DVD Box Set avaiable in stores now.

While window shopping, I came across the latest US DVD box set (series) in various stores in KL, MY.

1) Prison Break - Season 2. Continuing the escaping saga of Michael Scofield and his brother Lincoln Burrows, Season 2 features new characters like Alex Mahone as a FBI officer after the brothers, complete with his own dark secrets. A taunt series with plenty of twists in the storyline, Season 2 is a highly recommended set.













2) Weeds - Season 2. Continuing the story of a single mum who is forced to be a marijuana dealer, Season 2 presents Nancy Botwin ever increasing chance of getting caught as a suburban "weed" dealer. Yet another recommended series.














Now when will Heroes - Season 1, The Office (US) - Season 3 and My Name Is Earl - Season 2 be available in the local video stores??

PS3 Firmware V1.92, downloadable now.

PS3 owners connected to the Playstation Network may noticed an alert that V1.92 System Update have been found as released today. A quick check at Sony Asia Playstation website revealed the following info with regards to the V1.92 update:-

"Playability status with the PS3™ system has changed for some PLAYSTATION®3 format titles."

Now what does that mean Sony?

Resident Evil 4 Wii: 750K units sold worldwide.

Capcom have revealed that Resident Evil 4 for Wii have sold 750,000 units worldwide. This is impressive as RE4 is a port of Gamecube game that came out three years ago. Equally impressive is that RE4 achieved this milestone figure in only three months out for Wii.

So are we hearing of RE5 for Wii anytime soon, Capcom?

Wii Firmware upgrade to version 2.20 with Metroid Prime 3 disc.

If you have not upgraded your Wii firmware to the latest version from the internet, inserting Metriod Prime 3: Corruption disc into your Wii will prompt a system update. Agreeing to the system update, the disc will upgrade your Wii firmware to version 2.20. I don't know what are the enhancements from the previous version as I am still at Version 1.80 prior to this 2.0 upgrade.

Please note that refusing to perform a system upgrade will kick you back out to the Wii menu. You will need the system upgrade if you plan to play Metroid Prime 3.

Oh yeah... upgrading to version 2.20 will not brick your modded Wii either, but that's my personal experience.

Wii Review: Metriod Prime 3: Corruption.

Rejoice! Metriod Prime 3: Corruption (MP3:C) is here in Malaysian shores. You can find the retail US version of this Wii game in stores, prices ranges from RM200++, so do some bargaining to get the best prices. I have been playing the game over the past weekend, and here is what I think of it.

Published by Nintendo and developed by Retro Studio, Metriod Prime 3: Corruption is the final part of a trilogy, feature a silent female protagonist Samus Aran. Being a bounty hunter for the Galactic Federation, she is a trusted contract hunter in the battle against the Space Pirates, a race of evil aliens, the Metriods. Aran's quest will take her across the galaxy to several planets and ships, she will meet up with some recognizable hunters, do battle with Dark Samus and strive to keep from becoming corrupted herself. That's the main storyline, I wont spoil it for you.

MP3:C is Wii's best technical showoff, showing what the console can push out given tender and loving care while in development. Tonnes of particle effects, bloom lighting effects, 16:9 widescreen and 480P support, making it the best looking game. The game moves at 60FPS consistently and with level geometry and designs to boot, MP3:C is also Wii's most technical game to date. Admittedly the resolution is much lower than the other consoles, the level design and the smoothness of the moving graphics all makes up for it. In fact, in the middle of a heated battle, you wont be able to tell if this is a Wii or a PS3 game (running in 480P). Its that good.

Utilising Wii IR sensing capabilities, targeting on-screen targets is that much easier, much faster and much more accurate compared to any dual analog stick setup. Using the analog stick on the nunchuk to move about, the pointing the Wiimote on screen allows you to look around as you move, the first in the series. The Wiimote and Nunchuk combo is so well done, that this may the best way to play first person shooters on consoles. I played Resistance on PS3, but the Wiimote/nunchuk's responsiveness and accuracy beats the PS3 dual analog setup hands down.

On top of that, you have several motion sensitive movements, like twisting the door handles and casting motion of the nunchuk to... errr... cast Samus' Grapple Lasso. All the motion movements seems very natural, well incorporated into the gameplay and enhances the idea that you are in the game, unlike other tacky motion movements added for the sake of motion movements.

