iPhone can be downgraded to V1.0.2 for third party apps, phone features still locked by V1.1.1.

Apple have recently released a firmware V1.1.1 update for its iPhone. With this update, Apple have relocked all iPhone that was SIM unlocked as well as other application softwares by third party software. In fact, all iPhone relocked by V1.1.1 will require iPhone owners to return to Apple or AT&T to release the iPhone, for a small fee chargable.

But for now, there is a method to downgrade your iPhone third party software application back to the friendlier V1.0.2. Please note that this method will not downgrade the baseband phone of your locked V1.1.1 iPhone, meaning while you can use the software, WiFi and other third party stuff, your iPhone's phone function will still require unlock by Apple or AT&T. Click here to learn how.

If you have SIM unlocked your V1.0.2 iPhone, please dont upgrade to V1.1.1 if you want continious use of your AT&T free iPhone.

Xbox360 Halo 3 Edition is running the new 65nm chips?

A few proud owners of the new Halo 3 edition Xbox360s have eagerly posted in the official Xbox forums that these new batches shipped from lot #734 is the new 65nm chipped boards.

If you are one of the owners of the new Halo 3 edition Xbox360s, you could peek inside the Xbox360 from the bottom grille with a flashlight to see the new heatsinked chips. Click here (and scroll down) to view pics of the new 65nm and older 90nm heatsinks, the biggest difference is the lack of a heatpipe in between the 90nm heatsink.

Is this the eagerly awaited 65nm chipped Xbox360? Will this be the end of the dreaded 3 red rings of death? Will it now last more than one year, which is usually the time of death for the old 90nm chipped units? Only time will tell.

Latest Game Titles available in MY stores.

It's beginning to be good for gamers in Malaysia, more and bigger games are arriving at our shores:



Wii:


MySims (US) - Social Simulation

Pool Party (US) - Sports Simulation

Xbox360:

Halo 3 (US) - FPS

PS2:

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (US) - Action

Juiced 2: Hot Imports Night (US) - Racing

Digimon: Data Squad - RPG

Warriors Orochi (US) - Action

New Demos on PSN (US, EU and HK)

Here are the latest free demos to be found the PlayStation Stores all over:

North American PlayStation Store
Clive Barker’s Jericho demo (free)
NBA 2K8 demo (free)

European PlayStation Store
Folklore demo (free)
SEGA Rally demo (free)

Asian PlayStation Store (HK)
PixelJunk Racers (free)

New PS3 model CECHG01 revealed: Is it the rumored 40GB PS3?

The FCC (Federal Communications Commissions) in US have revealed some interesting PS3 tidbits: a new PS3 model bearing the model of "CECHG01" with Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi connectivity, a 3.2 GHz Cell processor, along with 66MHz ATA, 133 MHz SATA, 33MHz PCI, and 750 MHz SATA 1.

No mention of the HDD size, which is the very thing Sony is denying of a cheaper 40GB PS3. Now how long will Sony hold out on the secret / rumor (which is turning out to be real), as the holiday season is fast approaching and they may want to capitalise on the expected buying spree. Moreover so as Halo 3 have increased the demand of the Xbox360 (even in Japan), so time will soon tell.

Slim PSP No 1 seller in Japan two weeks in a row.

In the second week running, Sony's new slim PSP-2000 is the top seller in Japan.

The slim PSP have sold a total of 264,000 units during last week, while the previous week recorded a total of 95,487 units. This major upturn can be attributed to the launch of Square Enix's highly anticipated Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and its 77,777 special edition PSPs.

Last week's sales read as such:-

1) Slim PSP - 264,000
2) Nintendo DS Lite - 67,000
3) Wii - 27,000
4) PlayStation 2 - 13,000
5) PlayStation 3 - 11,000
6) Xbox 360 - 1,800

Interesting to note that Wii is still outselling PS3 at 2:1, and that PS2 still outsells PS3, while Xbox360 continues to languish in last place.

Amazon MP3 for DRM-free MP3 downloads.

Amazon MP3 public beta is now live. Amazon's new music download portal is offering two million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels including EMI and Universal tracks, in DRM-free 256Kbps MP3 format. All "top 100" songs on the site be sold at the lower USD$0.89, while others will be at USD$0.99 each. Whole albums will cost from $5.99 to $9.99, with best selling albums at $8.99.

The best news is the songs on Amazon MP3 will be DRM-free, so you can transfer and copy it to all your MP3 players in your collection, or even burn to CDs, all you want after you pay for it. How's that for a challenge to iTunes?

Samsung's Armani phone revealed in Milan.

Samsung's collaboration with Armani to roll out a couture phone has resulted in the above pictured product, the Samsung Armani phone. Similar to LG Prada phone, the phone is designed for the fashion conscious market.

Samsung Armani phone features: Tri-band 900/1800/1900 GSM, 3 megapixel camera, 2.6-inch 262K color QVGA touchscreen LCD, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support, 50MB onboard memory, microSD expansion, full Internet browser, and support for H.263, AAC/MP3/WMA audio and MPEG-4 video. Dimensionally, its 87.5 x 54.5 x 10.5-mm and weighs 85-grams.

