2009 | SAW

If you’re a Silent Hill fan, I assume you do know about what is happening in Konami’s HQ right now. Silent Hill: Homecoming was a bit of disappointment in 2008, and while the next Silent Hill is still in the works, Konami decided to make another horror game franchise, SAW, yes the one you see in the big screen near you ever year.

Developer: Zombie Studios
Publisher: Konami Digital Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
Genre(s): Third-person Action; Survival Horror
Mode: Single-Player
First Released: October 6, 2009 (NA)
Played on: Microsoft Windows

This game is said to be the “spiritual” successor to Konami’s Silent Hill series. I’m a fan of Silent Hill, played almost all the games, even the mobiles ones, and I thought I should give this one a try. Honestly speaking, I do not expect any psychological horror elements in this game, instead the suspense horror, as it is more of killings, death, traps, games, puzzles, etc. I saw most of the series’ movies, but I’m not a fan, I just enjoy watching those gory scenes with my family.

For me, this game’s great because it incorporates the survival horror genre with a lot of puzzle elements and a bit of psychological horror. This is good, atleast you’re really gonna work on your brain while getting paranoid and trying to fix those puzzles. Some early puzzles aren’t that very challenging but the last few parts will be very memorable. Puzzles in the game are connecting pipes while you are being poisoned by gas, thus, reducing your health. There’s a also a puzzle wherein you’re gonna connect electric currents. A new kind of puzzle is also present everytime you’re saving some people. I can’t say anymore, just try playing it yourself and try solving every puzzles, they’re worth it.

The game isn’t very linear, there are also choices but still it’s really few. One thing would be the last part wherein you’re gonna choose between “freedom” and “truth”. It’s not that interesting, though. Gameplay controls aren’t very accurate, you use mouse to drag, point and click to solve puzzles, which is very annoying. Graphically, the game is not gonna be appealing to those who want very realistic ones. Animations in the game aren’t perfect but for my standards, it’s a pass. There is a thing I became disappointed at in terms of graphics. The game is not very polished, and once you start the game for the very first time, you will notice a lot of screen tearing, and that there’s no option to turn on v-sync. But there is a way to turn it on manually and try to push the game’s highest settings, that is by modifying the game’s config file located in your HDD. There is an option to turn v-sync there and some more tweaks, but I suggest trying out Direct3D Overrider for ease. As for sound effects, there are a lot of times the game’s main menu theme song being played when you’re in-game, but still it is not a big deal to me. The story of the game is a bit puzzling, just like how the movies performed. Actually, until now, I still don’t get the main story itself. I just understand that they are in jigsaw’s territory because they’ve done something that is injustice in the real world. In any way, I managed to finish the game just some weeks ago, using Iheartpancreas of gamefaqs‘ SAW the videogame walkthrough. I decided to use a walkthrough not because I wanted to, but I just want to finish the game as quick as I can, as easy as I can, coz’ I heard you can get lost in the game if you’re not really thinking about your main objectives, and that it’s been a year already since this game was released. I already have a copy since its release date and played once (2009), but never finished it, until now, and I kinda regret thinking that this game isn’t great. It is, though. I had fun playing Detective Tapp and managed to solve all of those puzzles. Great game.

_________________________________________________________________

Here are quick videos of the two possible ending in the game:

Watch it directly in YouTube

Watch it directly in YouTube

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Final score: 8.5/10 and I’m trying to consider it and SAW II: Flesh and Blood for ps3…

|> GWAR – Gor Gor

Grab your PS3 and start playing with Alodia

Who wouldn’t want to play PS3 with Alodia? Of course, your girlfriend…

In this photo, we see Alodia tempting you to have a match online in her PlayStation 3.
In case you’re clueless who is this cute girl, Alodia is one out of few famous cosplayers in my country. She has a huge underground cult-following fanbase, composed of teenagers, mostly Anime-fanatics, and Uncle fans whose into photography or anything gadgets. Alodia Gosiengfiao, yes, her realname, managed to be my country’s mascot in terms of cosplaying. She is also known as an avid gamer, as you can see in the photo. She owns a lot of gadgets, just like her sis Ashley, and that’s why techie guys love her a lot. She has been to many magazine covers not just for anime-related ones, but almost all, except FHM, and gosh, I wish she’ll never do that in the future. As for me, I’ve been to one of her mall appearance with my classmates who are real die-hard anime fans. I became a low-profile fanatic since 2008, I guess.

