsoft’s upcoming Zune music player:

I’ve seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you’ve gone through all that, the girl’s got up and left! You’re much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you’re connected with about two feet of headphone cable.

Somehow, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer finds a way to make the Zune sound even worse:

I want to squirt you a picture of my kids. You want to squirt me back a video of your vacation. That’s a software experience.

That’s how it is. Steve Jobs can make sharing earwax sound sexy. Ballmer can make a digital file transfer sound like something you’d need to clean up after.

My SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo copy arrived today !!

Can't wait until lunch break to try it. Just in case you're wondering, it's not that easy to find PSP games in my country, and when you do, there's usually two major problems: a) they cost about USD 70 and/or b) they are mostly soccer games . So, yes, to get a good PSP game for USD 40 is really great news in my book.