It will also feature haptic feedback user interface, meaning it gives out small vibration cues when the icons on the touchscreen are touched, confirming that your action was recognised. This is a very important feedback for many touchscreen user, with Motorola Razr2 V8 using similar haptic feedback too.

No news on the availability outside Europe, where it will be available in November 2007 for rumored 400 Euros (RM2000).

Slim PSP-2000 TV-out cables available in SG now.

The new "slim and lite" PSP-2000 have a major upgrade in it, and its not the smaller dimensions. PSP-2000 can display its display into your living room TV, be it flashy new LCD/Plasma flat screen or the older CRT types. All this is achievable using the new TV-out cables.

These cables comes in 2 variation, a component (with 5 out sockets, RGB and stereo audio) and a composite (with 3 out sockets, Yellow for video and stereo audio). It must be noted that if you desire to playing your PSP games on the bigger TV screens, you must get the component cables, as native PSP games displays in 480P (which is not achievable using the composite out cables).

As PSP firmware V3.40 has made the PSP able to output full D1 DVD resolutions (720X480), it should be able to display UMD movies to your TV with clear images.

The cables are hard to find, but available in select stores in Singapore, retailing at SG45.00 (RM104).

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, Japan street dates and prices revealed.

Inside Sony's TGS show catalog was hidden a shocking detail. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue game sample (how Sony calls it, but its nothing more than a demo to us) have been given a street date in Japan. The blu-ray disc version will retail for Yen4980 (RM150) and the PlayStation Store downloadable version is at Yen4500 (RM135) on December 13th 2007.

Sony have given out more details of GT5: Prologue, it will feature 5 tracks, 16 player online multiplayer (a first for the series), 30 cars (Ferrari, Lotus, Nissan and Mitsubishi), Gran Turismo TV (to watch the races from the sides) and a Photo Mode (lets you take in-game pictures and save them to your HDD). Whoop dee do... its still a pretty expensive demo.

There no prices or street dates for GT5: Prologue in other regions outside Japan, for now. Lets hope the prices wont be as crazy for us in the other regions.

Latest Game Titles available in MY stores.

Its a slow week for games (but hectic for DVD movies and series), only one new game crept into the stores this past weekend (and its not Halo3).

PS3:
Heavenly Sword (US) - Action (RM230)

Rumor Commentary: 40GB PS3 soon?

The internet as well as traditional media have been abuzz with the rumored 40GB PS3. Many industry watchers are suggesting that Sony could be announcing the 40GB PS3 sometime next week, in a bid to steal some of Halo 3's street release date.

There are more rumbles in the hardware industry players, with some unamed "electronic manufactuing news source" have revealed that Sony have enlisted FoxConn (Taiwan based company that currently produces the Playstation 2) to produce 40GB PS3. Rumors have even planted the 40GB PS3 with a USD$399.90 price level, but fully expecting other lesser specs (no bluetooth, no card readers, no WiFi?) at that price level.

Personally, although I am taking this rumor with a pinch of salt, there are several advantages for Sony to do so.

1) USD$399 price point is seen by industry player as the ceiling price consumers will buy for electronics goods.
2) At USD$399, it makes the (40GB) PS3 a very cheap blu-ray movie player with HD gaming capabilities, as the cheapest HD-DVD standalone players from rival camp Toshiba will be retailing at USD299.
3) With more total PS3 sold, this will also increase the total numbers of consumers of blu-ray movie discs.
4) With Sony deep entrenched in the blu-ray camp, increasing PS3 and blu-ray consumers makes perfect business sense as they will stand to earn from license of blu-ray players, movie deals (they do own several studios) and they dont want a repeat lost of technology format (remember Sony's betamax videotape lost the format war against JVC's VHS format).

As Sony is eager to win the next gen DVD format, by push more PS3 into homes with a cheaper USD$399 entry level 40GB PS3 makes perfect business sense to me. We will see if this turns out to the truth in the next few weeks.

Wii Zapper box and Link's Crossbow Training details.

Nintendo have revealed the packing box art for Wii Zapper, with some details of bundled game. Link's Crossbow Training uses the engine of Zelda: Twilight Princess and will features 3 modes with a grand total 27 shooting games.

Target Shooting is for you to hit targets moving on screen, Defender have you shooting enemies charging at you, while you are able to aim off screen to turn directions, while Ranger mode will have you moving Link by the analog stick while on shooting and exploring missions.

DVD Box Set available in MY stores now.

After a long breaks, TV series DVD box sets are popping up like wild mushrooms, 3 new sets make their way to the stores the past weekend.



Grey's Anatomy Season Three (Seriously Extended):




Continuing on the life of the young doctors at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital , the third season of this drama moved on to daytime soap storylines, with the on/off relationship between Meridith and Derrick, wedding plans for Christina and Burke, and even Lizzie and George's relationship mess. Good news is the series heals itself towards the end. Full third season in 7 DVD discs with extras.