MP3:C features great level designs, requiring you to really think and plan your next course of action. Integral to this is the scan function which gives you hints to what stuff can be moved or shot at. I learned this the hard way when I was stuck in a particular area for 30 minutes, before I realised that I needed to scan the area for an exit. It was brilliant level design, providing good platforming levels with puzzle solving elements thrown in. This makes MP3:C more a platforming adventure game than a hectic first person shooter. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of hectic and furious battles to be had, but this is more an adventure game and sometimes battles are not to be found in some areas.

MP3:C itself is a long game, estimated to take 20+ hours to complete. With different colored medals as part of reward system for accomplishing certain tasks (kill 50 enemies, scan items, etc.) and using WiiConnect24 to share them with your friends, MP3:C is a very long, technically impressive, and the most beatiful game in the Wii to date. For Metriod Prime 1 and 2 players on the Gamecube, the story and the FPSish elements wont wow you as they did the first two times. But hey, I am playing Metriod Prime for the first time, and this is the best way to enjoy it.

Wii have finally gotten an AAA title. Go get it now.

Rating: 10/10.

Nintendo to officially launch Asian Wii in Games Convention 2007

Nintendo's distributor in Asia, Maxsoft, will be launching Wii for the Asian market during the Games Convention 2007. This year's event is held in Suntec City from 6th to 9th September 2007.

Although Wii have been available in Asian stores pretty much for a long time now, these Wii are primarily either the US or Jap version. With the official launch of the Asian version, we can possibly look forward to having game in Chinese or Korean, perhaps?

How different will the Asian version be, you will just have to wait for them to launch it here first.

Review: EA's Tiger Woods 08. Now in MY stores.

EA's Tiger Woods 08 for Wii is now available in MY stores. With the short time lapsed between the yearly increment of the game, it was expected that the game will not be improved much. And I was right.

I had not bought Tiger Woods 07 mainly for the fact that it was a PS2 port with Wii motion tacked on. I had hoped that the next release, the 08 version, will fare better. This was not the case as EA pushed the game out to us within a short development time of just five months.

New to Tiger Woods 08 is the Putt Preview, which will help in lining up your putting shots and lets you take a preview shot to gauge how well you are doing. Then you do it for real. For some reason, the shots managed in the preview is still not exactly the same as the actual putt, or it could be my hands not swinging the Wiimote exactly the same, I don't know.

The game also now allows you to slice/hook your shots, but not while in-swing. You will need to twist your hands (to hook or slice), hold the B button and finally take a swing in that position. Its not as per the real thing, but at least now you can hook/slice you shots if you choose to.

Visually, Tiger Woods 08 is the same as the 07 version, which looked liked a PS2 version. With the Wii showing that it is much more capable to handle better graphics (Metroid Prime 3), its very disappointing for EA to work on Tiger Woods 08 without any graphical updates.

In short, if you don't have any Wii golf games, Tiger Woods 08 is a good place to start. If you have the 07 version, you may wanna skip this and wait for a better version, Tiger Woods 09 perhaps??

Ratings: 6.5 / 10

Nokia's online suite, OVI

Nokia OVI is a three in one internet services that will allow its members to access an online music store, the N-gage games as well as Nokia Maps. While N-gage games and Nokai Maps have been available from Nokia's website for sometime now, the Music Store is a wholly new product.

In a move that competes with Apple's ITunes Music Store directly, Nokia's very own Music Store is obviously targeted for high speed users. Owners of HSDPA handsets can purchase 192KBps DRM protected WMA tracks from Universal Music Group and several other unnamed labels. Buyers will be able to stream their purchase over the cellular networks and two-way sync with their PCs, which is not available from Apple's ITunes store, and this could be the edge Nokia OVI has over ITunes.

Other application within OVI includes the revamped and tuned N-Gage games, which is now dedicated to games on the N Series 60 handsets. PC users can head to http://www.ngage.com/ to download a free application that allows you to browse, try and buy the games for the said N Series handsets, which as of now are N73, N81, N81 8GB, N93, N93i, N95 and N95 8GB. Games currently listed as The Sims 2 Pets from Electronic Arts, Asphalt 3 from Gameloft and Crash Bandicoot from Vivendi Games Mobile as well as Nokia's own titles like Snakes Subsonic and System Rush: Evolution.