Thanks to Alodia, I think I want to play online on my PS3…!

Photo credits to: Whoever released it online

|> TVXQ – Mirotic

The Pinoy Rig Show Vol.3

Here we go again, for another rig story to feature. This time, we’re going to have a closer look at sir ronkx‘s “white-outside, colorful-inside” rig.

This monster rig was unveiled on the SMYR thread in TPC on November 16, 2010, just 3 days ago, by sir ronkx. This one isn’t the type you can show off for having the latest components. Instead, I would prefer it calling a “humble but versatile” one. White and clear. Almost like a Pimp-my-Macintosh. I believe this neat chassis is an NZXT Phantom, and yes, it’s cool. If you have the time to look at what a Phantom can give you, do it. You’ll see a bunch of awards grabbed by this one in the NZXT website. If you’re wondering, the front and upper part of the chassis are the plastic ones, the rest are all heavy metal \m/.

Those black/white system fans are included in the chassis. Sir ronkx did not managed to cope up with the color combination. I think he did that on purpose. If you look at it, we’ve got a blue colored CPU fan mounted on the motherboard and a red-colored-line in system’s gpu. It’s good having that black GIGABYTE power supply, matches the color.

As I’ve said above, this one’s the simple type of rig, not those for hardcore guys. I’m not sure what components are installed in this one. But to be honest, having an NZXT Phantom’s enough. I’ve gone to the website a while ago, and to the webpage of the Phantom. Hmm… It’s interesting to see that the Phantom have built-in fan controller and I’m getting jealous. I’m pretty sure the plastic parts of this chassis are durable enough, even if you drop it like many times, it may not break. There’s still a lot of drive bays empty, and yes it can handle more than 8 HDDs, if you’re files are mostly Bluray ripped movies. I’m not pretty sure if this one’s equipped with an optical drive but if you think of it, most systems have, agree? Also, looks like you can install separate system fans just below those HDD containers, cool.

STYLE – 8.5
UPGRADE – 9.0
SPACE – 10

This one’s pretty reminiscent to sir tsakoyy’s “Assassin’s Creed” rig huh. But if you think of it, this one’s more neat. If I have to NAME it myself, it would be… “Assassin’s Creed II” rig 😀 But wait, where’s the Brotherhood one? ^_^

Before we put an end to this article, I would like to personally thank sir ronkx for this wonderful creature he just built.
Thanks for reading!

|> Trivium – The Calamity

DIARY | Happy 300th page TPC GeeGeeGee Boys!!

It’s Tuesday right now, and I’m sure your kids or you kids are enjoying your time at home coz’ there’s no classes today. Actually, what you’re thinking of right now isn’t what I, and certain netizens are celebrating about. We, TipidPC users are happy celebrating the 300th page of the unified Girls’ Generation thread.

Born in the hands of Sir lawliet on November 16, 2009. The thread started the time the girls are currently promoting the LG CYON Chocolate Love song, and I’m sure as a guy you enjoy the Music Video. As every TipidPC memebers can join the thread, it is now flooded with photos of the girls, YouTube video sharing, file sharing and most commonly, the talks. Most posts are from Sir hobbes (the one who’s very good in korean), sir ahdouken, sir RENDERMAN (who always flood the thread with pics and downloads), sir harhar, sir makubexXx and many more (I’m sorry to the other guys, it’s just a proof we’re too many in the thread now). I can say I already have atleast 50 posts of the thread.

I remember those days when I first saw this thread, I was so grateful and tweeted it in my Facebook, that even in TipidPC, there is atleast a group composed of filipino SONEs and soon-to-be-SONEs, active and all stuck in the beauty of Girls’ Generation. I even compared it to the 2NE1 thread (and I’m sorry for that, I’m starting to love 2NE1 now). Well, that’s already months ago.