House - Season 3:




With Dr. House on a new treatment that kills his chronic knee pain in season 2's ending episodes, will Dr. House be lesser of a egoistic, sarcastic, caustic, pain-in-the-face character we have grown to love? Find out in 24 episodes in 5 DVD with extra features.


Note: This is the first time a major studio have released a full 24 episode with extra features in 5 discs, when most studios are moving to increasing them to 7 discs (note above set). Best part of it, the video is still beautiful (although is slightly soft focused as per S1 and S2).




The Office Season 3:




Catch the latest office exploits of Michael Scott, Regional Manager of the office of Dundler-Mifflin's Scranton branch. With funnyman Steve Carell as Michael, we are shown more facets of the oblivious but kind hearted manager and his lovely staff in... err... The Office, all in 3 DVD discs.

Playstation Eye bundled game, The Eye of Judgement, gets street dates.

Sony's PS3 camera accessory, PlayStation Eye, will hit the stores next month. The VGA (640X480 at 60Hz) with built in microphone is capable of capturing audio and video and saving them directly in the HDD using Sony's propriety software, EyeCreate.

"The Eye of Judgement", a card games using the PlayStation Eye included in the bundle, will hit US on October 23rd 2007 at US$69.90 (RM160) while Japan will get them on October 25th 2007 for Yen9,980 (RM300!). Australia will get them at the same time as Japan, while Europe will get them sometime in October.

However, there is no news of this peripheral nor "The Eye of Judgement" game bundle for Asian region. Its not fair that Sony CE HK have consistently neglected the Asian region.

DVD Box Set available in MY stores now.

Heroes S1:


With a great story line that revolves around a few humans across the globe finding out they have developed superpowers, their response to the discovery and how they will come together to fight a central villain, this highly rated series comes to MY shores in 7 DVD discs.


Ugly Betty S1:


Following the life of the unglamorous but good-natured Betty Suarez (Emmy winner in this role, America Ferrera), and her job at the ultra-chic NYC fashion magazine "Mode". Season pretty much follows Betty's "fish out of water" work life. This is the american adaptation of the Colombian telenovela "Yo Soy Betty, La Fea" comes in 6 DVD discs.


Till Death S1:


This sitcom shows the funnier side of marriage with two neighbouring couples, one married for 12 days while their neighbour is married for 8743 days (23+ years). Full season in 3 DVD discs.

Dual Shock 3 Rumble Compatibility List

Sony Computer Entertainment have released a list of current and upcoming PS games that supports the rumble found in their newly announced controller, Dual Shock 3. A note was also included, stating that "Pre-existing titles will be updated via software prior to the release of the new controller." Does this mean that all existing games that don't support the rumble now can be update via software to support it in the future??

The rumble compatibility list is as per below. Interestingly, I noticed all Sony CE's games (even launch titles) supported the rumble, so it seems Sony CE have all along knew that they will include the rumble into the Sixaxis all along while they were in court with Immersion's lawsuit.

Japanese Territory:-
Blast Factor - Sony CE
Bumpy Trot 2 - Irem Software
Burnout Paradise - Electronic Arts
Dark Sector - D3 Publisher
Devil May Cry 4 - Capcom
Dynasty Warriors 6 - KOEI
Echochrome - Sony CE
Fatal Inertia - KOEI
FIFA Soccer [untitled] - Electronic Arts
Folklore - Sony CE
Formula One CE - Sony CE
G1 Jockey 4 2007 - KOEI
Go! Sports Ski - Sony CE
Heavenly Sword - Sony CE
Imabikisou - SEGA
Metal Gear Online - Konami
Metal Gear Solid 4 - Konami
MotorStorm - Sony CE
Ratchet & Clank Future - Sony CE
Resident Evil 5 - Capcom
Resistance: Fall of Man - Sony CE
Super Stardust HD - Sony CE
Toy Home - Sony CE
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - Sony CE
Vampire Rain: Altered Species - AQ Interactive
Warhawk - Sony CE