Prices are not made known, so we will have to wait till November when OVI is made available in selected markets.

Nokia introduces OVI, and unleashes new multimedia models

In Nokia's Go Play event in Singapore yesterday, Nokia have rolled out their own internet services brand, OVI. Meaning "the door" in Finnish, OVI will be the gateway to access Nokia's Music Store, N-Gage games and Nokia Maps.

At the same event, Nokia also introduced four multimedia phones, all to be available in the last quarter of 2007. These models are the N95 8GB, N81, 5610 and 5310 XpressMusic models.

Details of OVI and the new models will be up shortly.

Porcelain White PS2 in Singstar bundle for US

While we in the Asian region have the porcelain white PS2 since 2005, Sony US is giving US buyers a chance to own the white version come November 2007. Sold in a Singstar bundle, the package includes the Singstar game, a matching white controller and two microphones for you and a friend to sing your hearts to the 30 songs and 6 medleys within the Singstar game to.

The whole bundle will be available at US$150, for those few of you yet to land yourself the current world's most successful console.

Unbrick your PSP with Pandora's Battery.

There is a new PSP unbricker, named Pandora's Battery. It works as follows:-

• You run a program on a homebrew-enabled PSP that will convert a standard PSP battery into a jigkick battery. Note that you can't then use that battery normally - so you should use a spare one.
• You run a program to generate the unbricker memory stick image, built from the v1.5 update EBOOT (note that this, and the custom IPL, means the release is completely free of Sony copyright materials).
• You run some programs on a PC to install the image to your memory stick.

Upon which you will have a battery and memory card combo that works like a jigkick battery combo - you can insert them into any bricked PSP and it will re-install firmware v1.5 into it, effectively unbricking it. Seems it even works for future firmware versions.

To find the instructions, donation methods (if you do use it) and do it on your own risk, click here.

Dell US blames delay in shipping colored Inspirons to problems in painting.

Dell XPS M1330 and Inspiron range of notebooks buyers in the US have complained of delays in receiving their orders. Dell have acknowledged this issue, and have issued statements that blames the delays on the difficulties in achieving acceptable results for the painting of the lids, and was more difficult than anticipated.

Last week, Dell MY website are informing the local buyers that ordering the painted Inspiron notebooks (other than the colors Alpine White and Jet Black) may subject your delivery to be slower by 3 to 4 weeks. However, a quick check today at the same Dell MY website shows no such disclaimer exists when buyers select the color lid option.

Does this mean that Dell MY does not have such delays anymore? Anyone had ordered a Malaysian or Asian Dell Inspiron with optional colored lids recently?

New "M" rating for Manhunt 2, hitting the streets end October 2007.

After receiving an "AO" (Adults Only, effectively meaning that Nintendo and Sony wont approve the game for their consoles) by ERSB (US) and BBFC (UK) for Manhunt 2, Rockstar have reworked on the game and resubmitted the game to ERSB for reclassification.

ERSB have given the reworked game a "M" rating (age 17 and over) and Rockstar is happy to announce that Manhunt 2 is currently scheduled for release in the US on Wii, PS2 and PSP this Halloween, October 31.

Wii sells 10.57 million units, becomes worldwide console leader.

As of 23rd August 2007, there are a total of 10.57 million Nintendo Wiis sold worldwide. Despite of current shortages in the console in many regions, Wii has in a short period of less than one year (it was released to the world in November 2006) overtaken Xbox360 as the market leader in home console sales. Microsoft's problematic console have sold 10.51 million units since its launch in November 2005, a full year ahead of Nintendo's launch.

For comparison sake, Sony's PS3 is trailing at a distant third with 4.32 million units sold.

Review: EA's Boogie. Available now in stores.

It could be the quiet before the storm, as Metriod Prime: Corruption is few days from being released. Only one new game made it to the local games stores shelves this week, its EA's dancing game Boogie.

With 35 new and older songs (Don't Cha - Pussycat Dolls, I'm A Slave For U - Britney Spears, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper, etc.) to dance to, the songs list are impressive. All you have to do is to move your hands in basic up, down, left and right in rhythm to the indicators on the screen, similar to Konami's DDR except you wave your Wiimote in your hands instead of tapping arrows with your feet. Doing this right will fill up a boost bar and execute special dance moves which are cool to watch. You can also change three dancing styles by pressing the A button.