And now we’re happy celebrating its 300th page, while yesterday’s the 1st anniversary.
I hope the TipidPC admins won’t give us any of those *
Long live TipidPC SNSD unified thread!! ❤

|> Girls’ Generation (Jessica) – Sweet Delight (SPC Ver.)

What does “GOW” stand for?!

A few days ago, I’ve been to a thread in TipidPC wherein you post anything related to games, whether it’s for PS3, and Xbox 360, a Wii, PC or even your very old collection of SNES games. Saw this pic there and members started to talk and argue about it:

This photoshopped picture shows Kratos, from the PlayStation 3-exclusive game and very well-known trend-setter hack n’ slash game series God of War, breaking the head of a character most notable to the Xbox 360 game and Microsoft’s very own First-person shooting game Gears of War.

For your information, in the world of PlayStation, PlayStation fanboys usually use the term “GOW” or “GoW” as a short reference to God of War, mostly being mentioned in blogs, forums and other game-related sites. Kratos is notable for being one of several mascots of the PlayStation brand, being developed by Sony itself and always uses the full-potentials of consoles Sony created. God of War was first seen in the PlayStation 2, and… took over the world by storm.

Whilst God of War is Sony’s bet, we have Gears of War for the Microsoft brand. Gears of War wasn’t usually coined as “GoW” or “GOW“, instead, “Gears“. If you didn’t know, Gears of War is one out of few exclusive games catered by the Microsoft company, and is also made by them. Actually, the first game of the series had a PC version. However, the second one seems to be an impossible thing and will only be a console game.

Seems like netizens are playing with the names of the games lately.
–To the guy who made this picture and to all the netizens, whether you’re a PlayStation bias or an Xbox bias, here’s the deal: Why don’t you consider listening to the band GWAR???

To conclude, here’s a poll for you, please just click your choice and submit it. Poll will end in a week.

Leave a comment below if you have any violent reaction 😀

|> GWAR – Gor Gor

Monday visit at PlayStation®Home [Part 2]

So here’s the continuation of my adventure, exploring some cool locations in the world of PlayStation Home. You’re now here, don’t go back, go only if you want to read the other post again.

My next destination is…. dadadadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa… The Abandoned Docks of Empire City, a location of the successful game by Sucker Punch, inFamous. inFamous is one of my favorite game in the PS3. Here in the docks, you’ll see a very dirty street of the New York-looking city called Empire City.

If you look at it at first, you’ll definitely think that there’s nothing to do here but only sightseeing. There’s a very huge theater-like video screen in a form of a billboard in the center of the location. Actually, I did not managed to take a shot of it, and even if I did, the video content is nowhere to be seen. I took some avatar-posing pics instead:

I forgot to turn on the flash of the camera, so what you see above is a bit darker. Here’s a funny story. While wandering, I saw this inFamous phone you can interact with. I pressed the telephone number in my house, and it’s busy. I jokingly asked my sis, “is the phone downstairs hunged up?”, “it’s not working sis” while she’s looking at my screen. Immediately, she checked it out and told me it’s working. LOL. The telephone booth is actually used to call and speak to your PSN friends.

Another pose with a train in an inFamous logo on it:

And an inFamous vending machine:

Now let’s move on to the interesting matter in the location. Actually, there’s a minigame here called Reaper Shock.

For your information, Reaper is the name of the enemies with electric powers in inFamous. The mechanics of the game is to kill them by shooting electric bolts at them while maintaining your electric powers. Once you’re out of electric powers, it’s a game over. You’ll see your score and again in the scoreboards.

Actually, I only played once and reached Round 17. Then my powers are all gone so, it’s a game over for me.

I managed to score up to 86182. I checked out the scoreboards and…

Too bad, i’m so far away in the list. After that, I moved on to the next and final destination of my PlayStation Home Adventure. The next destination is:

It’s a visit to one of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune locations. This time, we’re here at Sullivan’s Bar.

What you can see here are mostly, photo frames of Nathan, and the rest of the cast of the first game, plus some cool replica of the artifacts seen in the game.

Honestly, there’s not much here, so I only took photos. There’s another room in the upper floor of the area called Artifacts Room.