North American/ European Territories:-
Assassin's Creed - Ubisoft
Beowulf - Ubisoft
BlackSite: Area 51 - Midway
Blast Factor - Sony CE
Burnout Paradise - Electronic Arts
Chronicles of Riddick - Sierra
The Club - SEGA
Condemned 2 - SEGA
Cops - Pyro
The Crucible - SEGA
Dark Sector - D3 Publisher
The Darkness - 2K Games
Devil May Cry 4 - Capcom
Echochrome - Sony CE
Elefunk - Sony CE
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars - Activision
Destroy All Humans! 3 - THQ
Dynasty Warriors 6 - KOEI
Fatal Inertia - KOEI
FIFA Soccer [untitled] - Electronic Arts
Folklore - Sony CE
Formula One CE - Sony CE
Ghost Recon AW2 - Ubisoft
Go! Sports Ski - Sony CE
GripShift DLX - Sony Online
Haze - Ubisoft
Heavenly Sword - Sony CE
Heroes Over Europe - Red Mile
High Velocity Bowling - Sony CE
Highlander - Eidos
The Incredible Hulk - SEGA
Iron Man - SEGA
Kane & Lynch - Eidos
Legendary: The Box - Gamecock
Metal Gear Solid 4 - Konami
MLB '08: The Show - Sony CE
MotorStorm - Sony CE
N-Cube - Creat Studios
NBA '08 - Sony CE
NBA 2K8 - 2K Sports
Pain - Sony CE
Planet One - Pyro
Prototype - Sierra
Soldier of Fortune - Activision
Rainbow Six: Vegas - Ubisoft
Rage - id Software
Rat Race - Sony CE
Ratchet & Clank Future - Sony CE
Resident Evil 5 - Capcom
Resistance: Fall of Man - Sony CE
SOCOM: Confrontation - Sony CE
Snakeball - Sony CE
Stuntman: Ignition - THQ
Super Stardust HD - Sony CE
TNA iMPACT - Midway
To End All Wars - Ghostlight
Toy Home - Sony CE
Turok - Disney Interactive
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - Sony CE
Unreal Tournament 3 - Midway
Warbit - Creat Studios
WarDevil - Ignition
Warhawk - Sony CE
The Wheelman - Midway
WipEout HD - Sony CE

Asian 80GB PS3 available soon.

A quick check on Asia.Playstation website have revealed the specs for the 80GB PS3. All that was highlighted was the increased HDD size to 80GB, while the rest of the specs remained the same as the 60GB version.

No other news of pricing, or even software bundles are per other regions have been announced.

Latest Game Titles available in Malaysia.

I spotted the following titles in stores today:-

PS3:

DiRT (US) - Racing

Xbox360:

Bioshock (US) - FPS

PS2:

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core - 2D Fighting

European Super Paper Mario may freeze Wii.

Nintendo of Europe have released a statement today to acknowledge a game freezing bug in the European version of Super Paper Mario.

The bug occurs in Chapter 2-2, where you will encounter Mimi, who will speak to you and asks you to find a key in a room by flipping. However, if you speak to her again without first picking up the said key, the game freezes and you will need to reset the Wii and reload the game. This only occurs when playing the game in UK English, German, or Spanish.

Nintendo of Europe will have information soon about how to get a replacement copy if your copy does that, so you will have to wait patiently if your copy does freezes your Wii. Nintendo of Europe have also mentioned: "Please note that your game freezing up will not do any damage to your Wii or the game itself, but we do sincerely apologise for this error and the inconvenience caused to your gameplay experience."

Spiderman 3 DVD and VCD out in Malaysian stores later today.

Spiderman 3 will be released to Malaysian stores today, available on standard def DVD and VCD version. It is unclear which DVD version (or contents) will the stores gets, as the shipments is due to arrive in stores later this evening. No mention of cost either.


There are three standard def DVD versions for the US market (Region One DVD), so I am speculating that the Asian version (Region Three DVD) will contain similar content: -



The single disc version - with bloopers, picture galleries and two commentary tracks.






2-Disc Special Edition - same as the single disc, with additional 11 featurettes in the second DVD. Available in high def blu-ray double disc version too.





The 3 DVD disc pack (highly unlikely) containing all three Spiderman movies in 3 DVD in one pack. Available in high def blu-ray versions too.







Incidentally, the US release of the DVD and Blu-ray of Spiderman 3 sets is scheduled for Oct 30, 2007, so this is a nice early surprise for the Asian region. Please take note that the blu-ray versions of Spiderman 3 is not coming out today, and no news of when it will be here.

Dual Shock 3 confirmed.

In confirmation of "Rumbleaxis", Sony announced it during its press conference at Tokyo Games Show 2007 few hours ago, and they have decided to name it "Dual Shock 3".

Looking exactly as the Sixaxis, Sony retained its motion sensing functionality,design and shape while added the rumble feature. This has made the Dual Shock 3 slightly heavier (due to the presence of the rumble motors). And in order to differentiate the Sixaxis and the new rumbled enabled controller (as they look exactly alike), Sony have added an identification line in blue on the Dual Shock 3, above the Sixaxis name (as per picture above, thanks to Engadget).

The controller will launch in November in Japan. America and Europe will get it in spring 2008, but no mention of the price of the Dual Shock 3. These games are also announced as supporting the Dual Shock 3's rumble: Imabikisou, Dynasty Warriors 6, G1 Jockey 4, MGS4, Metal Gear Online, Devil May Cry 4, Ratchet and Clank Future, uncharted, echochorme, and Toy Home (by SCEE). Burnout Paradise (EA) will also support the rumble, as the Dual Shock 3 is being showed running the game in EA's TGS 2007 booth.

Review: Manhunt 2 (Unrated) PS2

I was pleasantly surprised in finding copies Manhunt 2 for the PS2 in the local gaming stores. Upon closer inspection, the version available now is of the PAL variety, meaning its the European version. In anticipation that this is the said leaked Unrated version, I grabbed a copy. Here is my take on the game, without any story spoilers.