Boogie even ships with an USB microphone for you to sing Karaoke to. As with other Karaoke games, you simply have to keep the right tone to be scoring well. You can even sing the wrong words in the right tune to pass with flying colors, so I gave that a skip and concentrated on swinging my arms. Strangely, you are scored for performance for one part only, either dancing or singing. You cant score double even if you dance AND sing very well.

Graphically, Boogie is very pretty with pretty graphics with progressive scan and 16:9 support.

There are some quirks that bugs me in the game, like the Wiimote movements don't match the beats of the songs. I know Girls Wanna Have Fun's beat pretty well but the movements don't match the beats, so you dont get a solid sense of dancing to the song but simply dancing to the visual clues. This is made slightly worse as the vibrating beats on the Wiimote too don't match the song beats.

Boogie is a very simple dancing game, perhaps too simple compared to the feet tapping of DDR (or perhaps I am better at swing my hands than tapping my feet to the visual clues on screen). Its a mediocre but well commended effort by EA for the music rhythm genre on Wii. Nice to see third party developers coming out with better and original games for the Wii. Lets now see how better can Konami do it with their Wii DDR game.

Now I am anxious to getting my hands on Metriod Prime 3, how long do I have to wait after the Aug 27th launch date?

Michael Bay kools down.

Michael Bay, the possible director of Transformers 2, have back pedaled on his earlier statement about Paramount's decision not to release Transformers in the blu-ray format.

He has posted in his blog forum that he "drank the Kool-Aid.... yadda yadda yadda... so I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!"

Hahaha.... so much for standing up to your beliefs...

Wii multicolored removable faceplates.

With the vast amount of Wiis sold worldwide, more accessories are being churned out for Nintendo's hot console.

While we have seen the multicolored silicone sleeves for the Wiimote and the Nunchuk, these are China made faceplate replacements and is packed with Tri-wing screwdrivers (which will let you open up any Nintendo products.) All you need is to unscrew the screws, pull off the white faceplates, and replace with the colored faceplates, which comes with matching colored buttons and D-pad. Simple and it wont damage your Wiimote.

These new multicolored faceplates are not available in any shops in MY yet, but I am hoping some resourceful importer will be bringing these cool mods and I will be the first in line to get me some.

Dual Shock 3???

After the above promo appeared on the internet (allegedly taken from the official GT5 site, but I cant seem to find it), strong rumors are flying about that the silhouette of the PS3 controller is the new Dual Shock 3. This is the alleged rumble-enabled Sixaxis (aka Rumbleaxis) that Sony will release with the October release of GT5 Prologue.

Whether this controller is real, if its going to be called Dual Shock 3, with or without motion sensing capabilities, and the actual features of this "Dual Shock 3", its a secret that only Sony knows for now. We'll know as soon as October comes around, or even earlier during the Tokyo Games Show during 20th - 23rd September 2007.

Michael Bay responds to Paramount's decision to go HD-DVD exclusively.

Michael Bay, director of Transformers, have reportedly stated in his blog forum that that Paramount's decision to go HD exclusively has pissed him off.

In his blog forum title "Paramount pisses me off!" Michael goes on the record saying "I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me! "

Oh no!! No Transformers 2.... curse you Paramount!

Paramount and Dreamworks on HD-DVD exclusively.

The format war between HD-DVD and blu-ray is heating up even more.

Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks Animations have been releasing movies in both HD-DVD and Blu-ray format for a while now. In fact, they started in the HD-DVD camp before they decided to release them in blu-ray format too. Now all this is about to change again.

Both studios have announced that they are dropping the blu-ray format and be exclusive to the HD format. This means that latest summer blockbuster movies such as Transformers, Shrek The Third and Blades of Glory (which will come out first) will not be getting the blu-ray edition. To view them in HD, you have to use the

Reason given for the switch? Cheaper HD-DVD players and manufacturing costs will trump out the more expensive blu-ray players (which are mainly PS3).

Oh no! Do I have to get the Xbox360 (a 30% failure machine) and the HD-DVD attachment, or get the Toshiba player, to see Transformer in high def?? Why cant I use the PS3?

Curse you Paramount! Hahaha....