Inside the Artifacts Room:

I noticed the area were very visually-detailed, much better than how The Sims 3 look like when you’re playing in on your PC.

Here’s a collection of photo frames of the cast of the game hanging in the walls of the stairs:

The the end of my adventure in the world of PlayStation Home. Actually I have one more destinations I’m hoping to go to:

Anyway, I’m planning to go to that location once I have the time again. See you in the next adventure!! ^^

If you wish to go back to the previous part of this article, click here

|> Megadeth – Holy Wars…The Punishment Due

Monday visit at PlayStation®Home [Part 1]

So I hooked up my PS3 on the internet this monday to check out for new patches, fix, and some cool new demos. Actually, I grabbed the ModNation Racers Demo from the PSN. I loved it. Much like how I loved LittleBigPlanet. You can do co-op game in a split screen system, create, edit, and share your custom made tracks, cars and avatar. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to share in this Demo version, atleast the custom track you made. I made one and and it’s kinda funny-lookin’. I’ll let you take a look at it, here it goes:

Too bad I forgot to take a shot of the gameplay, in my phonecam atleast. Aside from ModNation, I also grabbed Mushroom Wars. I haven’t tried playing it yet but i’m sure it’s another fun PSN game.

Anyway, after doing the PSN demo downloads, the patch for the Prince of Persia and grabbing the exclusive Assassin’s Creed Altair costume for Prince of Persia, there’s nowhere to go but, PlayStation Home. Apparently, there’s a 40-something-megabyte worth of patch waited for me. Hmm… interesting…

Upon my visit, I realize my avatar doesn’t look like myself anymore, sporting the fauxhawk hair. So, I decided to modify it and choose the longer one, kinda similar to mine. Upon my access to it, I notice the menu are rearranged, and I like it more. Maybe that’s what the patch did. When you press the Start button off from you DualShock 3, you’ve got 3 choices there: Navigator – to access PS Home locations and events, Options – to tweak the in-game settings and, Wardrobe – if you want to pimp your character.

I wandered around my room (Harbour Studio) and checked out my furniture. I noticed something. Where the heck are the Tekken 6 arcade cabinets??? Oh well, must’ve be removed from the catalog.

After sight seeing at my room, checking out my items, I took out the Navigator so I can move to another location. Here’s a phonecam shot of my first destination:

So it’s the Resident Evil 5 Studio Lot, and honestly, I feel so excited coz’ you can actually wander around the location of the first chapter seen in the game. This is where the African guys are beating someone, poor guy. And here you’ll see the guy where you borrowed the guns.

Here’s a collection of wave shots for you guys:

These photos here are in some kind of a filming set, with professional cameras on and a van:

It looks like I’m really playing the game, thanks for the very detailed visual graphics, SONY:

This guy here is selling Resident Evil 5-related stuffs you can use for your avatar such as T-Shirts, Pants, etc. And there’s a Sheva outfit there, gosh, I’m sure it’s worth quite some bucks.

Still remember these locations? I’m sure you do,or else you haven’t played the game, aren’t you?

Here you see the guy who gave Sheva and Chris some weaponry. You can do some mission / mini game here. Actually you are not allowed to take some photos inside The Archives, and since the guy said, it’s a confidential data LOL. I also forgot to take some phone cam shot, atleast. Honestly, what you’ll see inside are just a collection of Resident Evil 5-related info, such as character profiles, locations, events in the game.

Wait a sec, my avatar is getting homesick, tired. He’s having foot cramps. Let him rest first, and take your eyes a rest too, before continuing to the next part of the adventure. The next part is my visit to the other PlayStation Home locations.

To read the next part of my visit at PlayStation Home, click here

|> Avenged Sevenfold – Blinded in Chains

2010 | Medal of Honor

Developer: Danger Close; EA Digital Illusions CE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
Genre(s): First_person Shooter
Mode: Single-Player, Multi-Player
First Released: October 12, 2010 (NA)
Played on: Microsoft Windows
Ok first off, I want you to know that this review is just a collection of my thoughts, my opinion, comparison to other FPS games, and what I feel about it. Medal of Honor is the 2010 reboot of the videogame series of the same name. Honestly, I haven’t played any Medal of Honor game before, so it’s good to say it’s my first time to play this reboot. Also, I’m not really a fan of FPS games, I just love gaming and I think FPS games are fun to play if I’m getting bored or what. Before playing this game, I have played some FPS games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Both games are fine. However, we cannot say they’re in par, and we cannot say that there’s a top one. To give it a challenge, we have Medal of Honor.