Booting up the game on PS2, you play Danny, a escapee from a mental institution. Assisted by Leo as a voice over in your head (which is strange as Leo is never seen around you while in game). In order to evade a "manhunt" on you and Leo, you resort to stealth, sneaking up to your hunters and pulling off one of three available "kills" with whatever weapon you can lay your hands on (ranges from syringes, glass shards to knifes).

To achieve this, you will need to target your hunter and holding the square or R1 button while the the target reticule changes color, from white to yellow and finally red. Releasing the held button will then trigger the "kill" animation, to which the level of violence and gore will depend on how long the buttons were held. For example, with a glass shard in hand, releasing the "kill" button when white will trigger a simple "stab in the neck" animation. But releasing the button when red will trigger a nastier "slash neck, followed with few thrusts in the stomach" animation.

All these animations come with blood sprays that splashes on the TV screen, everytime. Pulling off the highest level of "kill" animation is the pay off in Manhunt 2, and its really satisfying when you get it after slowly and painfully studying the victims movement for a few minutes.

From what I can see on screen, there is no blurness or darkening of the kill animations, which was what IGN reported in the revised M version. This has led me to believe the version I am playing is the AO version, with no cuts in it. I have not reached the infamous "pliers ripping hunter's testicles" part yet, so I cant verify that its indeed in this version I am playing now.

On the graphics side, Rockstar have added a layer of screen noise, which luckily you can turn off. Turning it off will give you a clearer and brighter screen, which is my preferred setting. Also, Rockstar have given the screen its own movement, that does shake even when Danny is standing still, making me rather nauseous. There is no option to stop this shake. Rockstar have included a 16:9 widescreen option, but no progressive scan. A strange graphical quirkiness is that the objects that Danny can pick up has a strange vibrating animation to it, which could represent Danny's state of mind, but it bugs the hell of me.

Danny controls well, but there is a very strange control setup Rockstar have implemented. You cant control the camera with the right analog stick, unlike the GTA series. I find this very strange as I have to resort to turning Danny to see whats on the sides, as opposed to using the right analog stick top pan the camera. While Rockstar have included a wall hug to peek over the walls (using the triangle button), the omission of camera control on the right analog stick is a very strange decision, given other Rockstar games does allow for it. I wont be able to verify if this will be in the M version of the game too (as this AO version could be a leaked, incomplete version).

All in all, Manhunt 2 lived up to its hype. With solid stealthy gameplay, satisfying payoff when pulling "kills", and very nice graphics for a last gen console, Manhunt 2 is one of the last AAA titles for the aging PS2. Its time to dust off your PS2 now.

Ratings: 9/10

The Best of Blu-ray collection from Warner Home Video

The DVD (Standard Def, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD) releases for this week is lenghty list, with some very anticipated titles like Troy (Director's Cut) on DVD, Alexander (The Unrated Final Cut) on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, as well as series such as Boston Legal Season 3 and Smallville Season 6.

On the Blu-Ray releases this week, there are 3 very interesting titles that caught my eyes, namely: The Best of Blu-Ray: Volumes 1, 2 and 3. There are even The Best Of Blu-Ray: Action and Family pack too. These blu-ray collections are by Warner Home Video and they are a collection of four movies, all in Full HD, assembled into one box-set with 4 blu-ray disc. What's even more exciting are the prices, Amazon.com and Ebay are selling them at less than US$60 per set as of today (the Vol. 1, 2, 3 are released in the US on Sept 18th).

Here are the movies titles for each volume:-

The Best of Blu-Ray, Volume One :

(Lethal Weapon / Mad max 2: The Road Warrior / Swordfish / Training Day)

The Best of Blu-Ray, Volume Two:

(The Phantom of the Opera / The Fugitive / Unforgiven / The Last Samurai)

The Best of Blu-Ray, Volume Three:

(Blazing Saddles / GoodFellas / The Departed / Superman: The Movie:

The Best of Blu-Ray, Family:

(Happy Feet / Tim Burton's Corpse Bride / The Ant Bully / Scooby-Doo)

The Best of Blu-Ray, Action:

(Troy: Director's Cut / Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut / Blood Diamond / Wyatt Earp)

The last two collections (Family and Action) are not given any release dates, will keep you posted on their availability. Let's hope if Warner Home Video will release a The Best of Blu-Ray: The Matrix real soon.

I doubt the Action collection will be out so soon, as the blu-ray version of Troy (Director's Cut) and Alexander (The Unrated Final Cut) is released in this week. I am not sure when our region will get these awesome collection but I believe they will be available in stores (especially in SG) real soon. Look forward to having such good collection at a fraction of the cost.

Latest Game Titles available in Malaysia.

The following titles are available from most gaming stores in MY, as of this week:-

Nintendo Wii:
Carnival Games (US) - Minigames Collection
Cosmic Family (US) - Minigames Collection
Brunswick Pro Bowling (US) - Sports Simulation
Forever Blue (Jap) - Diving Simulation
Dewy's Adventure (Jap) - Platforming Action

PS3:
Lair (US) - Action

Xbox360:
Fatal Inertia (US) - Racing
John Woo presents Stranglehold (US) - Action
Medal Of Honor: Airborne (US) - WWII FPS

PS2:
Manhunt 2 (EU) - Action
.Hack//G.U. Vol. 3: Redemption (US) - RPG
Wild Arms 5 (US) - RPG
Brunswick Pro Bowling (US) - Sports Simulation
Tiger Woods 08 - Sports Simulation

Motorola Razr2 V8 will be in MY stores next week?

Several handphone retailers are informing me that the latest and very anticipated Motorola Razr2 V8 and V9 will be available in their stores sometime next week. They had also told me that the prices for V8 is in the RM1500ish region, while the V9 is in the RM1900ish region.

I am skeptical of the prices and the arrival date, but most shops do have the Razr2 V8 posters up on their walls and advertising flyers readily available for reading. Perhaps what they say holds water, we shall know next week.

Taito multi-touch screen arcade game, "The Wheel of Eternity".

Taito have announced a new card based arcade game, called "The Wheel of Eternity". Developed in collaboration with Square Enix, the players will place special cards onto the table arcade unit's screen, where it will read and detect player cards' status, arrangements and movement, which will be translated to the game.

While this is not new as Sega have released Sanogokushi Taisen and another card based football game onto the arcade tables, Taito is using the latest in multi-touch LCD screen technology. Microsoft too had the multi-touch screen announced not too long ago, known as "Surface".

I doubt "The Wheel of Eternity" will hit MY shores, but I suppose that SG will get them, as they did get Sega's Sanogoku Taisen. Will report on the arcade unit if it shows up in SG.

PSP Firmware updated to V3.71, 2 days after V3.70.

Sony made available update V3.71 for the PSP, shortly after V3.70 was made available. Sony claims that V3.71 adds "new, user-requested features' but internet reports of it doing not that much.

I would presume that Sony detected a security flaw, and fixed it really quickly with the 0.01 update just two days after V3.70.

Nintendo Wii is now the world's best selling console.

Financial Times have made it official, Nintendo Wii is the best selling next gen console. With numbers aggregated from Enterbrain (Japanese sales), NPD (US sales) and Gfk (Europe sales), its been determined that Wii has sold 9 million units, Xbox360 sold 8.9 million and PS3 trails last with 3.7 million units sold. The figures are for actual units sold to consumers, as opposed to the manufacturers preference to using quantity shipped to retailers.

To make the numbers seem more impressive, Wii was launched one year later than the Xbox360. Moreover, Xbox360 is not doing too well in the land of the rising sun, Japan.

iPhone SIM unlocked works on Maxis in Malaysia?

After several days iPhoneSIMfree released to the paying customers the software used to unlock the iPhone (which is tied to At&T only in the US), a team of hackers worked on their own free version, using iPhoneSIMfree's software codes.

Very shortly, the team of hackers collectively known as iPhone Dev Team, have managed to crack the code and began to roll out its own iPhone unlocking software, called the iUnlock. This is the first, free, open sourced iPhone SIM unlock application, and the amazing thing is this is released only after 74 days the iPhone is released. Moreover, it was reported that the iUnlock is restore-resistant too.

What's more interesting is the iPhone Dev Team have released a list of 32 countries and 69 telco carriers that have been tested to work with the iUnlock app. Listed within the list is Malaysia's Maxis and Singapore's SingTel.

Can anyone having an iPhone that have been unlock and works here in Malaysia or Singapore to verify this report??

PS3 Firmware V1.93, to be out soon.

This latest firmware update is mainly to arrest the bugs some PS3s encounter during the V1.92 update. It was reported that some PS3 have locked up the internet related functions after V1.92 update, and that has affected them from playing Warhawk online.

Those Warhawk fans affected by the V1.92 will be checking the PSN feverishly to fix the bugs.

PSP Firmware updated to V3.70

Sony have released a firmware update to Version 3.70 for the PSP and PSP-2000 Slim. Some functionality have been added, such as:-

• You can now set custom themes in [Theme Settings] under [Settings].
• Support has been added for assigning buttons in [Remote Play].
• A scene search feature has been added under [Video].
• Sequential playback is now supported under [Video].
• Simultaneous playback of content under [Music] and [Photo] is now supported.

Further functionality were added to the PSP-2000, mainly dealing with viewing movies from the PSP via the TV.

New Blu-ray movies available.

There are new blu-ray movies titles to be found in some video stores around KL (Wega Enterprise in Sungei Wang is one of them).

New titles available are:-

300
Ghost Rider
Casino Royale
Shooter
Black Hawk Down
Underground Evolution
Pearl Harbor
The Fifth Element
Kung Fu Hustle (US version with Cantonese)

Elsewhere in 1U, more titles showed up:-

Superman Returns
Pirates of the Caribbeans (1 and 2)
The Departed
(and many more)...

Check out the stores if you have a blu-ray movie playback unit (stand-alone players or PS3), prices ranges from RM149.90 to RM199.90.