The story of the game is set in Afganistan, just after the 9/11 attacks in 2002. You will control soldiers in different forces. Primarily, you control Rabbit, a DEVGRU operator, while alternating roles to the Delta Force sniper Deuce, to Dante Adams to AH-64 Apache gunner Captain Brad “Hawk” Hawkins. Of course, since it is set in the Middle East, most of your hostiles are the people there. In my opinion, I think MOH have the longest story mode of all the FPS games upon its release. Also, there is a sad part in the ending, which is I believe, the signature of Medal of Honor games. When you play games, and then you’re done, you’ll actually start to get fond of the supporting characters, like Dusty (the one who’s always with Deuce), just like in BFBC2. As you play, the game progresses the characters in moving from destination to another, as seen in most games. In addition to that, you’ll also have control to some WOMD, and that thing makes it cool. Another thing, the opening gimick tried so hard, and I think I can go with the flow.

The game does not offer an extensive time to learn the mechanics of the game, unlike in MW2, assuming that the player already know how FPS games work. On the other hand, you can actually take a glimpse of the controls from the menu. I did have a problem in terms of controls, specially when using Anti-Tank gunner. The controls were not present in the menu and during gameplay, so I end up guessing which is which. The part where you play as an Apache gunner is really fun to play, but I hope the developers made it more harder, like the player can control the movement of the aircraft itself. There is another notable bug in the game: objectives/mechanics does not run fine when you’re on foot. There are times you will notice that the game run out of objectives, and you will end up stucked, waiting for a few minutes. In terms of shooting, the game features a vast variety of weapons, and I think the game offered the same quality in shooting just like the other games.

The soundtrack seems a bit off. I’m slightly frustrated on how low the sound is. How boring. In anyway, the game still managed to give you high-quality sound effects, not a serious matter though.

This is what people are looking for nowadays. Graphics. I’m quite impressed with it and I think the developers did well to make a simple, not boastful game. System requirements are fair enough, you don’t need to have those monster rigs out there just to play it. In fact, I can see how careful and at the same time, humble, the game and the developer are. But still, I notice some bug in it. Dropping of frame rate is occasional, however, I saw Dusty move in a very “weird” position, too bad I forgot to take a screenshot of it. Environment seems fine and realistic.

Before reading out my final thoughts of the game, check out this YouTube video I made, consisting the game’s prologue:

Or watch it directly in YouTube here. Remember to consider hitting the “Favorite” button.

The Final Judgement:

Graphics: 8.5/10 – If you’re a simple gamer, MOH offers good and quality graphics, but if not, then I’m sure you notice the glitches.
Sound: 9/10 – It’s just too low, that I have to maximize the volume of my speaker.
Gameplay: 9.5/10 – Very fun to play. It’s not just an FPS game, but a full-packed action game.
Story: 10/10 – Longest story among all the current FPS game the time of its release. Realistic and controversial storyline.
Overall: 9.25

My Final Thoughts:

MOH managed to acquire my attention. Full-packed, you can play not just a soldier on foot, but as a warfighter, a soldier riding an ATV, controlling those funny Anti-Tank weapons, yet, the game still have a few notable glitches. I understand why EA released this game, its just that FPS games are very in-demand nowadays, and that they used this game to coincide with the next Call of Duty release. However, MOH still became the low-ly one, just behind the MW2 and behind BFBC2, making it the last while it is the latest among the three. Still, for me, it’s a good game, and I’m trying to consider buying the PS3 version of the game. I just don’t understand why IGN gave it a score of 6.0. It’s just too cruel to give that and I think the game deserves more points, like 7.5? IDK, atleast I gave it 9.25, and that’s just my opinion, period.

|> Metallica – Metal Militia

The Pinoy Rig Show Vol.2

Today, another all-hail rig will turn your eyes into ice. This rig by sir Urfantasyguy of TipidPC just caught my eye. I swear, you have to take a look at it now.