Wii Zapper bundled with Link's Crossbow Training game.

Nintendo have made it official, Wii Zapper will be available in the US on November 19th 2007, for US$19.99. As an incentive for buyers, the Wii Zapper will be bundled with Link's Crossbow Training, a game that tests the player's ability to hit targets using Zelda's Link's crossbow. Essentially meaning an updated Duck Hunt game. Here's to wishing it don't suck as badly as "Chicken Shoot".

Other games compatible with the Wii Zapper will be Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, which presumably will not ship with the Wii Zapper.

So this could be the reason Wii Zapper is sold separately with its own game?

Blizzard's booth at CGA Asia 2007

Blizzard's booth was rather peculiar, it was not a booth in a traditional sense. They had some rock formation set up like a mountain in an open space. Within the rocks was a LCD screen playing videos of their only game in the show. In a close by area, they had set up a room with several PCs playing the same game:-

World of Warcraft (and its add on, Burning Crusades) - PC

Nokia N-Gage booth at CGA Asia 2007

Nokia's N-Gage game is being displayed on LCD screens hooked to several N-series handphones. Although the games rather simple in gameplay and are pixelated on the LCD screens, they do show promise for games available on handphones.

Some of the games on show are:-

Hooked on: Creatures of the Deep (fishing game)

Asphalt 3: Street Rules (racing game)

Mile High Pinball (pinball game)

Space Impact: Kappa Base (side-scrolling shooter)

EA's FIFA 08 (football game)

Codemasters' Booth at CGA Asia 2007

Codemasters' had featured only one game in CGA Asia 2007, and its was running on Xbox360. I was hoping to see the PS3 version but it was not there. That singular game is:-

Colin McRae DIRT

Nintendo's Booth at CGA Asia 2007

Nintendo had a dual purpose booth, the DS and DS Lite on the left, and Wii on the right. I must apologise as I did not venture into the DS side, but there was a new card based game for the DS that's very interesting. Will feature that in a post by its own later.

Wii games on show in four "rooms" of their own are:-

Wii Sports

Super Paper Mario

Rayman raving Rabbids

Transformers: The Game

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Playstation 3's Booth at CGA Asia 2007

Playstation 3's presence in CGA Asia 207 is in 6 playable titles:

Warhawk

Lair

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare 2 (GRAW2)

Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection Online

Super Rub-A-Dub, and

Everybody's Golf 5.

EA's booth at CGA 2007

EA had the biggest list of games on show, but it was a different list of titles shown on limited format. Some titles, like FIFA Online, Warhammer Online, Sims 2: Castaway, NBA Live 08, was not in the earlier list, while some titles like Half Life 2: The Orange Box and Rock Band was missing.

Here are the games (and the consoles they appeared on):-

Boogie (Wii)

EA Playground (Wii)

FIFA 08 (Xbox 360, Wii, PSP, DS)

NBA Live 08 (Wii, Xbox360)

Medal of Honor Airborne (Xbox 360)

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Xbox 360)

MySims (Wii, DS)

Sims 2: Castaway (Wii, PS2)

Need For Speed: ProStreet (Xbox 360)

The Simpsons (Xbox 360)

Skate (Xbox 360)

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Xbox 360)

Crysis (PC)

SimCity Societies (PC)

FIFA Online (PC)

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)

CGA Games Convention Asia 2007: I was there!

CGA Games Convention Asia 2007 (CGA 2007) was held in Level 6 Suntec City Convention Center, Singapore from 6th till 9th September 2007. I was there and will give you pictures, impressions and hands-on on games that was on display there. There were several big named companies there as well as some local companies plying their local games contents too. My coverage of this show will mainly be on console games.

CGA 2007 is held in two exhibition halls. There are plenty of walking space around each booth, with equally spacious internally within the booths too. EA, Nintendo, Playstation 3 and Asiasoft's booths are the biggest of them, while the Nokia booths had the most babes. While Microsoft is not there in the form of a booth, EA and Codemasters have that covered by showcasing their games on the Xbox360 rather than the PS3.

CGA 2007 showcases upcoming games that are recently released and soon to be released for the Singapore market. While I am a little disappointed that there were no previews of future games, but the chance to play Warhawk, Lair, NFS ProStreet, DIRT and others soon to be out games are a blast and this is the main idea of CGA 2007, to promote recent games.

I will be posting some pics of the booths, as well as hands-on impressions on the games available on the floor, in the next few posts.

New PS3 starter pack (Heavenly Sword and F1 CE) exclusively for France.

Kotaku have finally cleared the air on the rumored new PS3 starter pack featuring Heavenly Sword and F1 CE. This pack truly exists, but will be headed exclusively for France only. SCEE went on to state that they may be releasing exclusive starter pack with various mixed games for territories within its management.

Apple to give US$100 back to early iPhone adopters?

After Apple announced the price drop of the 8GB iPhone, there was some unhappy responses from the iPhone early adopters, those who paid the full US$599 for it. In a response to the outcry, Steve Jobs have issued an open letter to his staff, stating that he will give all iPhone owners an US$100 Apple gift certificate. The actual details of the gift certificate, as well as the eligibility to claim the credit, will be revealed next week.

While this is very obviously designed to calm those early Apple supporter, the consumer electronics industry have never offers any form of rebate or credit to any early adopters of a product, especially when the product eventually drops in price.

Well done Apple, you may have maneuvered yourself out of a sticky situation.

US$200 price cut for 8GB iPhone.

In a move that will irk more early adopters of iPhone, Apple have announced a US$200 price cut off the 8GB iPhone. US buyers will now be able to get the 8GB iPhone at only US$399, despite iPhone have only been available in the market for only two months.

Also, Apple is also killing the 4GD iPhone models, and is clearing their stocks by selling them at US$299. Guess this is the best time to get the iPhone, for US users at least.

So for now, should we wait three months before getting the iPod touch, in anticipation of price cuts by Apple?? Guess this may backfire on Apple, as they may shy away potential early adopters of the flashy iPod Touch.

We are lucky as the iPhone have not made it to the Asian shores yet, so we won't have to endure such heart pains from such drastic price cuts from Apple.

Apple's new iPods revealed.

Apple have showed off its newest members to the iPod family.

Everyone, meet (from left to right): iPod Nano, iPod Classic and iPod Touch.

Will get you more info on these hot items in the next few posts.

PS3 Stranglehold demo available on Sept 6th.

PS3 Stranglehold demo will be made available in US Playstation Network on Sept 6th 2007. This was made know by the moderator of Midway's forum. The demo is expected to be the same as the one released on Xbox Live and will feature the game's first level, set in Hong Kong.

Its not yet available in US PSN as of posting time, but hey... I am 11 hours earlier than US. Check the site for the demo.

RUMOR: New PS3 starter pack with Heavenly Sword and F1 06??

While I don't usually indulge in spreading rumors, the following rumor is too good to pass up.

It seems that a contributor (Robinspain) to NEOGaf forum has leaked to the internet an image that supposedly be a new starter pack headed for Europe and/or Australia. At the price of the current starter pack (which is supposed to expire on 31st Aug 2007) of Euro599, the new starter pack is rumored to contain two controllers and two new(er) games. The games are supposedly to be Heavenly Sword and F1 06 (huh??).

Personally, I am inclined to call this a hoax, but who knows if Sony will make an announcement regarding it soon?? Perhaps this starter is actually headed for Asia, and will be announced during CGA Games Convention 2007 tomorrow??

CGA Games Convention Asia - 6th - 9th Sept 2007

CGA Games Convention Asia 2007 will open its doors to visitors in Suntec City, Singapore tomorrow till 9th September 2007. While news from Asia's equivalent of E3 and TGS (hopefully...) has been very scarce, its been confirmed that Electronics Arts, Blizzard, 10tacle, Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3 will be supporting the event.

EA will be there to show off its list of games (unconfirmed) as follows:-

EA Console Titles:

Army of Two (PS3, Xbox 360)
Boogie (Wii)
Burnout Paradise (PS3, Xbox 360)
EA Playground (Wii, DS)
FIFA 08 (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PC, PSP, DS)
Half-Life 2: The Orange Box (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Medal of Honor Airborne (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PS3, Xbox 360)
MySims (Wii, DS) NASCAR 08 (PS3, Xbox 360, PS2)
Need For Speed: ProStreet (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PC, PSP, DS)
Rock Band (PS3, Xbox 360)
The Simpsons (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS)
Skate (PS3, Xbox 360)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PC)

EA PC Titles:
Crysis
Hellgate: London
Medal of Honor Airborne
SimCity Societies
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08

Sony will be there to show off some games for PS3 and PSP, while Nintendo will be launching Wii for the Asian region during the event as well.

I may drop by to Suntec City if time permits, while hunting for announcements and games from Singapore if I cant make it there.

Apple's "The beat goes on" event today!

Apple's event to reveal their fall / winter gadgets line up will be held in US today, 5th September 2007. With the tagline "The beat goes on", this highly anticipated event has the internet buzzing with rumors of the "next generation iPod", "touchscreen iPod" and even "nano fatty".

Cant wait to see what gadgets Apple have lined up to show the world, will post them here as I hear them.

PS3 Firmware 1.92 latest information.

My PS3 firmware was updated to V1.92 last night:

It seems that Sony's Asia Playstation website contains a SNAFU (err... an error). In their website, they had stated:

"The PLAYSTATION®3 system software version 1.92 update includes the following:
Playability status with the PS3™ system has changed for some PLAYSTATION®3 format titles."

But a check in the Sony US Playstation site, reveals a slightly different message:

"New for 1.92: Playability status with the PS3™ system has changed for some PlayStation®2 format titles. To check on the latest status, visit the search site for compatible titles (coming soon)."


So now you know, V1.92 has resolved some of PS3's problems with playing certain PS2 games, however the PS2 titles are not revealed as of today.

Tsk tsk tsk, a knock on the knuckles for Sony Asia Playstation site is in order.