Honestly, it does not give you the good impression at first, especially if you’re eyeing to the outer appearance, but when you start to take some glimpse on the inside of the box, you’ll see what I was talking about.

As you can see, this monster rig is wearing a MSI GTX460 hawk, firmly equipped in an MSI P55 GD55 motherboard, with an Intel Core i7-870 as the CPU while the stock cooler disregarded and instead, plugged an aftermarket Xigmatek Balder. Of course, we shouldn’t forget about those 4 gigs Corsair RAM sticks speeding up to 1600. All of these power-hungry components connected to a Corsair HX750, and weared by an AeroCool CyborgX, a pretty awesome choice.

Here you see the MSI GTX460 card and the red-black-colored thing-y on the right side below, I think it’s a customized Western Digital Caviar, matched with the customized Corsair HX750.

Generally, sir Urfantasyguy intended to make this rig in a color-concept combining Red and Black, as opposed to sir tsakoyy’s Assasin’s Creed rig. It’s a plus that this rig doesn’t use any water-cooling system, and that the cables inside are arranged very well. If I could define this monster rig in a single word, that would be “Infernus”, because of those HOT and SEXY components inside and the fact that it is a combination of Red and Black. Cool, isn’t it?

STYLE – 9.0
UPGRADE – 9.0
SPACE – 10

Thanks for reading the second part of TPRS. I would like to thank sir Urfantasyguy for the awesome-ness of this rig, and to guys of TipidPC!

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|> Metallica – Phantom Lord

[2010] Bon Jovi – Greatest Hits – Ultimate Collection

ARTIST: Bon Jovi
ALBUM TITLE: Greatest Hits – Ultimate Collection

ALBUM TYPE: Full Compilation Album
RELEASE DATE: October 29, 2010
RECORD LABEL: Island Records
PRODUCER: Howard Benson, Tony Bongiovi, Jon Bon Jovi, Peter Collins, Luke Ebbin, Bruce Fairbairn, Danny Korchmar, Lance Quinn, Bob Rock, Richie Sambora, John Shanks
GENRE(S): Hard Rock, Glam Metal, Heavy Metal
TRACKLIST:

Disc 1
1. “Livin’ on a Prayer”
2. “You Give Love a Bad Name”
3. “It’s My Life”
4. “Have a Nice Day”
5. “Wanted Dead or Alive”
6. “Bad Medicine”
7. “We Weren’t Born to Follow”
8. “I’ll Be There for You”
9. “Born to Be My Baby”
10. “Blaze of Glory”
11. “Who Says You Can’t Go Home (country version with Jennifer Nettles)”
12. “Lay Your Hands on Me”
13. “Always”
14. “Runaway”
15. “What Do You Got?”
16. “No Apologies”

Disc 2
1. “In These Arms”
2. “Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night”
3. “Lost Highway”
4. “Keep the Faith”
5. “When We Were Beautiful”
6. “Bed of Roses”
7. “This Ain’t a Love Song”
8. “These Days”
9. “(You Want To) Make a Memory”
10. “Blood on Blood”
11. “This Is Love, This Is Life”
12. “The More Things Change”

Bon Jovi already released a few number of compilation for the last decade or more in their career. However, you won’t be able to see one named “Greatest Hits” in those release until today, they finally released one, with 2 CDs and includes only those singles that became a big hit throughout their career.

I grew up with my Dad and the entire neighborhood’s speakers all stuck with songs from Bon Jovi, Scorpions, and some more notable Hard Rock, Glam Metal/Glam Rock songs that were still popular in the 90’s. Bon Jovi’s a very good band. Many current modern bands cites Jon Bon Jovi and his band an influence in making music. Although I myself do not have a band, I still rock with Bon Jovi songs in Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Hopefully, modern bands will not forget how Bon Jovi became their influence. Check out the Greatest Hits from the band.

Download: MegaUpload
*MegaUpload link credits to adam of Releaselog

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|> Tokio Hotel – Durch den monsun